Giving Compass' Take:

• Stanford Social Innovation Review writes about the importance of building relationships between those who hold power over communities and those who are impacted by how that power is used.

• The example given here is how Detroit citizens pushed back against developers who made big promises, but didn't deliver (and the philanthropies that partnered with those in power). How can we restore more balance?

• Here's how feedback shaped one community organization.

For more than 30 years, I have worked with vulnerable communities in the United States, including low-income mothers with children, Black men with HIV/AIDS, and people experiencing hunger in a gentrifying city hailed as a “hot food destination.” I have learned that the fundamental challenge they face is not lack of compassion from society’s elites—though compassion helps—but lack of community power.

I first realized this when I started my career as a public health worker in Detroit. As I knocked on doors and listened to what people told me they wanted and needed, I found that even those in the direst circumstances will craft real solutions that benefit them, their families, and their communities if they have the time, information, and decision-making authority they need to do it.

Yet many communities don’t have the power to act on solutions of their own design. Public officials, grantmakers, and others in power may tap constituents for their “input” at a neighborhood charrette or community meeting, but they often ultimately ignore community ideas and insights. As a result, many communities have plenty of experience with people in power telling them what is really good for them, rather than being able to speak for themselves and act on their own behalf.

Read the full article about wielding power with community by Linda S. Campbell at Stanford Social Innovation Review.