The role of community often takes on different meanings for  occupants of our vast nation. Where some might be abashed at having to start over, others find redemption in the opportunity for new beginnings. State of the Re:Union’s mission is to highlight communities who are able to create a beautiful mosaic with the broken pieces of a former existence. Who new that bees could be a part of that process?

The Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) is engaging in what could be the start of an American version of the “airport beekeeping movement” that has been on the rise in Germany since 1999. Keeping bees at the airport was originally intended as a way scientist could monitor the air quality more easily. It has, however, blossomed into a unique new system that highlights true community.

A few years back in Washington State,  the Sustainable Prisons Project was a collaboration between Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and the Washington State Department of Corrections that was developed as a way to reduce the prison’s environmental impact on the community. The benefits were two-fold: the first is obvious, but the second advantage was the therapeutic effect it had on the prisoners. A similar project at O’Hare airport is giving formerly incarcerated adults a sweet new beginning.

This effort is turning the airport’s wasted space into a way for ex-cons to have a productive, sustainable and creative way of life. Sweet Beginnings is part of an economic development agency in Chicago offering felons an opportunity to partake in the art of beekeeping. Thanks to a new partnership between the Chicago Department of Aviation and a local community group, there are now about 1.5 million bees creating a constant buzz on the 2,400 square foot apiary provided by the airport. There are now 23 beehives on schedule to produce around 575 pounds of honey this year, but that isn’t all the buzz is about.

The program participants learn the processes that are involved with making honey, candles and lotions. These product are then sold by a local producer and carrier of the bee byproducts, known as Beeline. Airport shopkeepers are rallying to aid in the success of this program through their intentions of  stocking their shelves soon with these products.

There are many differences of opinion that have been voiced on initiatives such as this. One differing view brings up environmental concerns regarding the final product coming from a place in such close proximity to spent jet fuel. Whatever the controversial issues, one thing can not be denied: Bees are helping the community work toward solutions that help the environment and make people smile.

If there are more pros and cons, what are there and why does they matter? Is it enough that a fresh beginning is being given to people who need a little help? Is there another way to implement a similar program yielding comparable results? We’d love to know your thoughts and invite you to share them with us.

The nation is reeling from hurricanes, earthquakes, the Great Recession, two wars, and severe public sector budget cuts, among other challenges. A broken politics sits at the heart of our inability to move forward. But beneath that is something even more important and vital to our long-term health: people clinging to their sense of humanity and dignity.

I recognize that these words – “humanity and dignity” – may seem too lofty or abstract to gain much traction in today’s rough-and-tumble world. They don’t serve to score any political points, strike fear into anyone’s heart, or demonize anyone. And I realize that there are far easier topics for me to choose to write about today, including the natural and man-made disasters I referred to above.

But as I travel the country, people want to discuss something deeper, closer to their everyday lives, and more significant to their futures. Most fundamentally, I hear people talking about the need to restore a basic sense of trust in society. There are too many false promises amid the relatively few moments when people feel they are actually being squared with. People want to know they can rely on one another – their neighbors, leaders, and the organizations that purport to serve them.

Furthermore, I hear people trying to find a way to broaden their circles of compassion. They believe we have lost an ability to see and hear one another and thus the ability to care for one another. And yet, how can we expand our circles of compassion when so many of us are circling the wagons out of fear?

And I hear people saying that we must demonstrate that we still have the individual and collective ability to get things done. Here, people’s concerns are less about how big and grand the actions are than about restoring faith and confidence that we can, together, do something.

Of course, there are many pockets where good things are getting done; where effective programs are being implemented; and where people are working night and day to make a difference. For instance, just this weekend, I was struck by how well so many public officials responded to Hurricane Irene; to me, many of their actions were smart and brave and knew no partisan boundaries.

So, then, what is my concern today? It is that people are telling us something that we must hear: notions of trust, compassion, making good on promises and pledges, faith and confidence, and a sense of possibility, these are all basic human desires. They transcend who wins particular elections, the level of campaign contributions, or the amount of press a new proposal gets. The challenge is to make space for people to express these human desires; to create genuine ways for people to make them real in their lives.

So when you hear a politician give a speech, or another organization tries to ‘mobilize’ a community for action, or there’s some new civic engagement initiative, ask yourself: How does this effort reflect people’s yearning to reclaim a sense of humanity and dignity? And then ask: What am I doing in my daily life that enables someone to reclaim their sense of humanity and dignity? It is such basic, but important, tests I believe we must pass if the actions we take are to address the core of people’s concerns today.

