Blog posts by related to Community development

Drew Chafetz (center), co-founder of love.fútbol, at the 2010 inauguration event in Guatemala.

When love.fútbol approached the town of San Antonio Palopó, Guatemala last year to build a safe soccer field for its children, the organization was surprised to receive a lukewarm response. Community members were initially reluctant to agree to the project’s sweat equity requirement.

love.fútbol, which works with impoverished communities to build inexpensive, durable soccer pitches for kids, supplies raw materials and guidance, but partner communities are expected to contribute all labor and take ownership of the construction process.

“In our effort to provide the right to play, core belief is that we do not provide a gift of a soccer field,” said Drew Chafetz, co-founder of love.fútbol. “We provide an opportunity for a community partnership and an experience for a community that will lead to long term change.”

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Lydia Gilbert was honored as an Ashoka ChangemakeHER, Changemakers's inaugural celebration of the world's most influentual and inspiring women. Find her fellow honorees' voices here.

Lydia Gilbert is directing CGI America, a new effort of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) that focuses on economic growth and job creation in the United States.

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My career has been shaped by public service. After college, I lived in the Dominican Republic where I worked to improve the quality of education for elementary school students who are living in rural poverty.

I knew I would pursue a career in social impact after a year of facilitating small-scale community development projects. Why? Because the inequities in the world are too daunting not to do anything; because I should make a difference; and because I can.

I am most effective when I combine my creativity with that of my peers. I love to brainstorm and feed off of others' energy. I believe that my ideas are most effective when they are shaped by the wisdom and practicality of others.

This combination of inventiveness and teamwork has always been satisfying to me, and is a combination that I often see work well at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). CGI brings together world leaders from the public, private, and civic sectors to address pressing global challenges. [...]