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There are many organizations that work to build community. Librarians work with many of these organizations, but our associations are not prominent in their leadership and policy-making deliberations. Our daily work is not often identified in their reports in their policy documents or on their web-pages as central to community building. In years to come as librarians recognize the importance of collaboration and partnerships we will be at all these tables. Examples of community-building organizations and web-sites of special are listed here. As additional resources of interest are identified, these will be sent to the LIBRARIAN-AT-EVERY-TABLE mailing list. The Alliance of Information and
Referral Systems (AIRS). AIRS was incorporated in 1973 to improve
access to services for all people through the mechanism of information
and referral. AIRS meets this goal through its publications, international
training conferences, and I&R clearinghouse. Click here to learn more. Associations of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low and moderate-income families, with over 150,000 member families organized into 700 neighborhood chapters in 51 cities across the country. Click here to learn more. COMM-ORG. Online Conference on Community Organizing and Development. The COMM-ORG mission is to help connect people who care about the craft of community organizing and to find and provide information that organizers, scholars, and scholar-organizers can use to learn, teach, and do community organizing. Click here to learn more. Community Building Resource Exchange.
This web site provides a broad array of resources and information
about innovative community building efforts to revitalize poor neighborhoods
and improve the life circumstances of residents and their families.
Project of the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Comprehensive Community
Initiatives for Children and Families. Click here to learn more. The Community Tool Box. This
is the web site created and maintained by the University of Kansas
Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development in Lawrence,
KS, and AHEC/Community Partners in Amherst, Massachusetts. The site
has been on line since 1995, and it continues to grow on a weekly
basis. Currently, the core of the Tool Box is the "how-to
tools." These how-to sections use simple, friendly language to explain
how to do the different tasks necessary for community health and
development. For instance, there are sections on leadership, strategic
planning, community assessment, advocacy, grant writing, and evaluation
to give just a few examples. Click here to learn more. IBEC, Go here to read the Win 2-1-1: Washington State 2-1-1 Benefit Cost Study report. Click here to learn more. Local Initiatives Support Corporation's
mission is to assist community development corporations (CDCs) in
their efforts to transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy
communities. LISC believes that CDCs are the best vehicles to achieve
lasting and positive community change for the benefit of low and
moderate income people. These groups are accountable to local residents
and engage in a wide range of physical, economic and human development
activities. Click here to learn more. The National Assembly of Health
and Human Service Organizations (formerly known as the
National Assembly of National Voluntary Health and Social Welfare
Organizations) is an association of national nonprofit health and
human service organizations bound by a common concern for the effective
delivery of health and human services to the American people, especially
those in need. Click here to learn more. National Association of Community
Action Agencies. Established in 1972, the National Association
of Community Action Agencies (NACAA) is the national association
representing the interests of the 1,000 Community Action Agencies
(CAAs) organized to fight poverty at the local level. Click here to learn more. The National Collaboration for Youth
(NCY), an affinity group of the National Assembly, includes 38 of
the leading national youth development organizations in the United
States. Members of the National Collaboration for Youth work together
to provide a united voice for all youth, advocating for improved
conditions and opportunities for their positive development. Click here to learn more. National Civic League. Mission
is to strengthen citizen democracy by transforming democratic institutions. Click here to learn more. The National Neighborhood Coalition
serves as the national voice for neighborhoods by providing a crucial
link to Washington for neighborhood and community based organizations.
Fosters communications and collaboration among local, regional and
national organizations working to build healthy and sustainable
communities. Promotes public policies that strengthen the role of
community and neighborhood-based nonprofits as problem solvers and
community builders. Click here to learn more. Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space is a blog authored by Richard Layman, a historic preservation and urban revitalization advocate and consultant in Washington, DC. His blog, "focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging." Click here to learn more. Redefining Progress is a public
policy organization that seeks to ensure a more sustainable and
socially equitable world for our children and our children's children.
Working both within and beyond the traditional economic framework,
RP generates and refines innovative policies and ideas that balance
economic well-being, the environment, and social equity so that
those living today and those who will come in the future can have
a better quality of life. Click here to learn more. Shelterforce is published by
the National Housing Institute, an independent nonprofit organization
that examines the issues causing the crisis in housing and community
in America. These issues include poverty and racism, disinvestment
and lack of employment, safety, education, and breakdown of the
social fabric. Click here to learn more. UN Development Programme - Human Development Reports is a resource for Human Development Reports at regional, national and sub-national levels on topics such as poverty, climate change, education, and human rights. Click here to learn more. UN Millennium Development Goals. "The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest." Click here to learn more. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit
policy research organization established in Washington,
D.C., in 1968. The Institute's goals are to sharpen thinking about
society's problems and efforts to solve them, improve government
decisions and their implementation, and increase citizens' awareness
about important public choices. Click here to learn more. Please e-mail all comments
to Kathleen de la Peña McCook at kmccook@tampabay.rr.com. "Rule 6C4-10.109.B-6 Official
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