Honoring John McKnight & The Gift He Was
We are deeply saddened by the loss of John McKnight, a dear friend, author, professor, and...
Category Archives: John McKnight
John McKnight is emeritus professor of education and social policy and codirector of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University. He is the coauthor of Building Communities from the Inside Out and the author of The Careless Society.
Journalism with Community at the Center
John and Peter Conversation with Eve Pearlman In partnership with the Common Good Collective ~ March...
Power of Gifts Podcast
Bruce Anderson from the Core Gift Institute talks with John McKnight and Peter Block, authors of...
Departure for Another Way
Peter Block and John McKnight look at transformation as a process of departing from the consumer...
Meditating on a Neighborly Economy
Father Richard Rohr shared that a neighborly economy “sounds a lot like the Gospel to me”...
Embracing Deviance
By John McKnight Co-Director, Asset Based Community Development Institute from the John McKnight Learning Series One...
The Affinity Dilemma
By John McKnight Co-Director, Asset Based Community Development Institute from the John McKnight Learning Series The...
The Dilemma of Meetings
By John McKnight Co-Director, Asset Based Community Development Institute from the John McKnight Learning Series In...
The Problem With Problems
By John McKnight Co-Director, Asset Based Community Development Institute from the John McKnight Learning Series At...
Intentional Neighborhoods in Co-Housing
Quick Summary: John and Peter talk with generative journalist and longtime co-housing advocate Sarah Arthurs about how the built...
Building Wealth for All through Dividend Housing
Quick Summary: John and Peter talked with social innovator Margery Spinney on May 2, 2019 about...
Organizing Residents to Solve an Impossible Challenge
If we want to end economic isolation and build wealth in the marginalized community, our thinking...
Faith and Church with No Bricks and Mortar: Conversation with Father Joseph Kovitch
Since their book The Abundant Community came out, John McKnight and Peter Block have sought out those social innovators who are bringing alive the ideas about how neighbors and local institutions can come together to create care, kindness, and welcome. One of those innovators is Father Joseph Kovitch. Peter and John talked with him in June of 2018. They are still in touch with him and what he describes here is still vibrant today.
Father Joe was a priest of Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Community in Westerville, Ohio, who worshiped in an Irish pub and is currently on a university campus; they are also serving out of a community house nearby. He has been ordained for 30 years and has served in many ministries and missional environments, some of which include serving as leader of a large traditional congregation, leading a redevelopment merger of three congregations into a new mission, and, at this moment, serving as Diocesan Missioner for New Episcopal Communities in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. Here is the conversation we had in 2018.
Listen to the Full Conversation:
The Parish in the Neighborhood
When we look at the Parish as a microcosm of all life’s dimensions, the conversation changes from traditional clergy talk of “butts, budgets and buildings,” to: What is God up to in our places, and how do we join in with that? Listen to Paul Sparks, Co-founding Director of the Parish Collective, discuss with Peter Block and John McKnight in this conversation:
Changing the Narrative for Community Leadership
With the old news business changing this is an exciting time of opportunity and threat, said...
Restorative Practices for Turbulent Times
What can happen when we move justice out of the law system and into neighborhoods and communities? Restorative practices are being put into action beyond justice systems into schools and institutions, changing the conversation from fault and punishment to looking at who has been harmed, how they were harmed and whose obligation it is to repair that harm. In this conversation, community and organizational psychologist Thom Allena shares insight and experiences from his work with restorative justice. Listen:
Powerful Possibilities of Being Small
Small groups of faithful, committed people are the atoms that make a movement, says John McKnight....
Departing the Consumer Culture
Conversation with Walter Brueggemann ~ October 2, 2018 Quick Summary: October 2, 2018 dialog they invited...
Another Other Kingdom
Walter Brueggemann joins Peter Block and John McKnight in a continuance of the conversation from their...
John McKnight: Building Neighborhood Assets
Many know John McKnight’s work on creating abundant communities and focusing on gifts. In this podcast with Mark Anielski, McKnight shares about what sparked his interest in researching assets instead of deficits. McKnight shares the three questions they urge local citizens to ask. It begins with what you have rather than what you need. Anielski, an economist and author, also shares about his well-being survey work and how financial success doesn’t equate higher levels of happiness. Listen:
Associating Associations: The Power of Convening
By John McKnight Because most associations are affinity groups of like‐minded people, the potential for dialogue...
