Improving the world around you...one neighborhood at a time...

“I believe that you shouldn’t have to leave your neighborhood to live in a better one.” Majora Carter Bill Strickland and Majora Carter have many things in common; both are African Americans who were raised amid poverty, both are MacArthur recipients and both believed in something bigger then what they saw in front of them and took action to bring those dreams to fruition. I firmly believe that people will succeed and thrive if they are given resources to better themselves. I believe that Strickland and Carter are fantastic examples of how social entrepreneurship, social activism, economics and innovation can be combined to positively impact a portion of the world. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Strickland started an arts program in the ghetto believing that beauty could inspire youth to find a creative outlet, to acquire skills and to have a safe place that they could call their own. Creating the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Strickland mission was to keep high school students in school and to see a future in attending college. Initially, Strickland taught the residents to throw pots and be creative. The MCG eventually expanded and merged with Bidwell Training Center and now over 40 years later, offers programs in everything from culinary training to renowned jazz musicians. MBC has become so successful that other cities are adopting Strickland’s model for their own cities to replicate. Carter was tired of the pollution and the hopelessness that surrounded her in her South Bronx neighborhood and vowed to figure out a way to change it. Through grassroots efforts and a small grant, this dynamic woman created the Hunts Point Riverside Park Project that’s goals were to not only clean up the park and allowing the South Bronx’s residents to have green space, but to create green job opportunities for it’s residents in park planning and urban renewal. Carter named this employment initiative the BEST Green Job Training Program. As Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx’s, Carter saw amazing success, with job placement around 85% working in green careers and 150 students graduated. Hunts Point Riverside Park has become a source of pride in the South Bronx, the first park to exist in the neighborhood in over 60 years. Currently, Carter is running a consultant group that is targeting New Orleans as well as other struggling cities to create green space as well as train young men and women to pursue green careers. How do we view change as a society and really believe that we can take one thing and make a difference? Most people believe that to be an agent of change requires taking on monumental tasks, such as ending world hunger, curing terminal illness or abolishing poverty. However, people like Strickland and Carter show us that to create sustainable change, you simply need to choose one thing that you want to change, whether it's spreading the joy of art or creating a neighborhood park. What do you look around and see in your own neighborhood, in your own community and how would you like it to look? http://www.ted.com/talks/majora_carter_s_tale_of_urban_renewal.html