What is happening in your community?: why community development matters

Communities are not static or stationary organisms. They are fluid and dynamic and change over time. The role of community development in the change and transformation of a community is critical to improving and enhancing the quality of life of the community and its residents. Effective community development strategies do not assume what a community wants or needs; rather, the community itself serves as its own voice and writes its own story. This book examines how community development changes a community and why that change matters. This book examines the relationship between community development and social capital, and how social capital is enhanced by programs and initiatives aimed at developing, revitalizing, and transforming neighborhoods and communities. When a community improves its social capital, change can happen, because people can leverage their networks to produce better results for themselves. This book also looks at comprehensive community development and collective impact models and several case studies that utilize these models, how the transformation and revitalization of a neighborhood through new housing creates opportunities for people everywhere, and how effective placemaking strategies empower diverse groups of people in a community to reimagine the public spaces and the built environment to be more livable, walkable, creative, and sustainable while fostering greater connections with people in their community.