Final report 6.2.08

Honing the Relationships of Transformation
Community Renewal International
Think Tank Charrette
February 8-9, 2008

“For the city should be an organ of love; and
the best economy of cities is the care and culture of men.”
Lewis Mumford
The City in History—Its Origins, Its Transformations and Its Prospects
Honing the Relationships of Transformation. CRI Think Tank Charrette . 2.8-9. 2008
Report prepared for Community Renewal International by
Shreveport American College Center for Civic Engagement
AIA 150 project of Shreveport AIA , CRI & CentenaryInstitute of Architects

6.2..08
1

Index

Acknowledgements

3

Executive Summary — Ideas & Actions

4

The Think Tank Charrette Process & Methodology

9

CRI & Think Tank Conversation Rounds 1, 2, 3 & 4

17

Learning the CRI Model
Safety, Education, Culture & the Relational Foundation - Round 1
Comments on the Charrette - Round 2
Meaningful Work, Leadership, Culture & Relational F. - Round 3
Strategic Doing Session - Round 4
Stories, Convergence and Wisdom - Round 4

18
23
32
32
41
43

The Charrette

53

What We Learned & Next Steps

65

Appendix list and reference to a separate document

69

AIA 150 project of Shreveport AIA , CRI & Centenary College Center for Civic Engagement

6.2..08
2

Acknowledgements
The first Community Renewal International
Think Tank and Design Charrette:
Honing the Relationships of Transformation
The Think Tank Charrette was held February 8-9, 2008 at Bynum
Commons on the Centenary College Campus. This report documents the
process and outcomes of this project.
The event was a National A.I.A. 150 Initiative of Shreveport A.I.A. in
partnership with Community Renewal International, hosted and
cosponsored by Centenary College and its newly forming Center for Civic
Engagement. Partial funding for this event was provided through a
competitive grant program of the American Architectural Foundation to
celebrate 150 years of the American Institute of Architects. We offer
special thanks for additional funding provided by Steve Scrivanos on
behalf of Centenary College.
Think Tank Participants:
Jack Calhoun, Bruce Daigle, Ed Morrison & Mack McCarter
Community Renewal International staff assisting with the event:
Mack McCarter, Coordinator
Mike Leonard, Associate-Coordinator
Eve Goins, Assistant
Harold Ledford, National Center & Curriculum Development
Dianne Loridans, Videographer
Lynn Bryan, Tour guide for Friendship House neighborhoods
Yul Taylor, Coordinator for all Friendship House Community Coordinators
James Melvin, Queensboro Friendship House Community Coordinator
Centenary College and The Center for Civic Engagement:
Ken Schwab, President
Steve Shelburne, Center for Civic Engagement
Steve Scrivanos, donor for all meals and refreshments during the think
tank charrette
Louisiana Tech University Architecture Department:
Kevin Singh, professor
Third and fourth year students: Jared Boudreaux, Marcus Calhoun,
Sereya Yorn, Sean Smith, Mindy Mosley, Brian Wyatt, Melody
McNabb, Rhia Kelsick, and Amy Garrett
AIA 150 Committee:
Kim Mitchell, AIA Champion (chairman, facilitator & report author)
Deana Lohnes, Co-chair
Jeff Spikes, Chris Dzurik, Chris Elberson, Dawn Banks, Patsy Foster and
Carol Grey

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3

Executive Summary
Ideas and Actions
The CRI Think Tank is one of the ongoing functions of
Community Renewal International’s (CRI) Institute for
Community Renewal that will be located in the National
Center for Community Renewal (NCCR). The NCCR is a
facility planned for downtown Shreveport, Louisiana that
will house training facilities necessary for the replication of
CRI social technology. This inaugural event began the
work of CRI’s Think Tank. The event is a partnership with
Shreveport American Institute of Architects through a
National AIA 150 grant program, Centenary College’s
Center for Civic Engagement and student / faculty
volunteers from Louisiana Tech Department of
Architecture.

Mack McCarter
presenting the model

Concept of the National Center
for Community Renewal —
planned as net zero green
building

The work of CRI transforms people and communities. The
focus of the replicable model is an intentional applied
technology of Mutually Enhancing Relationships (MER). A
current white paper that describes the CRI model and
methodology is included in the appendix to this report.
The purpose of the think tank process is to continue to
add knowledge to the CRI model and connect to
transformative work of other individuals and/or
organizations. The search for transformative work is
organized according to a part of the CRI model referred to
as the “Village Structure” that includes seven (7) basic
elements of community: meaningful work, safety, housing,
health, education, leadership, common culture. The basic
elements are supported by a foundational eighth element
– Mutually Enhancing Relationships (MER).

Selection of the first think tank participants was based on
two criteria:
1. Involvement in positive transformative work in one of
the eight (8) elements of the “village structure” as
described in the CRI model; and
2. Work that exhibits an understanding of the importance
of relationships.

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4

Executive Summary
Ideas and Actions

Bruce & Jack during
think tank round 1

Eight Elements of the CRI

The participants for the initial think tank meet these
criteria and are remarkable in their commitment to
positively change the world. Two of the invited participants
were unable to attend due to last minute family
emergencies. Both have expressed a desire to be
included in a future think tank or to find an opportunity to
tour the work of CRI in Shreveport. The following is a list
of invited participants, the area of the CRI model they
represent, and a brief description of their transformative
work:
•

Village Structure:
Safety

•
•

Adequate Housing

Meaningful Work

Healthcare

•

Education

•
A Leadership System

•
A Culture of Caring

Mutually Enhancing
Relationships
(The foundational element)

Safe Environment – John A. (Jack) Calhoun,
Founding President of the National Crime Prevention
Council.
Adequate Housing – R.J. Stidham, Affordable and
mixed income housing specialist.
Education – Bruce Daigle, Designer and implementer
of a Freshman Academy, “JUMP”, that is transforming
Shreveport Fair Park High School. This innovative
concept is featured in the Southern Regional
Education Board in High Schools That Work research
program.
Education and Health – Pat Cooper, Former
Superintendent of Education in McComb, Mississippi,
now heading an Early Childhood and Family Learning
Center in New Orleans as a continuation of his
transformative work in education.
Meaningful Work and Leadership – Ed Morrison,
founder of Institute for Open Economic Networks.
Common Culture of Caring and the Relational
Foundation– Mack McCarter, founder of Community
Renewal International.

White Papers and additional information on the work of
each invitee are included in the appendix to this report.
The organizing committee reviewed a number of specific
thoughts and questions to guide conversation for this think
tank / charrette.


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Executive Summary
Ideas and Actions

Jack & Mack
during think tank round 3

The key question is: How does the relational foundation of
society (MER) support and connect to the other seven (7)
elements of the “Village Structure” ? Conversations during
the think tank cited observations of society relational
foundation collapse and examples of the how caring
relationships are fundamental for success in education,
safety, economic development and in building community.
Other questions to be answered through the think tank
process include:
• How can relational foundation principals be applied to
each of the village structure elements in a manner that
will arrest and reverse the collapse of society?
• What are principles for shaping physical environments
that support making “whole persons?”
This think tank / charrette included the following objectives
planned to benefit CRI, the think tank participants, AIA,
Centenary’s Center for Civic Engagement and
architectural students participating in this event:
•
•

•
Ed Morrison &
Tech architecture students

•
•
•
•

Connect the transformational work of CRI to the
networks of other transformational programs in the
various categories of the “Village Structure”;
Inform other leaders in transformational work / models
about the CRI social technology and explore potential
partnerships / projects for learning and development
that enhances the work of both CRI and these new
partners in transformation;
Identify additional individuals involved in
transformational work that promotes caring and
relationship building as part of their work;
Identify new areas of social technology development
for CRI including metrics for the applied CRI model,
Uncover questions and explore ideas to develop in
future think tanks;
Identify design principles to shape a physical
environment that enhances the positive outcomes of
applying CRI social technology; and
Explore a theory: CRI social technology is fundamental


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Executive Summary
Ideas and Actions
to be a sustainable community and is a principle that
should be added to sustainability initiatives (e.g., AIA
Livable Community Principles, Smart Growth
Principles, Traditional Neighborhood Design, New
Urbanism and others).

