LOCAL INSTITUTIONS

How a Foundation Transforms the Well-Being of Residents

Our Towns' Ben Speggen talks with the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation team to discuss how the Foundation is empowering community development, has transformed a former grocery store into an innovative hub for nonprofits, and more.

LOCAL INSTITUTIONS

How a Community Center Helps a Town Rise Again

Residents of Fort Lawn, South Carolina used a community development model to identify 51 actionable goals to improve their town. Today, they’re checking off the list, one by one.

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.

PODCAST

Inside Our Towns: Josh Fryday, California's Chief Service Officer

National division might grab headlines, but the story of uniting citizens through service in California is growing.

PODCAST

Inside Our Towns: Scott and Tiffany Whaley

Feeding, sustaining, and building community in Kershaw, South Carolina through KARE.

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

Unlocking Potential

At-risk youth in North Carolina hold the keys to flipping a decommissioned prison into a sustainable farm and community asset.

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.

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

What's the Quickest Way to Make a Big Difference, Through a Little Step? It's Right There in the Backyard.

Change comes slowly, then all at once.

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

ARTS

An Outsider Works with Insiders: Examples from Akron and Cleveland

Mac Love, who has spent much of his life outside Ohio, uses new technologies to bring community residents and college students together. That collaborative approach is now helping citizens’ voices be heard and is driving meaningful change in their neighborhoods.   

BIG LITTLE IDEAS

Inside Our Towns: Project Fighting Chance

Evan Sanford and James Fallows talk with Ian Franklin and Terry Boykins about Project Fighting Chance -- a boxing gym that is more than a boxing gym in San Bernardino. They discuss how it got started, how it has grown, and an immediate challenge it faces today.

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.