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A dynamic public speaker, Rich Harwood is a frequent keynote for foundations and national organizations. He is an expert contributor on national and syndicated media outlets including MSNBC, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN’s Inside Politics, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Special Report with Brit Hume, C-SPAN, and many others. He is also the author of Hope Unraveled: The people\’92s retreat and our way back (2005), Make Hope Real: How we can accelerate change for the public good (2008) and numerous studies, articles and essays chronicling vital issues of our time. His most recent written work, Why We\’92re Here: The Powerful Impact of Public Broadcasters When They Turn Outward, is being published and distributed in Spring 2011. You can follow him on twitter @RichHarwood and facebook.com/richharwood.

You can read Rich’s posts every Tuesday on State of the Re:Union’s website.

The City of New Orleans has been long referred to as “The Big Easy,” but since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city and its inhabitants, that “Easy” has been hard to come by. Fighting to regain normalcy, the city and its residents were forced to reconfigure some of the longstanding New Orleans traditions since the devastation left after Katrina. As part of our episode this storied city, we looked at one church’s unorthodox response to the city’s continual violence.

New Orleans and its residents continue to fall victim to unnecessary deaths, adding to the toll of a city’s depredation. Sadly, murder victims have been framed as statistics, especially in high crime cities. Father Bill Terry grew tired of the apathetic way in which these victims were regarded, so he decided to do something about it. He found a way to bring caring back into the equation by humanizing these victims through his New Orleans Murder Board.

For links to Father Terry’s church and additional stories of New Orleans from Al, visit our episode page.

Yes, Americans continue to lament over the current state of our economics and the trend of “trimming the fat” perpetuates the monetary diet that is leaving our schools and communities emaciated and hungry for a solution. SOTRU’s Abundant Community contributor, John McKnight, uncovers the resolve of one Chicago community in helping to eradicate this problem. In this SOTRU Monday edition, we learn how it takes a village to educate a child.

Mathematics | Black history | World history | Geography | Etiquette | Gardening|Cooking  | Painting | Parenting | How to have faith | Sheet metal work|Plumbing | Carpentry | Skating  Real estate/business | Reading comprehension | Sewing | Typing | Reading | Knitting | Computer technology | Real estate | Good neighboring | First aid | Self-esteem | Life styles for youth Marketing | Strategic planning | Physical fitness | Basic accounting | Reading a credit report | Banking | Diction | Grammar | English | Public speaking | Journalism for beginners

The work ahead is to revive our neighborhood capacity to be responsible to, and for, our young people. The initial steps are simple. Find out what your neighbors are willing to teach. See which of these topics the local young people would like to learn. And then, make the connection.

Together, these new connections are the beginning of creating a village that raises a child, and a community that really cares about its young people.

Is this a good solution to an ongoing problem? Do you think this is one way to supplement what your community schools are lacking? If so, what unique skill set/s do you have to offer that might benefit the children in your community? We at SOTRU want to hear from you. To find out more on this neighborhood initiative, email John at JLMABCD@aol.com.

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John McKnight is an expert on communities. An Ohio native who currently lives near Chicago, he has spent decades organizing communities and researching them, primarily in the Windy City itself. In the course of his career, he mobilized neighborhoods during the civil rights movement, wrote several books about community development, created a center for urban affairs at Northwestern University, and even taught the current President a thing or two about advocacy. (Yes, it’s true: way back when, a young and eager Barack Obama interned at McKnight’s training program for community organizers in southeast Chicago). If that’s not enough, he recently co-authored a book called “The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods.”

State of the Re:Union will be featuring pieces from John McKnight and Peter Block of Abundant Community every other Monday.

In preparation for SOTRU’s new season beginning September 16th, we offer you a sneak peek of a featured city you can look forward to learning more about. This week’s School Spotlight will focus on on two New York City public schools in the Bronx, recently recognized by the NYC Department of Education and the NYC Service initiative during their first annual “Service in School” awards.

These public city schools have refused to tarry at the threshold of a predictable fate confined to mediocrity.  Students are stepping outside of comfort zones (yes, sometimes that “step” is more of a “push” from faculty who believe and dream bigger than expected by students.), taking  back control of their neighborhood with service to the community. They are being recognized for one of two service award categories:

• Excellence in Service, which acknowledges exceptional service programs demonstrating significant student engagement and initiative, community partnerships, and sustainability.
• Remarkable Growth in Service, which recognizes new school service programs that have significantly impacted its community during its first or second year in operation.

