THE RURBAN FRINGE

If It Works in Sangudo, Why Not In Your Community?

The following is a guest post by Dan Ohler, coach, colleague, and co-operative co-founder … read on to find out more how he and other community members revitalized their small rural community though collaborative action.
Sangudo Opportunity Development Co-operative (SODC) is a unique investment co-op working to revitalize the economic viability of the small rural community of Sangudo, [...]

Be an Influencer

People don’t like being told what to do.  I know I don’t.
But what people do like, is believing they have decided to do something for themselves.  And do you know what the biggest influencer is on people’s behaviours?  Other people. 
People do what they see people doing.
If you want community members, co-workers, neighbours, friends, family and [...]

Saying No Isn’t Nonsense

Much of the conventional wisdom about how to succeed at community-building seems to center around saying yes.  You’ll hear that you’re supposed to market your cause constantly in as many different ways as possible, network with everyone you find, and engage as many people as possible in order to spread your message.  The assumption is [...]

The Art of Community Building

Community building is part art, part science.  Just getting out there and spreading the word is not enough, community organizers and facilitators also need to understand the nuances of working with people from a variety of backgrounds as well as apply the principles of good, old-fashioned relationship-building.
Command and control is dead. 
To fully engage people to work for the [...]

Kick-Start a Community Group

Most well-intentioned community group efforts fail. 
They fail because they try to get all the stakeholders they can into a room to forge bonds that may or may not exist.  They fail because they don’t take into account those that have agendas.  They fail because those agendas conflict, becoming arguments.  They fail because those not interested in [...]

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