Category Archives: Community

The Distress, the Kingdom, the Endurance: Encountering Racial Realities

Written by . Filed under Citizens, Civil Rights, Community, Ethnicity, Faith and religion, Race. Tagged , , . No comments.

By Father Dale Korogi                                                                                   […]

Disabled Young Man is a Citizen Star

Written by . Filed under Athletics, Business, Community, Constructivism, Disability, Healthcare, Politics & Elections. Tagged , , . 2 Comments.

Also published at Minnesota Public Radio. © 2012 Andrea Morisette Grazzini David is a crooked young man, maybe 30. He wears a helmet and clearly he has some sort of neurological damage. His speech is limited, and comes with difficulty; his reactions are slow and […]

Make Like a Tree, Everyone: Constructivist Success

Written by . Filed under Citizens, Civic Science, Community, Constructivism, Democracy, Environment, Social Innovation, Social Organizations. 2 Comments.

Related article at Forbes. ©2012  Andrea Morisette Grazzini As it turns out, thriving social systems act a lot like healthy trees. Both “ends” of a tree—like human social systems—serve complementary roles as both “vessels” that contain growth producing materials, and “venues” or places where more […]

Coaches: Time to Train Citizen Fathers

Written by . Filed under Athletics, Citizens, Community, Constructivism, Fathers, Media & Culture, YMCA. Tagged . No comments.

©Andrea Morisette Grazzini, Father’s Day 2012 Brad Fiedler and Bill Doherty are outwardly different, and yet, in many ways similar in their self-appointed and community-critical roles as citizen fathers. Bill is a global leader in the work of healthy relationships and communities, a committed husband, […]

The Radical Humanity of Citizen Professionalism

Written by . Filed under Academic & Research, Citizens, Community, Constructivism, Healthcare, Professional, Social Innovation. 11 Comments.

  Also published in AOL’s The Patch. By Andrea Morisette Grazzini Betty GreenCrow has a presence so striking it’s hard to miss.  Balanced measures of wisdom and curiosity, connection and boundary seem to emanate from people like her.  Emerging unbidden from somewhere integral—their soul, perhaps. Whatever […]

Un-Hoarding Hope

Written by . Filed under Community, Economy & Business, Human Rights. No comments.

  Also published in MinnPost. January 1,  2012 Mary Buelow is a budding writer whose ability to see through superficialities and shed light on hidden truths will take her far. More important is where her stories take others, by transporting subjects who don’t or can’t […]

Suburbanites Led by Muslim Woman

Written by . Filed under Athletics, Burnsville, Community, Human Rights, Immigration, Media & Culture, Social Organizations, YMCA. 4 Comments.

Portions of this essay were published in The New York Times. In response to Nick Kristof’s column Heroic, Female and Muslim http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/opinion/16kristof.html profiling Dr. Hawa Abdi, a woman taking a stand for and with other women and girls against Islamic extremists. I’ve seen her model of hero in middle-class America, too. Perhaps, you’ll recognize the type, too —

Immigrants = Economic Assets

Written by . Filed under Athletics, Burnsville, Community, Culture & Children, Economy & Business, Ethnicity, Immigration, Leadership, Social Innovation, YMCA. 1 Comment.

Also published in TC Daily Planet. I missed my bicultural neighbors when I moved from Eagan, Minnesota. Among them were Ukranian and Ghanaian immigrants, both two-parent families led by business owners. They didn’t speak perfect English, but were great neighbors. They brought my family home-cooked […]

Secret Lessons for Parents and Policymakers

Written by . Filed under Academic & Research, Burnsville, Community, Education Policy, Nonpartisan Productive Dialogue, Social Innovation, Standard Measurements. 1 Comment.

Also published at TCDailyPlanet: Here’s a secret parents and policymakers haven’t heard. Last week, while most educators were scrambling to stuff last-minute lessons in before summer break some Burnsville, Minnesota teachers bucked the system (just a bit) for big-picture sake.

Football players teach professors

Written by . Filed under Academic & Research, Athletics, Community, Media & Culture. 1 Comment.

University of Minnesota athletes voice their full potentials in a stunningly candid dialogue that transforms professors into learners and proves these star players are powerful teachers — and the strongest kind of men and women.

Citizen music solving public problems

Written by . Filed under Arts & Music, Burnsville, Citizens, Community, Economy & Business, Media & Culture. 1 Comment.

Andrea Grazzini Walstrom explains how citizens “perform” public solutions