Ann Livingston: An Ally to Drug Users
Ann Livingston has been at the grassroots and frontline of what’s now widely known as the opioid crisis. Since the early 90’s she has pioneered the movement to eliminate harms associated with drug use in her Vancouver neighborhood. Before co-founding the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), she invited drug users who lived on the street into her home and made leaders aware of how many were dying from overdose. In this call with Peter Block and John McKnight, Ann shares stories and her principles of organizing the unorganizables.
Listen:
An Introduction to ABCD
A two-day workshop introducing the principles and applications of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) in the context...
Common Good Fellowship pilot beginsFellowship program provides community for radical leaders
Last week 33 change makers in the Common Good Fellowship pilot program convened in Cincinnati for...
Organizing the Unorganizables
Conversation with Ann Livingston Download or listen to John and Peter’s March 27, 2018 conversation with...
How Neighborhoods Engage with Local Governments
How are institutions and government most useful in supporting neighbor driven initiatives? What can we do with a little bit of outside assistance? And what do we need somebody from the outside to do? Ron Dwyer-Voss asks these three questions in his work engaging with community groups who want to have stronger relationships with local government.
Ron, owner and founder of Pacific Community Solutions, uses the Asset-Based Community Development process with community groups to help them identify how they can do something to create transformation. He shares with John McKnight and Peter Block stories and insights such as the importance of including reflection and learning conversations as part of the process.
Listen:
Announcing Common Good
Walter Brueggemann, John McKnight and Peter Block are the curators and conversation partners for the first...
Ground-breaking grocery store
Fare & Square VP of Retail Operations Mike Basher shares insight into the Chester, Pennsylvania supermarket formed by a Philadelphia food bank (Philabundance). Fare & Square is the first nonprofit grocery store of its kind in the U.S. bringing healthy, affordable food to what was once a food desert.
Operating in a low-income neighborhood, the store takes an interest in sharing how to prepare healthy food for low cost. Competing for low prices on meats, offering a special carry cash rewards system and educating customers on different choices are some of the ways Fare & Square is uniquely serving its community.
Don’t miss listening to the full conversation and hear how this model could be replicated across the country.
Listen:
Quotes:
“We’re trying to provide families in this community fresh affordable healthy foods that they can get right in their own back yards.” – Mike Basher
Related Links:
Fare & Square (store website)
Chester’s Nonprofit Food Market Tries to Square Mission with Bottom Line (online feature by Laura Benshoff for WHYY)
Chester Supermarket, ‘Fare & Square’ Changing Lives in Community (news clip by Matt DeLucia, NBC10 News)
Engaging Neighbors Opens Thinking for Health Professionals
Lisa Gale Hadden, Michigan Area Health Education Center executive director, has learned that when medical and nursing students go to neighborhoods to talk with families about their health they discover untapped resources and assets.
“They really saw the value in connecting to the neighborhood health wisdom and used that to become better health care professionals. It changed their care planning for their patients.” Students asked appreciative, open-ended questions to discover how neighbors define their own health in their own terms. Twenty years later, the students have who are now practitioners are still talking about it.
In this conversation, Lisa – who acts as a bridge between medical and community knowledge in her work – shares more about this experience with John McKnight and Peter Block.
Listen:
Quotes:
“The more that there’s income equality in a community, or city, or town the healthier people are.” – Lisa Gale Hadden
“Our advice (to students) has always been . . . you’re there first and foremost to just be a neighbor. I think our students really began to see that as they developed relationships with our neighbors.” – Lisa Gale Hadden
PeoplesHub: Connecting change-makers online
How can we connect local change-making pioneers and reduce their sense of isolation? A new, online platform called PeoplesHub will bring interactive, participative processes to local neighborhood groups and connect them to trainers and other groups across the country.
Sarah van Gelder, co-founder of YES! Magazine, says PeoplesHub training will range from general topics – such as how to host an ecstatic meeting and how to navigate conflict – to providing tools for specific areas of change people are working on.
Instead of bottom-up or top-down, the platform promotes lateral connections amongst people who are engaged in social innovations. In this call with Peter Block and John McKnight, Sarah discusses the initial phases of the new online platform and its methodology.
Listen here:
Quotes:
“(The) power that people have in their own communities to get stuff done … if we can unleash that power, we can have a real transformation of this country.” – Sarah van Gelder
Related Link:
revolutionwhereyoulive.org
