THE BUILDING PROCESS OVERVIEW

          ARTS                                              SPIRIT & CULTURE

HEALTH & WELLNESS                 EDUCATION

         TECHNOLOGY                            SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

FOOD & ENVIROMENT                 ECONOMY

Our strategy is activated as we systematically serve in the eight areas of community life through activating the four agencies of action(individuals, networks, organizations, and institutions) in our four modes of learning (consultation, study, action, and reflection). The Building Process itself is a sixteen step sequence in which the 'Neighborhood Building Teams' will acquire knowledge and access to resources at each stage in order to serve and improve the Quality of Life in their school and community in each area of community life.

Developing local economy and social enterprise

Building from the Block Up seeks to move beyond the offering of a single issue of programs into becoming a comprehensive platform for broad-based community building. To support our work we receive donations and in-kind support yet we ultimately seek economic sustainability through four cooperative enterprises:

1. Media Arts & Marketing Co.
2. Cultural Heritage Education
3. Community Building Institute
4. Cultural Arts and Entertainment Group.

supporting CAMPAIGNS Connecting communities with tools, information, and RESOURES 

COMMUNITY BUILDING 2.0

Our means and methods need to be according to the times so a central component of our work is utilizing the resources of digital technology to increase our capacity in community service.  The growing use of web-based user interfaces by our youth, the capabilities of peer-peer funding, along with continuously decreasing funding of the traditional non-profit and community programs, has created to opportunity for exciting, and necessary, innovations within this sector. Furthermore, the technology and generation gap is forcing open the door for a younger generation to create community programming perceived as more "modern" and tech-savy.For these reasons many Building from the Block Up programs and projects offer online features that enable participants to  collaborate, maintain relationships and share information.

Documenting team-Learning through art, research, monitoring, and evaluation

In Building from the Block Up, a posture of learning is what we strive to model and facilitate for the youth and community. Through the efforts of our Community Building Institute we have developed scales to measure before, during, and after the implementation of the program in order asses our effectiveness. Qualitative improvement in resource accessibility is designed into the very implementation of the Building Process as the resource network responds to the need for social capital. We also use quantitative instruments that will monitor our effectiveness in improving the perceived Quality of Life and self-efficacy.  Additionally, the Building Process was designed with the internal purposes of evaluating the impacts of our program upon qualitatively different communities and social conditions.To support scalability, the programs run in multiple communities through the NBT's. As we learn and refine our process, multiple versions of the programs will be set up to offer veteran communities with access to pre-release versions of the programs for testing purposes. Statistical analysis will be completed upon completion of an 8-month cycle (Feburary-August).

Building individual, community, and institutional capacity

A guiding force in our overall mission is to heal the relationship between individuals, community, and our institutions through the work of our 'Neighborhood Building Teams'. Through our Community Building Institute we seek to heal trust and mutual support while we sponsor the creation of new community-based organizations. The role of these institutions within the building process is threefold:

1.  Present findings & Solutions Journalism to other local organizations, institutions and government agencies.
2. Develop communications support for Individuals,Neighborhood Building Teams, Networks, and community-based Organizations.
3. Support adaptive system growth with Community-Based Research & Development,  local political influence, public/private partnerships, social enterprises, and regenerative local economy.

Creating a broad RESOURCE NETWORK of servant-leaders

We are in the ongoing process of strengthening a robust resource network of role models, mentors, and community leaders to increase access to social capital around the youths interests.

We regularly call upon this network to share collective learning through group workshops, seminars, study circles, and continuing professional development. Our web based Resource Network and Time Exchange platform allows for participants in the network to support initiatives of the Neighborhood Building Teams and allows different teams to support each other.The strategic goal of our network is to encourage deeper conversational engagement with societal conditions  and to develop the ability to communicate meaningful information to the youth, school, and community that will improve the overall QOL and access to resources.