Think Tank round 4 discussion

Charette
presentations & comments

The Think Tank Charrette was an intense session
beginning 8 A.M. the morning of February 8 and
continuing without stop until 5 P.M. the evening of
February 9, 2008. A copy of the agenda is included in the
appendix to this report. Outcomes of the event include:
•
•

•
•
•

•

Agreement of participants to connect networks of
each of the individuals and organizations;
Two initiatives to connect Fair Park High School and
the CRI Friendship House in the Queensboro
Neighborhood of Shreveport – 1) a mentoring
program based at the Friendship House and 2) a
teacher open house at the Friendship House to better
acquaint teachers and neighborhood residents;
Initial work on community design principles that
enhance the ability of CRI to nurture the making of
“whole persons” as defined in the CRI white paper;
Identifying several initial ideas for new building types
and planning processes that incorporate and support
the CRI social technology;
Initial discussions that may lead to collaboration
between Centenary’s emerging Center for Civic
Engagement and researchers with I-Open, Purdue
and Case Western Reserve; and
Experience for Louisiana Tech architectural students
in collaborative work in new working models of
change / transformation.

The think tank also revealed philosophical parallels in
the transformative models of I-Open (Open Networks
and strategic doing) and CRI (Mutually Enhancing
Relationships and intentional caring acts). The I-Open
model includes methodologies for growing and measuring


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Executive Summary
Ideas and Actions
networks within civic space. These metrics can be useful to CRI measuring outcomes
of intentionally nurturing Mutually Enhancing Relationships (MER). The CRI model can
serve as a demonstration of I-Open principles and practices at both neighborhood and
community wide scales. During the last round of the think tank a number of
agreements were reached between Ed Morrison (I-Open) and Mack McCarter (CRI):
1. CRI and I-Open will work to establish agreement on terms and language.
2. Integrate the two (2) stories/presentations in a manner to strengthen both
the CRI model & I-Open models.
3. Develop CRI and I-Open agreement on metrics, the roles metrics play and
how they plug-in to both models.
4. CRI is working to scale the community renewal model to the entire cities
of Shreveport / Bossier as a demonstration of renewing the relational
foundation of a metro area. Ed agreed to lead the coming CRI Summit of
Foundations to fund CRI going to full scale in Shreveport / Bossier.
5. Purdue, Edward Lowe Foundation, I – Open and CRI can work together:
• Partnership between CRI & I-Open, Purdue and Centenary Center for
Civic Engagement to be quickly formalized to begin collaborative work.
• I-Open will begin offering a certificate course in May, 2008 at Purdue
and University of Oklahoma that can be extended to Centenary.
• Ed will conduct an I-Open workshop for CRI staff and leadership soon
(Workshop held May 4-6, 2008 at CRI office and included a Commerce
Department representative with the WIRED program, Linda Fowler).
• A CRI representative(s) will attend a Shreveport / Bossier I-Open
workshop at an Edward Lowe Foundation Retreat in June 2008.
6. CRI and I-Open models act on belief that “the old way does not work”.
7. CRI social technology replication includes a national training center. Mack
requested, and Ed agreed to, a connection/presence of I-Open in National
Center for Community Renewal (NCCR)
The following report provides more detail about the think tank charrette process; the
conversations of think tank rounds 1, 2, 3 and 4; the results of the design charrette and
next steps.


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8

The Think Tank Charrette
Process & Methodology

Photos of the TTC
and the tour
including the
houses in
Allendale
What is a
Charrette?
The French word,
“charrette” means “cart”
and is often used to
describe the final, intense
work effort expended by art
and architecture students to
meet a project deadline.
This use of the term
originates from the Ecole
des Beaux Arts in Paris in
the 19th century, where
proctors circulated a cart, or
“charrette”, to collect final
drawings while students
frantically put finishing
touches on their work.

Why a Think Tank? Why include a Design Charrette?
The Think Tank is a means of testing and refining the
work of Community Renewal International. Bringing
together people pursuing transformative work, in a
structure of creative conversations, will add value to the
CRI social technology model. The Think Tank process,
over time, will uncover relational connections to all of the
village structure components that will advance positive
systemic change in society. It is a means of learning from
other organizations and individuals that are involved in
transformative work. It is also a means of cultivating new
partners and new knowledge that results when
transformative philosophies converge.
All actions have physical consequences. The environment
can either support or hinder the good work of CRI. A
design charrette is included as part of the process to
capture physical design principles that emerge from think
tank conversations. These physical design principals will
enhance the work of CRI in making “whole persons” and
in “restoring the foundation of safe and caring
communities by rebuilding the neighborhood system of
caring relationships”. We anticipate that the successful
work of CRI and its expanding list of transformational
partners will result in new building types, new planning
processes and new patterns of development. Teams of
architectural students and other student disciplines
worked, with guidance from volunteer architects and
faculty, in a cooperative format charrette.
The Process:
Learning + Converging = New Knowledge
The Think Tank Charrette (TTC) brings together people
making a difference in various fields of work that can be
placed in one or more of the eight (8) elements of the CRI
“village structure.” The process is organized to allow
participants to learn about each others’ work; to explore
connections, differences and opportunities. This creative
convergence is a means of adding knowledge to the work
of CRI and each of the participants. It is an intentional


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9

Eight Elements of the CRI

Village Structure:
Safety

Adequate Housing

Meaningful Work

forming of “mutually enhancing relationships” between the
participants, their transformative work and their networks
of support. Starting with an extended presentation and
tour of the CRI’s work, each participant presented their
work followed by a round of facilitated conversation. The
conversations of think tank participants were open to the
students and other visitors to the event. Comments were
recorded on flip charts and posted around the room to
visually track the progress of discussions over the 2 days
of work. These notes are included in the following chapter
of this report. The presentations and conversations were
also video recorded.

Healthcare

Education

A Leadership System

A Culture of Caring:

Mutually Enhancing
Relationships
(The foundational element)

TTC Agenda and Preparation
The TTC event was planned primarily to bring together
selected participants in a creative environment that allows
the work of CRI to connect with the work of other
innovators in positive change. Although not promoted as a
public event, the TTC was designed to welcome anyone
to stop by, any time, day or night to observe the process.
Invited participants were treated as special guests and
encouraged to arrive the evening before the event began
for a social dinner at Columbia Cafe. Accommodations for
participants were a local Bed and Breakfast, Fairfield
Place, located in a historic district near Centenary College
(TTC location). A social dinner was held for the
participants at Olive Street Bistro to conclude the event.
During their stay CRI staff provided transportation for
guests as a means of getting better acquainted and
having more time to share experiences of CRI from
various perspectives.
The location for the TTC was Bynum Commons at the
Centenary College Campus in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Centenary provided the facilities and obtained a donor to
cover all meal and refreshment costs during the event.
The student charrette part of the TTC was approximately
34 hours duration and meals were provided on site by the
Centenary cafeteria.


