INVENTION & RENEWAL
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
What Midwest Industrial Communities Can Teach About Managing Economic Change
With a great convergence on both sides of the Atlantic around the urgent need to diminish geographic economic disparities and opportunity gaps — particularly those between thriving global city regions and struggling communities in industrial heartlands – there are growing efforts to learn from each other.
BIG LITTLE IDEAS
'Uniting Americans through Service: How California is Leading'
California's Chief Service Officer discusses the California Volunteers' initiatives -- the impact CalVols is having in the state, and how it serves as a model nationwide at Jefferson Educational Society Global Summit event at the University of Redlands.
COMMUNITIES THAT WORK
‘How America’s Towns are Writing the Future of the Country’
Residents, coaches, reporters discuss local-level community revitalization initiative at Jefferson Educational Society Global Summit event.
COMMUNITIES THAT WORK
Kershaw invests in community with new ideas in old spaces
A train depot that’s a museum. A bank branch building that’s become a library. Another former bank that is serving as an early education center. Here is how this South Carolina town is repurposing buildings of the past to build up its future.
COMMUNITIES THAT WORK
How one small Ohio town practices democracy
Small is big in Mount Blanchard, Ohio. The town approached change in two ways, and Deborah Fallows reports on the impact she and her husband, James, saw during their travels there.
PODCAST
Inside Our Towns: Tighe Bullock
Evan Sanford catches up with Tighe Bullock, the accountant, lawyer, downtown developer, and construction contractor, on his latest work in Charleston, West Virginia.
ENTREPRENEURS & MAKERS
Uplifting American Spirits
Branch & Barrel Distilling, in Centennial, Colorado, shows how an interdependent community-based economy can raise spirits for an entire region.
CIVIC LIFE
To Both See and Tell the Country: From the Road through North Carolina to South Carolina
Why seeing more of America matters.
CIVIC LIFE
'To Arrive Where We Started and Know the Place for the First Time'
The America that Americans Don't Know About, and Why That Matters
RURAL & REGIONAL
A Dining-room Meeting Begins a New Chapter in One Town’s Story
As Isaac and Heidi Tucker saw it, there was no use in waiting for their town to improve itself. Instead, they took action, and are rallying renewal efforts in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania today.
ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
A Look at Lobstering and Craftsmanship
Eastport, Maine has a long history of resilience. It’s still there today in Elijah Brice.
RURAL & REGIONAL
Inside Our Towns: Jason Neises
Discussing opportunities, real and perceived challenges in small-town America, and the impact of Community Heart & Soul in Iowa.
GEOJOURNALISM
Why Story Maps Matter
People understand the world through stories. People absorb their stories in ever-expanding ways. Here is a preview of a powerful, emerging form of digital story-telling, which we’ll be using frequently in this space.
INVENTION & RENEWAL
Revitalizing a community by focusing on 'quality of life'
Galesburg residents are redefining the heart and soul of the town by bringing their unique history and heritage to the fore.
TOWN HISTORY & STORY
Building Bridges Within and Among Communities Through Stories
Not all bridges are physical. The ways communities are connecting with one another, and themselves, is happening differently in light of COVID-19 and with new tools like OurStoryBridge: an online platform that captures and houses community stories.
LOCAL HEROES
Max Taps Supports Marshall Fire Victims
In the wake of one of the costliest fires in U.S. history, a local establishment is leading a local response effort to support those in need.