This is the model we use and teach with communities. The model gives people in communities a new and sustainable way to move from isolated and fragmented efforts to collaborative and cohesive efforts in building communities that are attractive, affordable, and agile in the 7 core areas of quality of life: learning, housing, food, health care, transportation, public spaces, and economic opportunities.
Author Archive for George Nemeth
Who can you have coversations with that will create new possibilities? Learn about assets? Talk about engaging in new ways? Co-create projects?
Anthony Houston has been working with Instructions in the City of East Cleveland, one of the most impoverished areas in the country:
We asked. We invited individuals to attend. We asked for engagement and questions. We asked for people to envision new partnerships, not based on previous relationships, but new ones. We invited individuals in a personal way to participate in a discussion.
I am not implying that “asking” by itself, is a remedy or endpoint. I think it is a constant and often gets over shadowed by the need to get the results, and not as a primary method of authentic networks, and allowing potential partners to respond in a manner that allows for dialogue, shared points of view, and connection/collaboration.
Also, I am not arguing that asking can itself turnaround our nation’s cities, but far too often, government operates without asking, without invitations, and just does. Whether in a cloak room or boardroom, under the glare of lights or behind closed doors, creating new visions for our region, demand asking, questions, challenging points of view, and ensuring that, as we create new democratic networks, that the people participate and lead.
via Above 110th Street: The Power of Asking in Turning Around City Government.
Our good friend Anthony Houston has been teaching us the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa:
- Umoja: To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
- Kujichagulia: To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
- Ujima: To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together.
- Ujamaa: To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
- Nia: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
- Kuumba: To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
- Imani: To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Rich conversations for any community to learn and grow.
Very inspirational:
I look for the organizations that engage everyday citizens in making their world a better place. I personally support agencies that say, yes you are a vital part of the solution. Cora Tomalinas, or Manang Cora (Tagalog term of respect for “Big sister”), has always been an inspiration because I always knew she was much more than “just parent” as she put it. As parents, we instinctively know that no one is “just a parent” - we are advocates, health assesors, cheerleaders, and educators. Manang Cora is a trained PACT leader (People Acting in Community Together). There are a million reasons why I believe in the change this organization advocates for. But mostly it is because as organizers, they believe that everyday people make difference and that by sharing their stories, we all benefit and all find common ground…
The video in this post is inspirational too.
Silicon Valley Moms Blog: People Acting in Community Together: Where everyday moms lead change
Noticing this site that demonstrates much of what we wrote Instructions from the Cook about:
We Are What We Do is a new kind of movement inspiring people to change the world one small action at a time.
Our philosophy is simple:
small actions x lots of people = big changeWe have the 130 small things that you can do to change really big things. Pick an action, track it here, and see how it all adds up.
A free PDF copy of the book Instructions from the Cook: Recipes for New Conversation by George Nemeth & Jack Ricchiuto. The paperback version is for sale at DesigningLife.com. If you download the book, read it and find it useful, please pass it along to someone who you think will appreciate it.
Carole Cohen reviews Instructions from the Cook and finds herself recalling a bunch of stuff, including the famous Jane Jacobs book The Death And Life of Great American Cities. Wow! It’s a honor to be mentioned in the same post as Jacobs:
Have you ever read a book that stays under your skin and makes you think about it as well as ideas that seem to spawn in your mind because of it?
Are you tired of negativity in your city and among your neighbors? Do you feel like you live in a community without the actual community cohesiveness that would be nice?
Have you ever wondered to yourself, ‘there are so many issues that need to be tackled in my neighborhood and I would love to help but I don’t know where to start.’ I know I have. And now I’ve read a book that is both under my skin and causing my mind to go off in what could be some good directions. What is the book? Instructions from The Cook, written by Cleveland’s own George Nemeth (BFD) (@georgenemeth) and Jack Ricchiuto (@DesigningLife.com). You can read about or order Instructions from The Cook here.
Have you ever had an idea about something you’d like to do for a neighbor, for your neighborhood, or something you’d like implemented into City life? Or maybe you have an idea for neighborhood kids or a business venture. It all seems overwhelming but Jack and George wrote this book to show how it doesn’t have to be. And as a matter of fact, they say two important things:
- good things, ideas with longevity, usually start out small not large.
- “people will authentically support what they help create” (page 55 of the book).
- there are lots of good ideas, not just one
- meeting to talk about ideas with people of all sorts of mindsets is usually much more productive than just meeting with people who think like me (this ties into the ‘lots of good ideas’ truth above).
When Jack and George wrote about ’slow and small’ being better than ‘fast and big’, it took me back to how we learn (my education training kicking in). We learn at our best, our most comprehensive, when we start with a solid foundation of information and then expand our knowledge on that topic/subject as we go along. It helps us not live with pre-conceived ideas, but to be open to possibilities…and yeah it helps us retain the information in a way that leads to the ability to be creative with the knowledge…
Real Estate Blog - What Do Zen, Cooking, and Neighborliness Have To Do With Each Other?
The beginning of a book review:
During the arms race that dominated the 70’s and 80’s a friend of mine remarked something to the effect that “to accomplish change requires the intellectual ability to both accept that the situation is hopeless at the same time you believe it can be changed.” This statement haunted me for years, because if I focused on the gravity of the world’s problems, I immediately became overwhelmed and doubtful of my ability to make a difference. I felt powerless, and, if the cynicism and apathy of my generation is any indicator, I was not alone.
We regarded making change a difficult and complex task. We ordered studies, studies that took years before they told us what we already knew, things needed to change. Oh, and they also told us that change takes years and lots of money.
But what if we were wrong? What if change is as simple as making soup?
Instructions from the Cook, says it is…
Thomas Mulready of CoolCleveland.com does a video interview with authors Jack Ricchiuto and George Nemeth. Here’s the excerpt that accompanied the video in the newsletter:
Jack Ricchiuto & George Nemeth, local community-builders, have teamed up to author a new book entitled Instructions from the Cook, a collection of creative recipes and and ideas for engaging and empowering a community to change. Based on zen principles, their book speaks of how small acts can bring big change. Listen to this video interview at their book signing in Tremont with Cool Cleveland’s Thomas Mulready and learn how to initiate conversations, both on the internet and face-to-face, that maximize our individual gifts and talents to build our community.
When is the last time you actually made soup for a senior, exchanged stories with a homeless person or used one of your unique gifts to reach out of your comfort zone and help someone with lesser resources? Dive into this little gem and become authentically engaged.