6.2..08
10

In preparation for the TTC, a planning committee of CRI
staff and AIA 150 committee members met on several
occasions to explore the questions that might be
addressed during a think tank and to discuss an agenda.
Among the questions suggested to guide conversation
were:
•
•
•
•
•

What are connections or similarities of participant
transformative work?
What are differences?
Are there relationship potentials to the CRI model?
What are physical environment issues / opportunities?
What questions need to be answered?

Initial discussions were to conduct a series of think tank
charrettes with focus on several elements of the “village
structure” at each event. However, due to budget
limitations and scheduling a decision was reached to hold
one TTC that would include participants representing all 8
elements. The planning committee identified a list of
possible candidates for the think tank and assignments
were made to various committee members to determine
interest and availability of those on the list. Invitations
were accepted by six people and white paper information
requested about each participants work. This information
along with links to web sites and a working agenda was
distributed to each think tank participant prior to arriving in
Shreveport.
The agenda was developed around the idea that
participants first receive a presentation of the CRI model
logic from founder Mack McCarter. With that
understanding, participants and charrette teams boarded
a bus and toured CRI work in 2 neighborhoods including
a presentation by a “Friendship House” Community
Coordinator. This background provided a context for
introducing the work of each participant and for facilitated
conversations to address the previously listed guiding


6.2..08
11

questions. During the four rounds of think tank
conversations, student teams listened for comments that
could lead to design principles or concepts to be
developed in charrette sessions during the night.
A program statement was given to each student along
with the white paper information from each of the
participants. This information allowed students to better
understand their important role in this TTC. A copy of the
agenda and the program statement are included in the
appendix.
Organizational sub committees for the TTC included:
speakers, agenda, room organization, lodging, food and
location, charrette supplies, transportation, student
liaison, budget and general coordination.
Selecting Think Tank Participants
Selection of persons to invite to the first think tank was
based on two criteria:
1. Involvement in positive transformative work in one or
more of the eight elements of the “village structure” as
described in the CRI model; and
2. Work that exhibits an understanding of the importance
of relationships.

The speakers and their theory of change are:
John A. (Jack) Calhoun founded the National Crime
Prevention Council and served as its president for 20
years. He revolutionized crime prevention by shifting its
definition to encompass building vital communities that
don’t produce crime. Programs he helped design include
Community Response to Drug Abuse and Youth as
Resources. In 1979, President Carter appointed Jack the


6.2..08
12

Commissioner of Administration for Children, Youth and
Families. He helped write and saw congress enact the
landmark Child Welfare and Adoption Act of 1980. Jack
has recently completed a book, Hope Matters, that tells
the stories of how faith is making a difference in the
United States. To find out more about his current work
visit his web site, hopematters. Jack’s transformational
work connects to the CRI model elements safety and
culture of caring.

Ed Morrison is an Economic Developer and the founder
of I-Open, the Institute for Open Economic Networks. His
theory of change is that we are moving from a first curve
industrial economy to a second curve innovation economy
driven by open networks. He teaches communities about
building open civic processes and the role of appreciative
leadership in this second curve economy. He is changing
strategic planning into “strategic doing” to move people in
the direction of their positive conversations. He organizes
those conversations around his model of “Brainpower,
Innovation, Quality Connected Places, Branding and
Purposeful Dialogue.” Ed’s transformational work
connects to the CRI model elements meaningful work and
leadership.

Bruce Daigle is the principal at Fair Park High School in
Shreveport. Fair Park is an underperforming school of
900 students, 85% eligible for free or reduced price
lunches and 99% African American. Bruce established a
ninth grade academy, JUMP (Joining Us Maximizes
Potential), to keep ninth graders in school and help them
graduate on time. He asked his best teachers to obtain
additional certification as “reading specialists” before
teaching the freshman academy. The results are
remarkable. Freshmen becoming sophomores increased
from 59% in 2005 to 87% in 2007. Bruce’s
transformational work connects to the CRI model element
education.

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13

Mack McCarter is the founder of Community Renewal
International. The theory of change that energizes this
organization is restoring the foundation of safe and caring
community by rebuilding the neighborhood system of
caring relationships. The terms “whole persons”, “village
structure”, “Mutually Enhancing Relationships”, “We Care
Teams”, “Haven Houses” and “Friendship Houses” are
part of the language of this renewal movement that can
change the world. The primary work of this organization is
in building the relational foundation that holds society
together. It is the basis for all human transactions. Mack’s
role in the TTC will be to represent the foundation of the
CRI model, Mutually Enhancing Relationships.
Pat Cooper turned the McComb school system around
by acting on a theory of change in education—”that
students deserve a chance to learn free from as many
physical and mental burdens as possible, and that
teachers deserve the opportunity to teach as healthy a
student as possible.” Patterning a school restructuring
plan on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the methods of
the Coordinated School Health Model he implemented
school programs to support the “whole child”. His model
of change includes Academic Opportunity, Food &
Nutrition, Health Education, Health Services, Staff
Wellness, Counseling & Therapy, Community
Involvement, Safe Schools and Physical Education. Pat’s
transformational work connects to the CRI model
elements: education, health and culture of caring.
R.J. Stidham is an affordable and mixed income housing
specialist providing technical assistance to federal
agencies, state and local governments, public housing
authorities, lenders and community based organizations.
He has written fair housing statutes and received HUD’s
Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. RJ’s
transformational work connects to CRI element, housing.
Additional information about the think tank participants
and their work is located in the appendix.

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Student Involvement
Students bring fresh perspectives and openness to the
think tank process. When people involved in
transformational work gather, the issues discussed are
often profound. The opportunity for students to engage in
and help shape possible outcomes from these
conversations adds an exciting dynamic to the think tank.
A program statement was given to students prior to the
event to assist in their preparation and understanding of
the basics of CRI social technology and the work of think
tank participants. A copy of the program is included in the
appendix. Louisiana Tech Architecture (Ruston,
Louisiana) students attended and invitations were
extended to Centenary sociology students.
The student teams listened to think tank presentations
and conversations during the day. They asked questions.
When the think tank adjourned for the evening, the
charrette came to life in an overnight session of
exchanging ideas and critiquing each teams’ work. The
concept of a cooperative charrette is that all the teams
work together to develop various parts of an end product.
The three student teams worked together as a single
group to develop an outline of possible design principles
that could be extracted from discussions relative to safety,
education, housing, culture of caring, leadership and
meaningful work. The teams worked separately to
develop illustrations of these principles which were
presented to the think tank when it reconvened the
morning of February 9.
The work of the students laid the ground work for
rethinking design principles for planning and building
communities based on the work of CRI. Approaching
design from this perspective can begin to establish the
importance of CRI methodology in the sustainable
environment movements such as smart growth, AIA
livable communities and new urbanism.


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15

Evaluation of the TTC Process & Methods
The TTC is an excellent tool for bringing together people
involved in work that has meaning for CRI and the
continued development of its social technology. The initial
presentation of the CRI model and the tour of work with a
presentation by a CRI community coordinator was a very
powerful beginning that established the intensity for the 2
day event. The presentations and conversations in each
round of the think tank were inspiring and proved that new
knowledge and actions will result from converging the
conversations of people doing transformative work. The
design charrette proved to be a method of focusing on
desirable physical outcomes and can play an important
role in future think tanks to continue developing design
principles that enhance the work of CRI.
Future improvements in the process include establishing
a longer lead time for the event and contacting
participants with more advance notice.
Although the TTC was planned to have representatives
from all eight elements of the “village structure” two of the
invitees cancelled the day before the event due to
personal matters. That left a void in the planned format for
participants representing transformative work in Health
and Housing. The reality of conducting the TTC is that
dealing with all eight elements in one session will be a
challenge as this event was productive and full of
intensity.
Students requested that future TTC’s include multidiscipline student teams to improve the charrette
experience.


