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When I first arrived 16 years ago in Dillard, Oregon, it was winter. Everything was drab. Kenneth Ford had recently succumbed to cancer, but even as Douglas County and the state mourned his loss, his legacies were very much in...  Read More

As the the Ford Institute for Community Building looks ahead to the next 20 years, what it hopes to see are increasingly vital communities spread across rural Oregon and Siskiyou County, Calif. Experience suggests that capable...  Read More

Karen Pautz is a little uncomfortable in the limelight. At the heart of her personal philosophy is the belief that everyone in a community is equally important, no matter what their job or social status. So, when her work as a leader...  Read More

Carol Whipple has a long and distinguished record of community service on some of Oregon’s most influential panels, but she says one of the toughest positions she’s ever held was that of school board member in her hometown of Elkton....  Read More

When humanitarian Clara Barton made her mark on the world in the late 1800s, it was very different environment than it is today. At a time when few women worked outside of the home, Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, built...  Read More

For the past few years, I have been privileged to volunteer as a board member for a large, local nonprofit organization. The organization is complex and provides services that are an essential component of the surrounding community’s...  Read More

When I was a younger mother (a long time ago), I was worried about my 15-year-old son. He was defiant and frequently angry (usually at his dad). He was a marginal performer at school and lacked motivation to do much of anything. I...  Read More

Myanmar, formerly Burma, is in the news a lot now as its democratic reforms open it up to the world. Nearby in Bangkok, Thailand, Reedsport native Josh Savey, is working as a law clerk. He's helping clients investigate the feasibility of...  Read More

Warning. I’m about to say something that’s politically and socially charged: We need to pay more attention to men. In every period of adult life today, it is men, not women, who carry most of the crisis stories. Take early adulthood,...  Read More

When the editors of Community Vitality began researching this issue, we learned much more than we ever expected. Like a lot of you, we know that the possibility of a disaster is always present. We know that earthquakes (and train wrecks...  Read More