Building a Community of
Community Builders

For 12 years (1993–2005), the National Community Building Network (NCBN) served as a
national hub of information, networks, and resources for “community builders”—people who are
committed to reducing poverty and revitalizing low-income communities by empowering and partnering
with their residents. At its peak, NCBN had more than 800 members from 200 organizations
across the United States and Puerto Rico. The Network’s members were notably diverse; they included
grassroots activists, practitioners from community-based organizations, grantmakers, policy experts,
researchers, and community organizers, and they represented an array of racial groups, religious faiths,
and professional backgrounds.

NCBN emerged from the fractured world of social policy and intervention at a critical time. “Community
building” was a relatively new and unfamiliar concept; its components and strategies were just
taking shape, and its individual proponents often felt isolated and misunderstood. The national organization
bolstered their resolve, honed their vision for change, and nourished their collective power. It
became a tool for defining the “field” of community building, raising awareness of it, and developing
its core principles. It helped to give community-building efforts legitimacy in the eyes of a broader
audience. And, for the people on the front lines of community change, NCBN offered a much-needed
vehicle for sharing knowledge, acquiring skills, and developing relationships with peers.

Along the way, NCBN leaders and members
learned a lot about the challenges and potential
of community-building efforts. By 2005,
however, the community-building world had
changed. The need for action had shifted from
building awareness at the national level to supporting
the work regionally and locally. Funders
had shifted their attention from networking and
relationship building to ensuring the efficacy of
work on the ground. It was no longer clear that
a national organization like NCBN was the best
vehicle for serving today’s community builders.

And so the National Community Building Network came to a natural end, although the work of revitalizing
low-income communities continues. This paper celebrates NCBN’s contribution by telling the
story of the Network’s evolution, successes, and challenges. The insights presented here come from interviews
with two dozen of NCBN’s founders, leaders, members, critical friends, and informed observers.
These informants paid special attention to the lessons they learned from NCBN and their implications
for community building in the future.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY BUILDING ? Community building is an approach to improving conditions, expanding opportunities, and sustaining positive change within communities by developing, enhancing, and sustaining the capacities and relationships of those who make up the community. This approach is applied in hundreds of communities and a host of fields including economic development, community development, family service, youth development, and public health. Community-building initiatives operate in urban, rural, and suburban communities across the United States and in other countries. Community building is not a format for programs. It is a framework for addressing interrelated troubles—poor schooling, crime, bad health, unemployment and underemployment, family instability—that ensnare people in chronic poverty. Its practitioners believe that comprehensive, community-driven efforts offer the best hope for revitalizing neglected neighborhoods, especially in the urban core. Community building also recognizes that escaping persistent poverty is as much about building relationships as it is about good services, programs, and institutions. Community building puts residents at the forefront of efforts to rebuild their neighborhoods. Community building is not done to or for neighborhood residents. It is done by and with neighborhood residents— with the residents as the dreamers, planners, and implementers of a collective vision for their neighborhood. —Adapted from www.ncbn.org