Helping communities Work

This web posting is a focus group tool used to stimulate discussion and collaboration across all industries and sectors.

Helping Communities Work harnesses the collaborative power of the pen through a strategy designed to convey the true essence of a community, not by its problems and challenges, but as defined by the individual and collective spirit of its people and demonstrated by their aspirations, assets, action and accomplishments. The plan utilizes asset framing and solutions journalism through a community field-building initiative led by a coalition of journalist, academic, civic and other business and social entrepreneurs. The objective is to document through evidence-based data and solutions storytelling that diversity is a central community asset and equity, inclusion and belonging are catalysts for change. Education institutions, workforce development boards, foundations, impact investors, associations, employers and other community stakeholders can play vital roles in the enterprise.

Helping Communities Work aligns the diverse skills of local news journalists, open talent content creators and other freelance expertise to establish and broaden field-building collaborations with communications, outreach and marketing teams in all industries and sectors. The plan welcomes media representatives in federal, state and local government and across the education, industry, philanthropic, nonprofit and arts and culture communities. The process includes the chief diversity officers of industry and trade associations and their respective employer members. 

Helping Communities Work recognizes field-building as an effective way to strengthen and expand the "movement infrastructure", which, in the context of the plan, is the connective journalistic and media tissue that contributes to social change. Cross-sector field-builders identify societal problems through a collaborative process, which expands to co-create and objectively report on community-based solutions. Field-building can also assist in achieving the diverse social, economic and environmental goals and objectives of the Federal Interagency Thriving Communities Network, including the broadening of its growing alliances with the philanthropic community Building for Population-Level Change 

https://www.transportation.gov/federal-interagency-thriving-communities-network

https://www.transportation.gov/grants/thriving-communities/philanthropy