Fellow Birminghamians: Ask not what Birmingham can do for you – ask what you can do for Birmingham
How can we rebirth our communities? First, we must consider asset mapping as a tool to ignite not only the human capital that lives in the community, but also the economic, land use, environmental, transportation, social, and religious infrastructure that is the heartbeat of the community.
For years, communities have struggled with not having enough to sustain the neighborhood. Memories of the vibrant neighborhood 20 years ago have diminished. One of the best ways to sustain a community is for the human capital to pull together their resources and talents to invest in their own community. A human capital example is if teachers, artists, health, construction, attorneys, urban planners, safety, and financial professionals provide pro bono services to help maintain the core of the community. Oftentimes, people with these professional backgrounds are looking for meaningful ways to volunteer. Wouldn’t it be great for the professionals to all channel their talents for a common cause to improve their community ?
Diverse professionals unifying for one cause would make a change in the community.
One way to create a structure is to start a nonprofit organization to help beautify the neighborhood, to revitalize the housing stock and improve the local amenities. The nonprofit status would allow a group of professionals to apply for grants and receive tax write-off donations. All of this can start by simply having a conversation and engaging people to get involved.
We all can contribute to leaving the world better than the way we found it, in order to achieve true sustainability. Sometimes all it takes it just asking people to share their talent and gifts. This model could be replicated all over the nation, and our communities would look drastically different.
President John F. Kennedy stated in his Inaugural address January 20, 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” I have concluded that communities must empower themselves. Slade has worked with communities to help them strategically plan how to empower themselves from within.
L’Tryce Slade, MRP, JD
Managing Director of Slade
www.sladellc.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Slade-Land-Use-Environmental-and-Transportation-Planning-LLC/246496148701?ref=hl
