The spirituality of my young adulthood was fueled by an almost liturgical refrain, “God has great plans for your life.” This summons was intoxicating for me and my university peers. Our lives, our futures, our careers – which we felt we were on the cusp of...
How Community Development and Community Organizing Work Together As a change-maker, you’ve probably run into the phrases “community development” and “community organizing” many times. But did you know that these two concepts work together for mutual benefit? Today,...
Community Development was an innovation. Now, we are innovating even further by implementing. Holistic Neighborhood Development. Over 40 years ago, Bob Lupton and his team at Focused Community Strategies questioned the standard nonprofit model. In particular, they...
“My name is William, and I am an alcoholic. It has been 19 years since my last drink.” This was how a guest speaker in my college class introduced himself. I thought to myself, “Wait. How can you call yourself an alcoholic if your last drink was a...
How Neighborhood Development Disrupts Chronic Poverty Let’s get right to it: humanitarian organizations exist for the sake of… humans. Whether you’re doing nonprofit work, faith-based ministry, philanthropy, or volunteer work, your work is all about making life better...
How to Evaluate Community Development Program Impact It’s important to assess the impact of your community development program. Every community development organization wants to make change. We care about our neighbors and want to make things better, otherwise...
12 Approaches to Neighborhood Development It can be tough to find a list of common community development approaches. At the Lupton Center, we know that’s what budding developers need. A movement of people like you are ready to disrupt chronic inequity for good....
If you’ve landed on this page, it’s likely that you care a lot about material poverty and inequity. You’re dissatisfied with just treating symptoms of poverty. You want to know what you can do to make lasting change in people’s lives. If that sounds familiar,...
We are proud to announce that FCS has been awarded a $1 million grant by Lilly Endowment Inc. to support The Lupton Center’s expansion of City Shapers! With these funds, we will launch this program in 12 cities over the next five years! City Shapers is a place-based,...
We have a serious problem. Most leaders who know poverty alleviation efforts aren’t working don’t know what to do about it. That is why we created Leader Lab, a 12-month process to guide you through the phases of change liberating you from the frustration of...