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The Think Tank Conversations
CRI Technology and Rounds 1, 2, 3 & 4

What kind of world does God want?
What kind of society makes possible that kind of world?
What kind of person makes possible that kind of society?
What kind of environment makes possible that kind of person?
What do we have to do to make that kind of environment possible?

Community Renewal International Paradigm
The Challenge:
“All things were created from nothing. We are exploring a new paradigm.
What is the energy released from a relationship? How is this energy made
productive and sustainable? How do Mutually Enhancing Relationships
(MER) affect the economy, healthcare, safety and leadership? How are
people on a neighborhood block connected? The relationship of faith and
participation is the CRI program. Is being a faith based organization an
obstacle to replication? Can “love your neighbor” exist outside a faith
movement? What would the alternate strategy be? What are threats to the
CRI social technology? Who represents these threats? And how will they
attempt to obstruct CRI progress?“
...statements and questions posed by Mack McCarter...

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17

Learning the CRI Model
Summary of the Mack McCarter presentation that started the TTC
...A more complete overview of the CRI social technology can be
found in the appendix and by visiting the CRI web site to view the
20 minutes of news stories shown at the start of the TTC...
Questions that shaped the model:
A question is a step toward change. CRI has grown from
questions and struggles to find answers. Why have civilizations
throughout history achieved greatness only to collapse? Through
32 rise and collapse cycles humanity has yet to figure out how to
stop the cycle. In each cycle greater levels of technological
advance have led to increasing relational disconnectedness, the
fuel for collapse. We are in the midst of the 33rd cycle and exhibit
symptoms similar to other great societies on their path to collapse.
Our dilemma is, according to Lewis Mumford, why do we continue
to make the same mistake? CRI addresses this enigma with
intentional and replicable building of neighborhood systems of
caring relationships. The goals and strategies for this new
paradigm are explained by answering a series of questions that
are fundamental to the logic of the CRI model:
1. What kind of world does God want? The answer can be
simply answered by “love one another.”
2. What kind of society makes possible that kind of world? A
culture of people committing caring acts of kindness and love
make possible that kind of society. Lewis Mumford expressed
this goal: “for the city should be an organ of love, and the best
economy of cities is the care and culture of men.”
3. What kind of person makes possible that kind of society?
A person is able to care for others when they are both
competent and compassionate. A competent person has the
ability to access and appropriate resources to continually grow
— spiritually, socially, skillfully, physically, intellectually and
emotionally. A person is compassionate when living a lifestyle
devoted to seeking the good of others while seeking their own
good. CRI refers to a person who is both competent and
compassionate as a “whole person”.

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18

4. What kind of environment makes possible that kind of
person? Throughout history one relational environment, the
village, has survived the rise and fall of societies. CRI defines
the “village structure" with eight (8) connected elements —
safety, adequate housing, meaningful work, healthcare,
education, a culture of caring, a system of leadership, and the
foundational element — mutually enhancing relationships
(MER).
5. What do we have to do to make possible that kind of
environment? Shaping this nurturing environment that creates
“whole persons” requires a replicable, systematic approach.
CRI is developing a Social Technology that focuses on three
initiatives: 1. Renewal Team that connects caring people from
all neighborhoods in a community to rebuild the relational
foundation, 2. Haven Houses that are volunteers trained as a
network of block leaders, and 3. The Internal Care Unit /
Friendship House that places families in high crime / lowincome neighborhoods to combat isolation and grow
“whole persons”.

Competent
- willingness & ability to access & appropriate resources to continually grow :
Spiritually, Socially, Skillfully, Physically, Intellectually & Emotionally

Compassionate
- lifestyle devoted to seeking the good of others while seeking their own good

Whole Person = competent & compassionate

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19


Village Structure
Safety
Adequate Housing

Culture of Caring

Meaningful Work

Servant Leadership

Healthcare

Education

Mutually Enhancing Relationships
The Relational Foundation of Community

Relational Foundation = Social Capital = Mutually connected together
SBCR produces MER by doing 3 things: RT, HH & ICU

Renewal Team

Haven House

Caring alone does not
stop collapse…

We are disconnected / isolated
on our streets &
in our neighborhoods…

There is the reality of
decay & problems of
oppression, race &
poverty…

Connect Caring People:
1. Visible
2. Connected
3. Committed

Take city back, systematically:
1. Rebuild relational foundation
2. Build social networks
3. Block leaders form connected
nurturing structure

Renew whole persons:
1. Build trust by serving
2. Friendship Houses
3. Model the family unit
4. Paid staff

Internal Care Unit

Social Technology

6.2..08
20

A Tour of CRI’s Model at Work
Building Community through Friendship Houses—Allendale and
Queensboro Neighborhoods
After learning the basics of the CRI social technology, both think
tank participants and charrette teams boarded a CRI bus at
Centenary. The tour, facilitated by Lynn Brian, focused on one
aspect of the CRI model, the Friendship House. The group visited
two of the five poverty neighborhoods where CRI has placed
Friendship Houses (ICU), Allendale and Queensboro. The current
strategy is to establish two (2) Friendship Houses to serve an area
of approximately 30 blocks or 1,800 people.
Allendale is a disinvested neighborhood near the Central
Business District of Shreveport. In the past 20 years neighborhood
abandonment resulted in population loss from approximately
16,000 to a current population of approximately 5,000. It was an
environment of high crime and hopelessness. CRI placed
Community Coordinators in two Friendship Houses in this
neighborhood and began to apply the CRI social technology.
Remarkable positive change is happening for children and adults
in Allendale. Lives are improving and hope now fills this
neighborhood.
CRI began a home building project on blighted land around the 2
Allendale friendship houses, in partnership with Millard Fuller and
the Fuller Center for Housing, named “Building on Higher Ground”.
The first block of the target 60 new homes made an attempt to
incorporate some traditional neighborhood design principles:
rebuilding alleys, houses closer to the street, front porches with


6.2..08
21

unique details, scale diversity achieved by combining row housing
and single family detached homes, landscaping and a variety of
color schemes. The project started with a goal to leverage the new
housing investment to achieve a mixed income neighborhood and
connect to a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization strategy.
Issues related to public improvements and obstacles with land
assembly have resulted in recent housing reverting to standard
housing models. Comparing outcomes proved the direction of the
first homes more conducive to an MER environment. Current
strategies include more diversity, adopting green building
principles and return to the original neighborhood planning goals.
The tour stopped and got out of the bus to view the ongoing
improvements before proceeding to the next neighborhood.
Queensboro is in the next layer of neighborhoods moving out
from the center of Shreveport. While conditions have not
deteriorated to the extent of abandonment found in Allendale, the
neighborhood is a high crime, high poverty portion of the city with
increasing negative trends. The TTC tour stopped at a recently
completed Friendship House where the resident Community
Coordinator, James Melvin, described his role in the CRI
methodology.
James retired after 24 years in the military and wanted to make a
difference with the rest of his life. After exploring options he met
Mack McCarter, learned about Community Renewal, and decided
this is where he had the greatest hope of making a lasting positive
impact. James joined CRI because he had never heard of a
program like this that goes into distressed communities. The
following comments were noted from James’ presentation to the
TTC group:
• “The best thing we can do is change society.” James and his
family are role models for the neighborhood. Through caring
acts he demonstrates a nurturing pattern of leadership and
mentors others to become that type of leader. Neighbors begin
to volunteer, to help with children and develop as servant
leaders.
• CRI Community Coordinators work in a neighborhood 6
months to 2 years before a Friendship House is constructed,
building trust by serving .