Excellence in Service Winners

P.S. 132 Garret A. Morgan completes a series of community-based service projects. Students are able to witness the direct impact of their community service efforts through projects like school beautification on Earth Day and a grassroots campaign to raise asthma awareness among parents. They also engage service partnerships with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Remarkable Growth in Service

Bronx Early College Academy for Teaching
and Learning

Two afterschool clubs at the Bronx Early College Academy for Teaching and Learning give students an opportunity to improve their community. The “Community Service Club” and “No Place For Hate: the Anti-bias Club” have generated partnerships with community organizations like City Harvest, the Anti-Defamation League, the LGBT Community Center, and an orphanage in Uganda.

The Mission for Service in Schools: Strive to expand the number of NYC students engaged in transformative community service and service-learning experiences that enable them to use their voice, skills, and critical thinking to affect positive change in their communities and the world.

These are just two of the schools in New York City participating in the Service in Schools program. There are many more students who are rising to the call and rallying for the betterment of their community through actions of service. To find out more about the program and additional schools awarded, click here.

Through the Service in Schools program,  they are taking control of their futures, for both children and community. Young men and women are learning firsthand how being a responsible and caring steward of their neighborhoods can influence lives. They are rising above and wiping away the less-than-stellar stigma associated with this borough. Small steps pave the way to hope, and these small steps will affect a change raising the bar that was set too low in past years. These Bronx youths are now being held to higher standards, creating an understanding of just how capable of they are achieving extraordinary goals.

A few years ago, downtown Belleville, Illinois, was notable for vacant storefronts and empty buildings, having fallen prey like many older commercial districts to tough economic times. Local leaders hit on an improbable prescription for revitalizing the DT—they started an art fair.

From its humble beginnings in 2002, the art fair quickly established itself as one of the best in the country. In 2004 it was named “Best Small Town Art Fair in America” and by 2006, it was ranked in the top 10 of all shows.

Last May about 90,000 visitors thronged downtown for the three day Art on the Square festival, which was named “Top Art Festival” in the country for the third time in four years. Event planners from as far away as Disney World and Sausalito, California, have been known to visit the all-volunteer effort to see how they mange to pull it off.

The success of the art fair seems to have turned Belleville into a city of festivals and annual events. On any given week, you might stumble upon a Downtown Diva Night, a Downtown Chili Cook-off, Downtown Classic Car Show, Oktoberfest, Law Day Run, Gingerbread Walk/Run, etc.

A “Paint the Town” event, sponsored by syndicated radio host Delilah and Big Shoes Productions, mobilized more than 1,000 volunteers from civic groups, churches schools and other organizations for a two day marathon in which 60 buildings were painted, using an estimated 14,000 gallons of paint donated by area businesses.

The city undertook a $7 million face lift known as the Downtown Streetscape Project to widen sidewalks, plant trees, put in new light polls, decorative banners and hanging plants, some new park benches, bike racks and new signs. Downtown business owners have taken to rehabbing their storefronts.

All of this has brought new nightlife to the downtown. Now, instead of empty streets and darkened buildings, downtown Belleville at night is a well lit public space where people come together to have dinner, shop or walk around.

Complementing the city’s downtown revitalization projects is a “Buy Belleville First” Campaign designed to increase local sales receipts and tax revenues. For the past three years, groups of volunteers have hand delivered letters to about 17,000 households, describing how the city’s budget works and how reliant it is on local sales tax.

Participating local merchants offer discounts and special offers to shoppers carrying a Buy Belleville First Card. The Belleville Main Street organization coordinates the program and prints up the cards. The city touts the program to residents and visitors alike.

The campaign captured the attention of CNN, which did a holiday season shopping story about Belleville and its buy local program in 2009. That same year sales tax revenue in November and December were up by 45 percent over the year before, despite a worsening economy.

Other cities in the region have begun to copy the “buy local” campaign. Local residents now think twice about where they buy gas or a sack of groceries, and more often than not, they think Belleville. They also think about where some of the money goes, to the city to support services such as police and fire.

Belleville embodies a kind of collaborative community spirit you can find in towns and cities of all sizes throughout the country, despite the tough economic times and general feeling of distrust for institutions. It was named an All-America City in June, 2011. You can view a stream of their presentation to the AAC jury by linking here.

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Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.