REFLECTION on City Repair and TLC Farm as systemic projects

The City Repair Project and Tryon Life Community Farm are both examples of systemic and inter-sectoral projects that I seek to find across the world. These projects demonstrate the power of expressing widely shared values in tangible, hopeful, collective efforts. The radiating effects are demonstrated through impacts that start with local neighbors and extend to include government agencies, city-wide businesses, and civil society organizations in the region, and are beginning to influence other cities and projects throughout North America. Both cases involve a focused project that has become a center point that engages many sectors (in the case of TLC Farm the center was saving the farm and starting a sustainability education center; and in the case of City Repair the center was uniting neighbors to create their own public gathering places).

How? Government agencies and elected leaders, understanding the value and opportunity of empowering a motivated populace, are pleased to support these efforts through funding, technical assistance and even re-thinking city code. Businesses are proud to donate their time, expertise and materials to the community effort. Non-profits and other organizations recognize the necessity of aligning resources to empower and educate citizens, address corporate and political corruption, and create positive systemic alternatives that transform our relationships with the environment and our fellow human beings. And thousands of individuals, across a range of political, economic and cultural backgrounds, have been inspired to re-evaluate and align their lifestyle choices with sustainability principles. For many people, the firsthand involvement in a collective action is a powerful experience.

www.cityrepair.org
www.tryonfarm.org