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Round 1

•

•

•

•

“The Friendship House is a platform for bringing people
together” (Lynn Brian) The Friendship House is a community
center and trusted place for the neighborhood. The large multiuse room houses a variety of programs for children and adults
that are part of the strategy for building whole persons.
Students from local elementary, middle and high schools are in
after school programs at the Friendship House.
Outside resources are brought to the community through the
Friendship House. For example, the Friendship House has
served as a health clinic with the assistance of the
“Care Caddy” program.
All of the Friendship House Community Coordinators
collaborate and learn from each other. Yul Taylor, the first
Community Coordinator, is the CRI staff member responsible
for the Community Coordinator program.
The challenge CRI faces is to tear down walls and barriers that
disconnect people. “We must always have intentional nurturers
to assure that the relational foundation of society does not
erode.”

Seeing the Friendship House and talking with James provided the
TTC group a greater understanding of the positive impact
Community Renewal is having in these target neighborhoods (e.g.,
crime has dropped by approximately 50% in Friendship House
areas).

Round 1 Conversations: Safety, Education, Culture &
the Relational Foundation
The conversations in Round 1 of the think tank included Jack
Calhoun, Bruce Daigle and Mack McCarter. Jack and Bruce both
made comments about their work and began to focus their
experiences into ideas and issues relevant to CRI.
Safety:
Jack Calhoun’s transformational work in policies and programs to
create safe communities have made positive impacts across the
United States beginning in the mid 1970’s and continuing today.


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Round 1

Additional background information on Jack is located in the
appendix, on pages 12 and 13 in the process and methodology
chapter of this report and at his web site hopematters. The
following comments were noted during Jack’s initial remarks:
• “Civic togetherness is a security issue; knowing your
neighborhood is a safety issue.”
• “Law enforcement is only part of the solution, we cannot arrest
our way out of the problems of high crime environments.” In his
work Jack has searched for policies that have natural
enforcement by citizens (e.g., front porches facing streets
direct eyes toward the street). He cited Tony Earl’s study of
housing in high crime areas of Chicago that found pockets of
safety. The characteristics of these safe environments is now
referred to as “Neighborhood Efficacy Concept”.
• “A traditional problem is that social service starts with a service
and not a person. Service provision is needed but focuses on
the wound and does not start with the relationship.”
• “The issue is not just services, it is who is there. We have an
extremely lonely society.” Jack quoted an unnamed youth from
his experiences across the country, “I’d rather be wanted for
murder than to not be wanted at all.”
• “Almost 90% of social service funding goes to work, education
and health. Almost none goes to what CRI terms "mutually
enhancing relationships”.”
• The following are suggestions for consideration from his work
in developing successful “gang work points” with crime fighting
agencies:
• Get a task force together led by the mayor and chief
along with other agencies.
• Develop a clear mission—e.g., crime is to be reduced.
• Transcend law enforcement and social service split—
must be together.
• Key challenge—How do you keep fresh and why are
you in business? San Jose’ / Silicon Valley refreshes
itself every 2 years by updating its plan.
• Keep the individual in front of us at all times.
• Develop both short and long term goals —Change the
community. Change the world.
• Define the impact area. Develop strategies for


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24


Round 1

•

neighborhood revitalization.
“Intimacy is a real problem when crime fighting
strategies get to them and to us. We lose with “sweeps”.
We have to know individuals by name to be effective.
There is remarkable power in calling someone’s name
positively. Especially those living in bad conditions.”

Education:
TTC Facilitator Kim Mitchell next introduced Bruce Daigle,
Principal at Fair Park High School. Located in the Queensboro
neighborhood in Shreveport, Fair Park is a struggling school. All of
the schools in neighborhoods where Community Renewal is
working are struggling. Bruce’s transformational work with a
freshman academy, JUMP, is working and is among the best
practices in “High Schools that Work” research by the Southern
Regional Education Board. There is additional information about
Bruce in the appendix and on page 13 of this report.
Bruce described the conditions he faced at this underperforming
school:
• 59% of freshmen were not getting to the sophomore grade
level.
• Fair Park is a Title One School and 87% of the 900 students
are eligible for free breakfast and lunch.
• A significant number of free health services are provided at
school due to living conditions of so many of the students.
• Many students come to school to be safe from their life at
home and / or neighborhood.
• There are 4 security coordinators and an S.R.O. to deal with
behavior problems.
• The community around the school is not safe.
• The school provides gender training to teach social skills that
students do not get at home.
To address this bleak situation in the 2005-2006 school year
Bruce put his best teachers — those that know new techniques
that work — at the freshman level. These teachers volunteered to
go back to school to have “Reading Specialist” added to their


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Round 1

teaching certificates. The freshman academy, JUMP (Joining Us to
Maximizes Potential), uses block scheduling with 4 classes per
day (100 minutes per class for freshmen only). This allows up to 8
credits per year—only 5 are required. The results of this innovation
are impressive:
• In the first year of JUMP 86% of freshmen graduated to the
10th grade (up from 40% prior to JUMP). 79% of the freshmen
earned all 8 credits.
• In the second year 87% of freshmen moved up to the 10th
grade and 75% earned 8 credits.
• This year there are 180 Juniors from the first JUMP class. This
compares to the non-JUMP senior class of 60.
The philosophy of effective teaching expressed by Bruce is:
1. Students need to hear that teachers care;
2. Teach bell to bell;
3. Good planning.
Although the innovation at Fair Park is producing results, the
system of rating schools works against this innovation in low
performing schools. There are several realities of “No Child Left
Behind” that are troubling:
•
•
•

The “unacceptable rating” has a negative impact on student
and community self-image. It adversely impacts making “whole
people”.
The system allows good students to leave when a school is
branded as unacceptable which contributes to poor school
performance.
“The No Child Left Behind rating is crushing the human spirit.”

How do we (society) change this rating system before the negative
consequences become community wide problems?


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Round 1

Measuring Outcomes and Funding the CRI model:
After presentations by Jack and Bruce the conversation was
opened to the think tank table and the audience. These
discussions focused on connections between CRI, education and
safety. Conversations also included exploring possible outcome
measures (metrics) of the CRI social technology to better
communicate results to potential funding sources. The following
are notes from those discussions:
Mack provided some additional background on the process that
guided the formation of CRI:
“If we are going to change the world we must do 5 things:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Analyze a problem (what is the root cause for the problem?)
Conceptualize a solution (what is the answer to the problem?)
Actualize a model of the solution (build a model)
Standardize the model (standardize for replication— mass
customization of a standard model that allows for uniqueness)
5. System of delivery (find a way to deliver across the globe)
In response to these 5 steps for changing the world CRI
responded with the following:

1. The fundamental problem is what Lewis Mumford referred to as
the chief enigma—”Why do civilizations keep collapsing?” How
do we solve this enigma? CRI analysis led to an
understanding of societal false assumptions in the previous 32
civilizations that have collapsed: a) We have assumed a
relational foundation is in place, b) The relational foundation
takes care of itself and c) the relational foundation will always
be there. These false assumptions are evident in our current
civilization.
2. To conceptualize a model CRI explored the answers to 5
questions (described at the beginning of this chapter) that led
to “Rules of Relationships Connecting Human Beings” : a)
Relationships are dynamic—ever changing, and b) We must
give intentional attention to relationships—sharing work,
sharing joys, sharing problems...

