Listen. Think. Act.: Lessons and Perspectives in Community Development

Book excerpt: This is a book about community development and how to do it better! It is a book for anyone interested in doing good community development work. This interactive textbook addresses gaps in best practices and aims to educate students, researchers, organizational leaders, and others on the importance of doing purposeful community development work. The authors, three nonprofit and academic leaders from Uganda and the United States, address misguided and invasive approaches to community development, combining decades of experience to share a collective narrative on how we can all be more strategic and intentional in our work, by listening and thinking with communities before acting. "Listen. Think. Act" provides a backbone for this interactive field guide, bringing community development to life and offering tools and perspectives on how to better approach work in underserved communities, regardless of geographic location. The book explores numerous first person examples of community development work in action, relevant facts about the rapidly changing nature of this field, and explores personal case studies from each of the authors. Additionally, the book offers readers a "Community Changemaker Challenge" to design real-world solutions, alongside discussion questions and additional readings at the end of each chapter!