neighbors

Here are some of my favorite ways to nurture community in my life:

Author
SEAN GOSIEWSKI
Alliance for Sustainability
Enjoy time with your family outside. Fresh air, sunlight, and the elements help quiet the mind and bring joy with loved ones.

Stay in touch with friends. Bless your house (or your local spot) with the sound of laughter.

Host a gathering. Block club parties bring surprising conversations. Try a local food potluck, eatlocalamerica.coop.

Join a Committee. Volunteer with your congregation, school, political campaign, or environmental club and meet new friends.

Community Building is Sustainability

Author
SEAN GOSIEWSKI
Alliance for Sustainability
Community Brings Happiness. How many of your happiest moments have been spent with those you love? We are social creatures; healthy family and community ties are the foundation for our physical, emotional, economic, and spiritual health. Our common future will be built through healthy community as we band together to solve climate change and create clean, green, and local living economies.

Turning lemons into lemonade. By joining hands with neighbors, communities are turning lemons into lemonade.

Footnotes/Endnotes

ON THE WEB!

Post Carbon Institute,
relocalize.net

Sustainable Communities Action Network,
sustaincommunity.net

Twin Cities Peak Oil Resource Guide,
thenec.org

Community Building Ideas,
simpleliving.net

READ UP!

Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets, by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight, ACTA Publications, 1997. 

The Great Neighborhood Book: A Do-It Yourself Guide to Placemaking, by Jay Walljasper, New Society, 2007.

The Natural Step for Communities, by Sarah James and Torbjörn Lahti, New Society, 2004.

Act Locally!

Alliance for Sustainability
Minneapolis, MN
612-331-1099
afors.org

City Habitat

Author
Anna Wasescha
Farm In The City

Includes Listing of Local Community Gardens 

There is little agreement about the definition of a community garden, probably because the most important goal of such places is to create a healthy community rather than a healthy crop of flowers, vegetables or fruit trees. Betsy Johnson of Garden Futures in Boston defines them this way: Community Gardens are community spaces that are communally cultivated and cared for; these spaces may consist of individually-worked plots, multiple person caretaker areas, sitting areas, and small-scale children play areas.

Footnotes/Endnotes

American Community Gardening Association

City Farmer's Urban Agriculture Notes


Cultivating Community, Deborah Fryman and Karen Payne, 2001

Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities, Joe Nasr, Annu Ratta and Jac Smit, 1996


GardenWorks
Minneapolis, MN 612-612-278-7123
Email
Website

Minnesota Green Program of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society
1755 Prior Avenue North
Falcon Heights, MN 651-643-3601
Website

CO-HOUSING

Author
Eric Hart

Includes Listing of Co-housing in Minnesota

Footnotes/Endnotes

Cohousing Association of the United States


Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett, 1994

The Cohousing Handbook, Chris Hanson


Monterey Co-housing Community
2925 Monterey Ave.
St. Louis Park, MN 952-930-7554
Website

Co-operative Housing

Author

Includes Listing of Co-op Housing in Minnesota

--From www.co-ophousingcoalition.org

From the outside, a housing co-op looks like any other townhouse development or apartment building. But, a housing co-op is different - here's how:

Owned by Members

The residents of a housing co-op are members of the co-op corporation which owns the whole property. The co-op provides a unit (townhouse or apartment) to a member household. A household can consist of one or more adults - with or without children. Members do not own their own units.
Footnotes/Endnotes
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