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Round 1

3. Actualizing the model had to answer, how do we connect
caring people? The model CRI developed to answer this
question includes: a) Renewal Team, b) Haven Houses and c)
ICU / Friendship Houses. What unites us as human beings is
our capacity for caring. CRI builds trust by serving and “models
the family” in the ICU neighborhoods.
4. & 5. CRI is standardizing the model and the system of delivery
by current replication projects in other communities around the
globe, by curriculum development , by developing a National
Center for Community Renewal and with current plans for a
demonstration project at a community wide scale in
Shreveport / Bossier, Louisiana.”
Comments and Questions from Think Tank Round 1:
Mack: (quote from Albert Schweitzer) “Civilization will be
measured not by gadgetry, but by morality” (caring). How do we
measure producing “whole persons”? Many non-profits can get
money to help people survive in poverty. How do we get money to
build “whole persons” capable of acquiring resources for
themselves and their families?
Bruce: “Caring is number one in effective teaching. Caring and
trust creates Mutually Enhancing Relationships (MER). By
deepening relationships and understanding of what makes a good
community there will be greater improvement in the other 7
elements of the village structure. The common connecting action
in all elements of the village structure is ‘caring’, that is the bottom
line.”
Jack: “Caring people are the common link in the elements of the
"village structure”. Caring is also a relationship and an expectation.
How do you show the importance of funding caring? How do you
sell funders caring instead of gadgets? What are your outcomes?
What do they see?” Jack suggested action models such as the
CRI model answer the following questions:
•
•
•

Can we show purpose?
Can we show programs to accomplish this purpose?
Can we enlist persons to perform?


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Round 1

•
•
•
•
•

Can we organize to perform?
Can we find funding?
Can we sustain this?
What are outcomes?
How will we measure our outcomes?

Mack: “Caring makes economic sense. Community is essential for
good health. Poverty is the greatest risk to health. A good
relational community will have good health.”
“People need to be socialized to understand solutions that do not
work? There are current trends and systems (e.g., gated
communities, sprawl, separating rich/poor, widening gaps between
rich/poor) that are symptoms of the decline of our civilization.”
CRI is beginning to develop measurement process metrics. How
do you measure the outcome of growing the relational foundation?
It is a deeper and more lasting impact than gadgetry. How does
the corporate mind of making widgets write the check for building
relationships? University of Oklahoma is working in partnership
with CRI to authenticate the CRI methodology through:
•
•

Developing survey tools including a Neighborhood Resiliency
Survey
G.I.S. mapping of indicator improvements

Abilene and Shreveport / Bossier neighborhoods will be test
cases.
Metrics suggested during Think Tank Round 1:
Education measures suggested:
•
•
•

Truancy and dropout rates before and after Friendship Houses
are located in neighborhoods.
Increased Parental involvement – the CRI trust building
method.
Improved school performance of students that are a part of the
Friendship Houses network.


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Round 1

Civic and leadership measures suggested:
•
•

•

•
•
•
•

Number of elderly volunteering, working or otherwise engaged
in the community.
Measure the “Progression of the Friendship House”: serving
the neighborhood’s treasured possessions—children; to
attracting parents and other adults; to increasing parental
involvement in schools; to becoming role models / mentors.
(the system of growing relationships)
When neighborhood successes return to their neighborhood to
re-invest and live. (e.g., High school student at Fair Park from
family in Queensboro gets scholarship to Tulane and a Degree
in Molecular Biology)
Capacity of community residents to dream of a better future.
Quantity of relationships and how often they interact.
Number of volunteers from outside the neighborhood assisting
at Friendship Houses.
How do people feel about their communities? Sample Surveys
to determine perceptions (Perception often becomes reality):
a) Safety, b) Appearance, c) Hope for the Future

Health measures suggested:
•

Child obesity improvement as a result of Community Center /
Friendship House

Safety Measures suggested:
•

Crime before and after Friendship Houses

Meaningful Work measures suggested:
•
•
•
•

“Reaching the unreachables”. Helping young men that have
dropped out of school get off the porch and into employment
(Number of adults getting G.E.D. through Friendship Houses).
Job shadowing / mentoring.
Workforce from Adult Renewal Academy that brings technical
college and other resources to Friendship House communities.
Job attendance and keeping a job.


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Round 1

What does a caring community look like? (outward measures)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

School connected to surrounding neighborhood.
Connection between Schools and Friendship Houses.
Business creation by residents of Neighborhoods.
Kids playing in the neighborhood and on safe streets in all
neighborhoods.
Teachers living in neighborhoods surrounding schools.
People not moving out of the neighborhood.
Taking the fence down around schools.
Successful people returning to the neighborhood to live.

Strategies from Think Tank Round 1:
•
•
•
•
•
•

•

•

Open house where Teachers come to Friendship House for
relational connection to the families and neighborhood.
Mentor programs for students administered through Friendship
Houses, Haven Houses and We Care Teams in partnership
with school system.
Workforce Development by bringing existing programs or new
variations of existing programs to Friendship Houses for skills
and entrepreneurship training.
Explore concepts for various scales of friendship houses–
Rural and Urban forms
Use Friendship House to change expectations of children of
the uneducated. Friendship is a portal for changing lives and
expectations.
Nurture Small Business/Entrepreneurship through Friendship
Houses. Assist in mapping out life strategies (mentoring).
Programs to help residents participate in building / re-building
neighborhoods.
Friendship network that intervenes in cyclic problems of
poverty. This is a new network formed intentionally to build new
caring communities. This new network is critical for the U.S.
leadership in humanitarian and economic leadership in the
world.
Review work of Robert Landry – Researcher from Houston
(Micro Area Improvement is a successful strategy)


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31

Round 2 Conversations: Comments on Charette
Design Principles & Concepts
Think Tank participants convened at 8:30 A.M. on the morning of
February 9 to review the results from the student charrette teams
that collaborated through the night. The charrette work is based on
published information from participants (included in the appendix)
and conversations from the first day of the TTC. The teams
developed initial lists of design principles to shape physical
environments that support the CRI model of caring communities.
Concepts were also explored to illustrate these principles. The
work is presented in the Charrette chapter of this report.

Round 3 Conversations: Meaningful Work,
Leadership, Culture and the Relational Foundation
Round 3 began with a presentation of an animated concept of the
National Center for Community Renewal (NCCR) by Mack and
Kim. This facility includes a training center and on site
accommodations for up to 270 people attending various training
programs. The Center will be the location for the Institute of
Community Renewal that will document and distribute the CRI
social technology and its development. The Institute will also
include space for network partners such as I-Open. Regular “Think
Tank” events will be hosted in this facility as part of the research
and development activities of the Institute. The 250,000 square
foot NCCR, located in the heart of the historic central business
district of Shreveport, includes renovation of a 144,000 square foot
16 story high rise building recently abated of asbestos. Preliminary
planning indicates the building will likely achieve a LEED Platinum
rating and the goal is to be a “net zero” energy producing facility.
The I-Open Model:
Ed Morrison is founder of I-Open, Institute for Open Economic
Networks. For the past 20 years Ed has worked as an economic
development consultant with counties, regions and states. He
publishes EDPro Weblog and is the Economic Policy Advisor at

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Round 3

the Purdue Center for Regional Development. For the past six
years Ed has developed a new economic development approach
based on networks. He calls this approach “Open Source
Economic Development” to emphasize the strategic value of
collaboration in today’s global economy.
The processes of Open Source software development provide
insight into methods that successfully balance open participation
and leadership direction. With a few simple rules the collective
wisdom and energies of these open communities are able to
develop extremely complex projects quickly. Borrowing from these
insights, Open Source Economic Development promotes open
innovation networks to accelerate regional prosperity. To translate
these ideas into action the Open Source model calls for new tools
and practices of civic engagement. One of these practices is the
discipline of “strategic doing.”

