Transforming Communities: How People Like You Are Healing Their Neighborhoods

Great read and leaves you with a call to action. Love that she provides so many references at the end of each chapter so you can dig deeper with each concept.

Excellent ideas.

There is a common wisdom that says “what you pay attention to grows” -- during these times in which we are saturated every day with stories of more and more harm being done, this book is essential reading. In it, Sandhya Jha invites us to pay attention to multiple current-day (and a couple historical) examples of people transforming their neighborhoods in ways that increase justice and well-being.While each chapter is distinct and deals with a different issue in a different context, certain themes run throughout all of the profiles Jha presents -- the role of personal narrative storytelling, the importance of listening to people’s stories, the need for solutions to be guided by those most impacted by issues, and the fact that when people come together, build relationships and collaborate, there is abundant creativity and power to make a real difference. As she says in the conclusion, and she is speaking here to everyone: “You are exceptional. You are smart. You are gifted. If you care and seek to collaborate, you will transform your community.”But this book is not about a romanticized kumbaya vision of everyone just coming together as one. Each of the examples discusses challenges faced in doing this work, including ongoing struggles. There is astute power-analysis throughout. The beloved community evoked in these pages relies on dealing with power dynamics, not ignoring them. The work described in these chapters is not easy -- but as each of the examples attests, it is possible.And to help spread these possibilities so that they might become the norm, so that we might actually develop economic, political and cultural systems that enable the thriving of all rather than the exploitation and oppression of many, Jha ends each chapter with a helpful set of resources that readers can turn to for continued learning. These resources include both ways to delve deeper into the specific examples of community organizing discussed, as well as nuts & bolts type tools related to the strategies employed by the various examples, such as how to do one-to-one and small group conversations as part of community organizing, how to engage people in participatory research and participatory budgeting, how to create restorative justice circles, how to create community gardens, and much more.Equal parts visionary and pragmatic, this book celebrates and contributes to the tradition of what Grace Lee Boggs (whose work is one of the examples profiled in the book) termed “visionary organizing” -- the kind of work that might include protest, but that goes beyond it, to visioning and creating the kind of world we actually want to live in. To those who want to participate in such a process, this book will be both an inspiration and an invaluable resource.

At a time when our nation and our world seem divided beyond repair, Sandhya Jha's book, "Transforming Communities: How People Like You are Healing Their Neighborhoods", is a beautiful reminder that all is not lost.I am fortunate to live in a fairly inclusive bubble at a local, regional and state level, one in which people of different backgrounds, races, genders, sexual identities, religions, income levels, etc., are, generally speaking, respected and included in social and political discourse, if not at the table. Yes, there are ways we can improve, but my bubble seems to be doing better than other areas I hear about.But this book reminds me that this bubble isn't something that just happened coincidentally -- this bubble is a result of a long series of individuals who helped shape the attitudes and laws for my community, my region, and my state.And just as I can use the lessons in this book to help improve things in my bubble, you can use them to make a positive change in yours as well.Some quotes are used so often, they unfortunately tend to lose their meaning. They are found on bumper stickers, posters, magnets and cheap plaques hanging on your mom's walls. But they are so widely used because they are true and they are powerful. Two quotes in particular come to mind on reading "Transforming Communities" -- and these ring truer and more powerful than ever in light of Jha's latest book:- "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead- "Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” --Mahatma Gandhi

I just finished reading Transforming Communities and I loved it. It was in many ways a validation of ministry I have been doing and a challenge to do that ministry more deeply. Jha gives examples of hopefulness; she shows the power of seeing a need and doing something about it. The ideas are simple but not easy; they require the work of relationship building and persistence. The stories tell the motivation to begin the work and the progress these ministries have made as well as the places where the work continues.This book is a reality based work that sees the world with a godly focus. Jha recognizes the deep rooted and systemic nature of the problems we face. For me as a person of faith, the next to the last chapter about rooted faith resonates deeply. This work is not about adding faith embellishments but about living into the work through the faith we have; both one’s faith and the one’s work grow. I appreciate the challenge to be fully engaged in faith as well as work.I highly recommend this work of hope in the midst of our dark times.