"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.

Read more

"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."

Read more

"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..."

Read more

"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.

Read more

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.

Read more

"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...."

Read more

"'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...."

Read more

"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."

 

"On the evening of April 25, more than 250 parishioners from Sacred Heart in the west side of San Antonio stood in thunderous support of SAPD Chief William McManus after he vowed to "fight crime, not chase immigrants!" He then asked the assembly to work with him, because SAPD wants "to be part of this community, not apart from it." McManus' commitments came in response to various gut-wrenching stories of residents who live in fear—fear of criminals and of law enforcement—but are determined to do something about it....

As energizing as the West side gathering was, what made it truly remarkable was that it emerged from hundreds of similar stories shared during "house meetings," or small group conversations, organized by Sacred Heart and COPS/Metro during Lent. Parishioners met in the church hall after Masses, knocked on doors around the neighborhood for six straight Saturdays, and hosted neighbors in their homes to understand the pressures on the families and to find people willing to act. Weeks of training, conversations, deliberation and preparation came before the meeting with Chief McManus...."

Read more

"Earlier this year, a faith-based political-action group began putting pressure on Phoenix officials to reinstate some services after noting there was no additional funding planned for after-school programs in the initial version of the city's budget proposal.

Read more