“Strategic Doing” Steps to Build Collaborations

Find

Develop ideas about what we can do together

Evaluations

Learn
Action Plans

Focus
Launch

Execute & measure results

Insights

Choose what we will do

Initiatives

Identify & align resources for specific initiatives
Source: Ed Morrison

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Round 3

The following statements from the I-Open home page provide a
basic understanding for this transformational work:
“Strap on your goggles. It’s a whole new game…
Look out over the landscape of our national economy. New
connections are forming. Remarkable opportunities are
embedded in these connections, if we can train ourselves to
see — and act on — them.
I-Open is focused on the habits we need to innovate in the
“civic space”.
Regions and communities with thick civic networks will be
more prosperous. They will learn faster, spot opportunities
faster, align their resources faster, and act faster.
I-Open helps you understand this new world. We are
moving civic leaders from strategic planning to strategic
doing.”
A white paper is included in the appendix and can be downloaded
at I-Open. These new tools are spread by I-Open using a Creative
Commons 3.0 attribution license.
To demystify the dynamics of economic development Ed
suggested the easiest understanding is to divide money flowing
through a regional or neighborhood economy into three parts:
good, neutral and bad. “Good Money” flows into a community
from outside through what are referred to as “traded businesses”
vital to introducing new money into an economy. “Neutral Money”
circulates through local businesses (“multiplier effect”) that make
major contributions to our quality of life. “Bad Money” represents
money flowing our of our communities (“leakage”) when we make
purchases outside our communities or from non-local business.
The strategy for economic development is simply:
1. Increase the volume of Good Money.
2. Increase the velocity of Neutral Money.
3. Reduce the flow of Bad Money.


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Round 3

To emphasize the importance of civic space Ed introduced the
diagrams below to illustrate the cycle of deterioration that occurs in
a hierarchal command and control civic environment and the cycle
of prosperity in a trusted collaborative civic environment that is
building thick open networks of innovation. The old ways and
structures just do not work in our changing world.

A downward
cycle of
economic
development
accelerates with
a deteriorating
civic
environment.

A prosperous
cycle of
economic
development
accelerates with
a
collaborative
civic
environment.
Source: Ed Morrison

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Round 3

Ed explains that “the shifting dynamics of global competition mean
that the old strategies of business recruitment will not be as
successful in the future. Our First Curve, industrial, economy is
giving way to a Second Curve economy based on knowledge and
networks. Wealth increasingly comes form our ability to generate
and apply new knowledge.” We are currently operating in a time of
transition. Among our challenges is figuring out how to move first
curve assets (e.g., schools, libraries, manufacturing, foundations,
institutions…) to the second curve economy before those assets
become irrelevant. There are emerging opportunities to “link and
leverage” those first curve assets to new networks.

A 2nd Curve
economy is
emerging with
wealth created
by networks…

Moving from the
First Curve to
the Second
Curve involves
“linking and
leveraging”
First Curve
assets to
Second Curve
opportunities

Source: Ed Morrison


6.2..08
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Round 3
The challenge
is to build and
support
productive,
focused
networks
around
strategic
issues
We need new ways of coming together to explore complex issues.
Moving any economy forward requires routinely convening to
explore hundreds of new collaborations as we connect first curve
assets to second curve opportunities. We will need new networks
that are formed through new disciplines of authentic civic
engagement. Framing conversations and connecting networks
requires new tools such as the I-Open discipline that focuses
conversations around Brainpower, Innovation Networks,
Quality Connected Places, Branding our stories, and
Collaborative Leadership. New tools include mapping processes

We need new
maps to define
the flow of
brainpower in
our
communities

$10 per hour

Source: Ed Morrison

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Round 3

Successful
communities
will
understand
the power of
networks ...

to understand paths to prosperity and mapping networks to better
connect our citizens in caring communities of innovation. The new
model of leadership in this collaborative network environment
includes skills to “frame questions in a way that guides people

...They will
map their
networks

Source: Ed Morrison

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Round 3
The

I-Open Model:
2nd Curve
strategies =
Open Source
Economic
Development
2nd Curve
Strategies involve
linking & leveraging
assets in five
“asset networks”:
1.Brainpower
2.Innovation
3.Quality places
4.Branding
5.Civic
Collaboration
Source: Ed Morrison

toward understanding their individual potential to contribute to civic
life”. These are positive conversations of “An Appreciative [Civic
Leadership] mindset: focus on what we do want, do have, can do,
what’s working & why, what we want to move toward, what matters
to us.” Our networks evolve by closing triangles, connecting
people we know. Regular civic forums are a practical way for new
people to meet and explore their connections. These forums, if
guided by ‘appreciative leadership’, can become powerful tools for
building our networks, our social capital. “We need places [trusted
places] in our communities and neighborhoods where people feel
comfortable to meet and explore issues. The CRI ‘Friendship
House’ is one of those trusted places at a neighborhood level of
community. On the Second Curve, civic leadership is far more
distributed than in a First Curve economy. Leadership comes from

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Round 3

people who are willing to engage and who are capable of
unleashing the energies of others for our common prosperity.”

Find

To provide some guidance as to which type of networks to build IOpen provides a simple model that views economies, local and
regional, as focused networks embedded in other networks.

Evaluations

Insights

Learn
Launch

Action Plans

Focus
Initiatives

“The theory of change embedded in Open Source Economic
Development is clear and concise. To be globally competitive, any
region needs to cultivate high quality brainpower. Next, the region
needs to be able to convert this brainpower into wealth through
innovation and entrepreneurship networks (“clusters”). The region
needs to be able to retain and attract talent by building quality,
connected places. The region needs to tell its story through
effective branding. Most important, the region needs to cultivate
civic habits of collaboration through an organized, disciplined
process of ‘strategic doing’.”

A View to the
Future...
A dynamic
regional
innovation
economy will
have a range of
different
connected
communities .
Some connected
to each other,
but all connected
to a regional
forum.


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40

Round 4 Conversations:
A “Strategic Doing” Session to
move in the direction of our positive conversations
Round 4 was a discussion between Ed Morrison and Mack
McCarter facilitated by Kim Mitchell. Ed and Mack encouraged
questions and comments from the charrette teams and other
observers. The focus of this session applies a technique
developed by Ed to explore a working relationship between CRI
and I-Open. This process, “strategic doing”, is used to develop
open networks of action by answering the following questions:
Find

•

Evaluations

Insights

Learn
Action Plans

Launch

Focus
Initiatives

Where are we now?

•

What could we do? TOGETHER!

•

What should we do? TOGETHER!

•

What will we do? TOGETHER!

Find

The following are notes recorded on flip charts during this
discussion round 4:

Where are we now?
Insights

Focus

•
•
•
•
•
•

There are strong similarities / parallels between the CRI and IOpen models for change.
Both CRI and I-Open are re-inventing civic spaces that have
been vandalized by the direction of society. Civic spaces
(models, tools and processes) need to be re-built.
Ed’s belief: “if it is teachable, it is scaleable.”
(Applies to I-Open and CRI)
Both CRI and I-Open believe and act on the belief that the old
way does not work.
CRI is working to complete the demonstration of the entire
Shreveport / Bossier communities.
Purdue and University of Oklahoma will initiate certificate
program for I-Open training in May 2008.


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41

•
•

Round 4

Launch

Focus
Initiatives

CRI is working on replication model in a national center.
Both organizations have learned that progress is achieved by
“working with the willing” in mutual love and respect. It is not
worth the time or effort to convince those that don’t get it and
often will work against transformative work of CRI and I-Open.

