The Columbus, GA Community Arts and Music Collective: Preparations for the Long Haul Introduction In previous papers, the creation and planning of the Columbus, GA Arts and Music community initiative has been explored in depth. In this paper, the long-term existence of this project will be explored through the following areas: sustainability, maintaining gains achieved, approaches to support well-being, and acknowledging and celebrating gains and victories. While this… Read More
Planning a Community Arts and Music Collective in Columbus, GA Introduction Members of the Columbus, GA community continue to inform me that an arts and music collective is vitally needed. Yet, some of them continue to cite examples of independent music and arts businesses (independent from the mainstream cultural institutions in Columbus and the surrounding community) that have failed in the recent and distant past. … Read More
An Undeveloped Opportunity: Initiating a Community Arts and Music Collective in Columbus, GA Introduction Columbus, Georgia is a city of abundant opportunities for the future and a city with a profusion of missed opportunities in the past. While this is obviously the case with economic and career options, exploring the city also reveals few opportunities for artistic self-expression for anyone. There are occasions to view traveling artistic culture… Read More
Reflections on Minkler’s Community organizing among the elderly poor in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district While I am very enthusiastically in support of participatory action research as well as asset-based community development (ABCD) I am also in favor of combining methods to use, whatever is most effective. In this case, neither of the above seemed to work for the Tenderloin Senior Outreach Project but a combination of methods utilizing adaptations… Read More
Reflections on Klitzman, Kass, and Freudenberg’s Coalition building to prevent childhood lead poisoning While this article was written in 2006, and Klitzman, et al (2006) discuss lead poisoning in the water system of New York City, I have to ask, why there is no initiative federally to eliminate the poisons in our water, when, albeit only limitedly, unfortunately, the 14th amendment was used to break down some Jim… Read More
Reflections on Roe, et al’s Community building through empowering evaluation – A case study of HIV prevention community planning Roe et al (2006) offer an intriguing commentary on community in this country and a unique counterpoint on how it should function. The United States is seen as stereotypically individualistic, which is, unfortunately, a reality in a majority of this country, while AIDS is seen as an area where “effective prevention must be community-based, ecologically… Read More
Reflections on Kretzmann & McKnight’s Building Communities from the Inside Out (pp. 1-107) Kretzmann & McKnight (1993) provide us with the equivalent of a bible, one to implement asset-based community (or capacity-focused) development from the ground up. This isn’t about assessing needs, deficiencies, and problems, but discovering a community’s capacities and assets. This is an important distinction because it takes the standard way of solving community problems with… Read More