"Representatives from approximately 50 organizations based in Jackson, Mississippi came together on June 14, 2012 to kick-off 'Working Together Jackson', a community development initiative three years in the making. The well attended event was held at New Horizon International on Ellis Ave., pastored by Bishop Ronnie Crudup. The majority members of the broad-based coalition of institutions in the Jackson Metro Area are churches. However, the remainder of the groups are service oriented, such as Stewpot, Spencer Perkins Center, United Auto Workers, Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliances and Zoo Area Progressive Partnership."

Community Welcomes 'Working Together Jackson', The Jackson Advocate

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"Founded last winter at a convention that drew more than 1,200 people, Voices Organized in Civic Engagement (VOICE) hopes to get residents focused on what their biggest needs are, and how those can best be achieved at the local and state level.

"We hope to get citizens engaged in conversations that confront our communities, and we will try to hold public officials accountable for their decisions and votes," said Lance Schmitz, pastor of Capitol Hill Church of the Nazarene and an original member of VOICE's earlier entity, the Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee..."

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"Capital IDEA Executive Director Steve Jackobs quips that when his organization decides to sponsor someone's community college education, it's like a Catholic marriage: "There's only one way out feet first." It's a joke, but indicative of the two-way commitment between Capital IDEA and its participants..."

In photo, student Liz Spinhirne listens to a speaker during a VIP meeting at the ACC Riverside campus.

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"Keep San Angelo Beautiful joined forces with the city of San Angelo, Butts Recycling, 3D's Plumbing, Acme Iron and Metal, Hawkins Batteries, Firestone on Concho, Sam's Club, Trashaway and Stripes to help spruce up neighborhoods throughout the city by accepting residents' refuse and debris...Volunteers from West Texas Organizing Strategy, the River San Angelo Church, 1st Community Federal Credit Union, Lifepoint Baptist Church and the Young Professionals of San Angelo helped organize and operate the event."

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"We understand that when people come together and they are of one accord, things can happen....

We want to engage in a process of contagious neighborliness! We want to get to know each other better in our institutions. At the same time we want to enlarge our neighborhoods. We move forward with the knowledge that together we can change the face of Nevada..."

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"On Saturday, April 21st, 2012, the citizens of Baton Rouge and Baker passed a historic election to create a dedicated revenue source for public transit....This was a truly historic feat -- one that many thought could not be accomplished and that succeeded despite great odds. So we want to take a moment to reflect on how this effort succeeded where so many others have failed.

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Lisa Pansza and Laura Garcia, "two participants of Project Quest, Inc., a local non-profit that provides education and workforce training, recently won top awards at a statewide vocational nursing contest. The two winners "have demonstrated through their achievements both their individual commitment as well as the value of this program in generating highly skilled workers from within our local community," said Dave Marttala, Project Quest's executive director."

Project QUEST is a community-based workforce development program created in 1992 through collaborative relationships initiated by Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS) / Metro Alliance, the San Antonio business community leadership, employers of high-skill workers and other private and public entities.

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"The first-ever Las Vegas Valley Community Convention for the Common Good aimed to teach, to inspire and to harness the power of faith to better Southern Nevadans' quality of life.

The Tuesday evening event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas student center ballroom drew more than 1,500 people - UNLV President Neal Smatresk noted that it was the "most full I have ever seen this room" - interested in organizing a broad-based, interdenominational effort to address social problems facing the valley...."

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"'Jobs in the middle-skill and high-skill categories will become increasingly difficult to fill because of demographic changes, structural change in the economy and divergent skill distribution,' the report said. "Iowa's labor force is expected to grow more slowly at the same time that baby boomers will be retiring."

The statistics are compelling for Reed, who is participating in Project Iowa, a central Iowa faith-based initiative designed to help unemployed or under-employed Iowans train for high-demand jobs...."

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"Valley Interfaith held its first ever accountability session in Pueblo del Palmas, north of Penitas, on Thursday evening. Over 50 colonia residents attended to ask questions of the two candidates running for Texas House District 35, Oscar Longoria and Gus Ruiz. Valley Interfaith leaders said they intend to build civic engagement in the community."