Developing community leadership

Community means the caring and mutually enriching relationships among persons who share and celebrate ties of common interest and purpose, most often centered in a place. Community entails a balance between individual initiative and loyalty to a larger group, and also between loyalty to that group and the larger world. Good communities are essential to human fulfillment, yet they are eroded and demeaned by the individualism and mobility of modern, market-based societies. Harmonious community, embracing place as well as people, are a prime value in the vision of sustainability.

When the community around Eldon Street in Liverpool, UK lost their local factory and discovered that the council was planning to demolish their homes, the campaign they waged taught them staying power and technical skills. These proved to be a kind of "capital" which could be used to revitalize the area. Led by a fork lift truck driver, the community designed their own new housing estate, de-selected their local councillor and took over more than 100 acres of derelict land. Here they were able to build more homes, a garden centre to provide skills to the neighbourhood, and set up a series of other businesses.