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.

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.

There is a movement afoot to turn every public school building into a “community learning center.” Use the buildings to supplement day school with programs in the afternoon and evening for children and adults. Nice idea. The question is what kind of programming gets offered.

Most schools in this game now look to fill this afternoon and evening space with social services –– mentoring programs, literacy programs, job training programs, programs, programs, programs.

Programs are fine, but there is a greater possibility that is available in walking distance of every school. That is the gifts and talents of neighbors. More programs do not build a neighborhood which is the village we need to support every family and raise our children.

Someone in every neighborhood knows how to sew, garden, fix things, write, pray, listen, train a dog, dance, sing, cook, play an instrument, hang wallpaper, make a birdhouse, do poetry, make money from the home.

In Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, a community organizer named John has been knocking on doors, block by block, and asking people about what they know how to do and are willing to teach. He is a neighbor and discovered some with the skills of empathy, good listening, and faith. He also asks local people what home businesses he should know about in the neighborhood.

He now has a list of people willing to offer their talents to neighbors plus some businesses that others can support like carpentry, housekeeping, home repair, and basket making.

He also made a list of what people want to learn. The next step is to bring these people together. What John is doing is what schools themselves could do with a little local help. This would be a better way to make a school a community learning center. It would help children and neighbors become more useful to each other, and have all the other positive side effects that building neighborhood relationships have.

There are many communities who are getting involved and taking control of their future. If something like this is happening where you live, let us know.

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Peter Block co-authored the book “The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods.” He is a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops to build the skills outlined in his books. He is the author of Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, The Answer to How Is Yes, and Community. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently the Organization Development Network’s 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.

We’ve heard the complaint a million times: social media ironically makes us less social. Though it keeps us up-to-date with each other, online networks can also isolate us behind computer screens and disconnect us from real life. Maybe that’s why Google+ has received so much hype for its group video chat feature, which allows people to actually see and hear each other as they communicate online. Personally, though, I’m even more excited about another lesser-known Website that’s going even further to put the social back in social media.  The site GrubWithUs.com is helping people get past their computer screen barrier and connect at the best possible place: the dinner table.

A Chicago start-up, GrubWithUs uses social media to organize dinners at local restaurants for strangers who want to meet new people. I first heard about the Website when I read a great New York Times article by technology reporter Jenna Wortham, who described her own experience with the service in New York.  After visiting the website and looking at a list of dinners in her city, she opted for Thai food and bought a ticket, which usually cost about $25.  GrubWithUs works with restaurants to coordinate a family style menu for its group dinners, and after making a reservation, guests show up to eat and socialize.

Two college friends named Diashin Sugano and Eddy Lu came up with the idea for GrubWithUs when they moved to Chicago to open a pastry shop and struggled to make new friends.  “We didn’t really know anyone there, and we went to bars and lounges and did the normal thing to make friends, and it was really hard to meet people,” Sugano told the Los Angeles Times this spring when GrubWithUs expanded to Los Angeles. “And one of the social settings where we, and we think most people, feel comfortable in is over dinner — it’s one of the oldest traditions out there.” The idea caught on quickly, and today GrubWithUs organizes dinners in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Seattle, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Austin.

As far as social media sites go, I think GrubWithUs is on to something good. It’s using modern technology to build community beyond our computers, and people are getting excited about it. As Wortham reports in her article, more than 10,000 people have registered with the Website since it began organizing dinners last August.

At the same time, part of me cringes to think that we actually need an online social network to meet people in our communities. I’m reminded of dating Websites like Match.com or eHarmony.com that are quite effective and popular for many people out there. In her article, Wortham asks, “Do we really need the Web to make friends?” and I’d like to believe the answer is no; we can meet people randomly on the streets or though other acquaintances without the assistance of Facebook, Foursquare or even GrubWithUs.

Still, while I hope that community building never depends completely on social media, maybe it doesn’t hurt to harness the Internet for that purpose. As long as we only use social media to complement – not control – our social lives, Websites like GrubWithUs are just another fun way to meet people. At the very least the new meal-based social network has sparked my curiosity, perhaps even enough to try it out myself.

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We want to know:
1.    What do you think of GrubWithUs? Would you ever register for a dinner with strangers?
2.    Do you think we rely too much on social media to meet new people?

This post was inspired by the New York Times article, “Focusing on the social, minus the media,” as well as the Los Angeles Times article, “GrubWithUs looks to take social networking from the Web to the dinner table.”