Building Relationships, Strengthening Neighborhoods

This article examines systems change efforts that focus on boosting social capital and collective efficacy through building relationships within communities. Most non profits operate in sector silos and focus on one social issue, considering any work on the underlying social dynamic beyond their scope of responsibilities. But a handful of organizations seek to reform underlying architectures by addressing the web of relationships neighborhood by neighborhood. They begin with the assumption that individual well-being and social outcomes depend on a foundation of healthy, place-based relationships