Definition: Community gardening provides shared spaces for residents of neighborhoods or members of institutions (schools, public housing) to grow food on allotted plots for their individual and family consumption, as well as for contributions to food banks. Gardens are generally sites for various forms of community engagement, such as volunteering (construction, maintenance, growing), public and […]
Definition: Environmental education (EE) provides a foundation for building awareness and action about local and global environmental challenges and a sustainable future. While EE is a lifelong process, it often pays particular attention to children and youth. Its goal is to develop knowledge, values, skills, and actions focused on social-ecological systems and the prevention and […]
Definition: Collaborative community conservation is an approach that emphasizes the role of citizens and organized stakeholders in developing consensus-based, holistic responses to the complex ecological problems that cross regulatory and jurisdictional boundaries and seeks to engage partners in sustained deliberation, trust-building, and shared work so that ecological, economic, and community goals can be addressed in […]
Definition: In the healthy city framework, communities are respected for the local knowledge and assets they possess and are enabled to further refine and leverage these for greater impact in partnership with public health professionals, urban planners, transportation engineers, and environmental regulators, as well as with a broad range of civic and advocacy groups, such […]
Definition: Sustainable cities and communities refer to local governance strategies to achieve ecological, economic, and social sustainability in ways that are integrated and complementary, that is, without perverse tradeoffs between ecology and economy and in ways that enhance social goals of equity, diversity, community, and democracy. Fast Facts: The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) lists […]
Definition: Urban and community forestry is the field of practice that stewards trees and forests in cities, suburbs, and towns, often with substantial civic engagement and institutional partnership. Objectives encompass everything from maintaining and improving water quality, habitat, and biodiversity, to improving public health and safety and capturing carbon. Urban and community forestry has multiple […]
Definition: Democratic professionals are those who see their work as contributing to a larger public good, but they recognize that to do this they must learn how to be responsive to the concerns, the know-how, and the capabilities of ordinary citizens. Also referred to as “civic professionals,” they co-produce knowledge with communities so that professional […]
Definition: Stocks of social trust, norms, and networks that people can draw upon to solve common problems. These are referred to as “capital,” because like many other forms of capital, they can accumulate and can be drawn upon as an investment for future action. Forms of social capital vary. It is thus important to develop […]
Definition: in the United States, national service has taken a variety of forms, from the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s to AmeriCorps of the 1990s until today. It can also serve as the basis for a new Civilian Climate Corps. It has been voluntary and selective, rather than mandatory and universal, and is organized […]
Definition: A nonprofit civic association that advocates for bike improvements in street design and often collaborates with city transportation officials in co-design. Bicycle associations also organize rides, celebrations and other cultural events. Bicycle and pedestrian groups increasingly are part of consolidated associations for transportation alternatives. Fast Facts: League of American Bicyclists were originally known as […]
