leading the way forward
The Harwood Institute's work with communities is one part of our strategy to demonstrate that Americans have the public will and ability to address society's fault lines. We are going deep in a select group of locations with unique demographics, histories, stages of development, and challenges. Individually, they each represent a different fundamental issue we face in this nation. As a whole, they show proof that by using the Harwood approach to change how we work together, we can create a more equitable, fair, just, inclusive, and hopeful path forward.
Reading, PA
Ten years ago, Reading, PA, was declared the poorest community in the U.S. by The New York Times, and even with significant growth, the community is still fighting to change that narrative and address profound challenges. Once a predominantly White working class community, the community is now 61% Hispanic with residents from more than five Latin American countries. Real divides hold the community back—between public institutions and civic groups, between neighborhoods with varying economic health, and among people in how they talk and work together. Our challenge in Reading is to create a greater sense of shared purpose so that every young person and family has equitable access to education and can participate in the American dream.
In 2021 Centro Hispano partnered with The Harwood Institute with the support of the Walton Family Foundation to develop a community-led, community driven education agenda. Over the past year, that initiative has only grown in strength. Now an entire coalition of organizations, including Centro Hispano, United Way of Berks County, The Wyomissing Foundation, and Berks Alliance, is leading the way forward to take shared action on the community agenda.
Alamance County, NC
Alamance County, reported on extensively by ProPublica, is a rural region situated between the rapidly growing Research Triangle and Greensboro areas in North Carolina. Although residents in the county are proud to call Alamance home, there is a deep history of fault lines with race, economics, and division. Our task in Alamance is to build bridges and catalyze shared action in order to address these larger issues. In partnership with Impact Alamance, the Harwood team began a three-and-a-half-year initiative toward community transformation in early 2022.
“There are great things about Alamance County. We love living here. We’re raising our families here. And we think we can do more together. We can do more to be a more connected, more caring community where everyone truly has the chance to thrive.””
There are two primary goals of this initiative: generate community-led transformation on concerns that matter to people and strengthen the civic culture of Alamance County so the community can take effective, sustainable action. Impact Alamance and The Harwood Institute believe deeply that local communities must shape and drive their own future.
Logan County, OH
Logan County is close-knit, the community has great schools, and local pride runs deep among residents. Still, the community is dealing with an array of challenges, fragmentation persists, and many are in danger of being left behind. It faces a critical choice: Stay on the current path and potentially stagnate or get on a more productive path by coming together to forge a bright future.
Forging this bright future means authentically engaging people to discover what matters to them and taking real action on those issues. The good news is that the solutions are here in the community. Logan County has the ability, the resources, and the people to own its future and forge an even brighter one, together.
In November 2023, with support from Honda, The Harwood Institute released the report, Forging a Bright Future: How Logan County Keeps Building, presenting the key areas for strengthening the community’s civic culture and developing a shared purpose.
Union County, OH
Union County is vibrant and healthy. It is growing fast. At the same time, the community faces a vital choice: How will it maintain the good things it loves while addressing the challenges of growth and change? Notably, important work is already being done across the county to make growth work for the area and build a better future.
It’s time to double down. Union County can forge a shared path, one that meets people where they are and addresses issues that matter to them. One that reinvigorates the community’s civic culture, moves the area forward, and creates a new trajectory of hope.
As a down payment on this work, in 2022, Honda asked The Harwood Institute to identify key areas for strengthening the community’s civic culture and developing a shared purpose. The resulting report, published in November 2023 and titled Moving Forward in Union County: Forging a Shared Path, presents what The Harwood Institute found.
Jackson, MS
Rich visited Jackson as part of his Healing & Hope Speaking Tour to reinvigorate the community, spark new partnerships and drive community action.
In partnership with the Community Foundation for Mississippi, the Harwood team began working in Jackson, MS, in 2019. The city has a rich history that many people take great pride in, but also lament. There is a complicated, deeply layered, and ever-unfolding story of seemingly intractable challenges of race and class. These challenges are intertwined with a host of social, political and economic concerns.
Since starting this work, Jackson has been hit by successive waves of Covid-19, multiple water crises, chronic infrastructure problems, rising violence striking greater fear into people, and more. Our challenge in Jackson is to catalyze a community who has been forced into stagnation by these relentless forces. With the support of the Institute and our partners, this community is beginning to take concrete, doable, and achievable actions. They are rebuilding the Jackson Association of Neighborhoods, installing new neighborhood lighting, changing community policing, and initiating clean-ups and the demolition of blight. Slowly but surely they are gaining momentum as increasing numbers of community members join the effort to reclaim Jackson with shared responsibility and a can-do narrative for the future.
Clarksville, TN
In 2019, Money magazine named Clarksville the best place to live in the U.S. With one of the largest military installments in the country, Clarksville has a strong identity and is loved by the people who make it their home. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Clarksville is enjoying unprecedented growth. But growth doesn’t come without its challenges—it has outstripped its civic capacities to manage its future and the needs of young people. Working in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Clarksville, Leadership Clarksville, and Women Veterans of America, our challenge is to help the community take action through shared responsibility to ensure there is a strong network of mentors and support for their young people. This is just the start of a chain reaction of actions that will spread to strengthen the civic culture of Clarksville with particular focus on education and youth.
“Education needs to be seen not as the sole responsibility of the local public schools, but as the responsibility of the entire community.”
Lexington, KY
Lexington was recently named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the 50 best places to live in the United States. Residents and leaders in Lexington describe their community with great pride. They identify an abundance of programs, organizations, and leaders working within Lexington. They celebrate the community’s growth.
Yet, many people feel left out or left behind. An instinct to coordinate efforts often masks the need to engage in harder conversations about purpose, relationships, and impact. Asking hard questions is seen as making waves and is frowned upon. The community is trying to make its way forward, but how? This is our challenge in Lexington: to help the community take more intentional actions and ensure it’s not leaving entire swaths of the community behind and that every young person can succeed. Efforts to strengthen education must focus on purpose and impact, not simply on more programs and better coordination. The people of Lexington must decide that all children—not just their own—deserve opportunity.