What could we do? TOGETHER!
•
•
•
•

Learn
Launch

Action Plans

•

The I-Open model answers the fundamental questions of
networking that is part of C.R.I. model (particularly “meaningful
work”)
There is a new energy that will be released from the process of
fusing C.R.I. and I-Open models in a new co-operative working
relationship of the two models (expanding networks)
What are focused outcomes of the two models?
Is C.R.I. model possible without faith?
• Seeking and Sharing the love of others is an act of faith
• We can not prove that it is possible without faith
• It may be possible without religiosity
• Watching transformation of groups is hard to understand
without faith and spirit
• There is more here than me, myself and I.
• There is an energy released when we connect through
transformative experiences.
Community Foundations are an opportunity for funding
transformative work of CRI and I-Open

What should we do? TOGETHER!
•
•
•
•
•

Establish agreement on terms and language to more effectively
connect the networks of I-Open and CRI.
Agree on metrics, the roles metrics play and how they plug-in
to both models.
How should the two (2) stories / presentations be integrated?
Purdue, Edward Lowe, I-Open and CRI can work together.
CRI and I-Open can jointly define a process of learning.


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42

•

Find

Round 4

Evaluations

Learn

What will we do? TOGETHER!
•
•
•

Facilitator
Kim Mitchell during
the “strategic doing”
session.

I-Open Certificate course that begins in May (Purdue and
University of Oklahoma) can be extended to Centenary.

•

•
•
•

CRI and I-Open are now part of a “network of the willing” and
agree to explore partnership activities between CRI and
I-Open.
I-Open will conduct a workshop May 4-6, 2008 for CRI staff
and other key people.
Mack requested a presence of I-Open in the National Center
for Community Renewal (NCCR).
Mack asked Ed to be the lead speaker at a CRI Summit of
Foundations that is being planned for later in 2008 or early
2009. The foundations that attend will be asked to fund CRI
going from pilot scale to a full scale demonstration project in
Shreveport / Bossier. A date is not yet established.
Integrate the two (2) stories/presentations.
Purdue and Centenary Center for Civic Engagement should
quickly be formalized to begin collaborative work.
Ed invited Mack to a CRI / I-Open work session at the Lowe
Foundation Retreat in Michigan. The tentative date is in June
2008.

Stories, Convergence and Wisdom—
In the presence of good and encounters with evil
The following are excerpts from Round 4 conversations between
Ed and Mack as they share experiences and answer questions
posed by observers. These conversations give insight into the
beginning convergence of their philosophies and understanding of
similar struggles both have encountered:

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Round 4

Ed: “The CRI model and I-Open model are the same philosophy,
the same cup seen from different perspectives. We are
participating in the emergence of a collaboration”.
“A big market for CRI / I-Open is community foundations struggling
with how they should move into economic development. This is an
opportunity we should focus on for funding.
“Our collaboration is a big opportunity to define a process of
learning. Our partnership should include a university or
universities. How do we become the ‘Epicenter of Innovation’?”
Steve Shelburne, professor representing the Centenary Center for
Civic Engagement, posed a question to Ed and Mack: “Can the
CRI model happen without faith or a faith based organization?”

Professor Steve
Shelburne poses a
question to Mack
and Ed.

Mack: “Self-giving love and seeking the good of others as we
would our own is the transformative power residual in all of us and
is a faith claim. It [the CRI model] is possible without religion or
religiosity, but not without faith.”
Ed: “It is very hard for me to watch the transformation of groups
within an hour ‘Strategic Doing’ session and not feel a spiritual
connection. I do not put spirituality into I-Open model...there is a
spiritual dimension of the I-Open model that I follow. I think people
get transformed, I think people see the connections, not only with
each other, but with their world, in a new and different way. My
objective is not to propagate any kind of spiritual view; I believe
that is what we are doing as spiritual beings. My whole journey
goes back to the beginnings of community in Africa.”
Mack: “My objective is to have the whole transformed by the
‘power of love’. My definition of spirituality, when I say a competent
person must grow spiritually, is the living sense that the
transcendent is not only around us and among us, but within us;
and there is more here than me, myself and I. That is fundamental.
This is a conscious objective in the CRI model.”
Ed: “Tim Sanders, Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo authored a
book, ‘Love is the Killer App’. His basic point is that we are


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Round 4

moving into a network world and love is actually the way in which
you will prosper in this new world. We are shifting the way in
which we are thinking about everything from information to
sharing. In the old industrial world, if Mack had a model and I had
a model, I would show Mack a little bit of my model and he would
show me a little bit of his model, and we would be thinking, ‘Is this
going to end up as his model or my model?’ Who is going to grab
the chair first and run off to the funders and get his deal done?
Mack and I see that opportunity comes from sharing, which is
fundamentally different than most organizations operating today;
but this is the world the coming generation will grow up in. They
will grow up in a world where sharing, openness and
collaboration will be important, not because its the nice thing
to do, but because that is how you will create prosperity. Your
personal integrity, your personal abilities, your networks, your
trustworthiness, your ability to practice love and kindness will
determine how successful you are.”
Ed: “My only rule for working together is that we treat each other
with mutual respect in ways that build trust and mutual respect. If
you choose not to behave in this manner, we choose not to work
with you. What Mack and I are saying is there is no faith entrance
requirement, but that you go through this experience and the
emergent reality is a faith experience.”
Mack: “I see for the first time a fundamental question answered for
our CRI model, the whole economic system based upon the power
of the network. It is one thing to have a working model on the
ground with all the blood, sweat and tears of trying to move it and
grow it. I have tried a million ways to express the whole idea of
networking through metaphors and analogies; I try to socialize
people to understand that we are bound to one another; and how
the intentionality of relating, generating and sustaining networks
brings a shared power. The fusion that you [Ed] have shown of
true economic reality is not so much the competitive model as it is
a cooperative model. You show us that if we do certain things to
build networks we can project that prosperity will grow.”
Mack: “Funders do not see loving as hard economic since. We
are about to assemble a summit of foundations to immerse them in


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Round 4

the CRI model. Bringing these foundations together is an attempt
to get them to make the connection between the CRI model of
caring to the outcome of economic prosperity.
1. We are looking at a 5-year plan to take our pilot in Shreveport /
Bossier to a demonstration project—to go from 10 Friendship
Houses to 60; and 900 Block Leaders to 5,000; and 37,000
“We Care Team” members to 125,000. We will connect an
entire metro area in a network of caring.
2. The part of the replication process that will occur at the
National Center is learning by becoming immersed in the
concepts and practical methodology of training to put the CRI
model on the ground in other communities. Part of the training
will include understanding the overlay, the paradigm, of the IOpen model of open networks.
I would like Ed to be the lead speaker at the foundation
conference and show the conceptual overlay of how networking
brings prosperity. The universal doctrine of doing good. I cannot
ask for a more profound and powerful model to show that caring
makes hard economic since.”
Ed: “We created at CASE Western a reliable Civic Space where
people could come every week to talk, not about what was wrong,
but what their hopes were, what their dreams were, how they
could connect, how they could learn from each other. That is what
we created. What happened when the Dean said, ‘We’re not doing
this anymore?’ The 50 to 60 people gathering weekly said, ‘You
can’t take that away, that is our space, its not yours to take.’ The
people came to me [Ed] after my firing and said we must continue.
I took off my CASE Western hat and put on a new hat, I-Open.
The Civic Space that had been constructed moved and spun-out
new places and new forms of building civic space to prosper
through caring networks and trusted places (quality places). Spinouts include ‘Lots of Coffee, No Whine’; ‘Third Thursday at 3’ in
Youngstown; ‘Midtown Brews’ in Cleveland; ‘Evenings at the
House’ in Indianapolis; ‘Smaller Indiana’—a group of 700 across
the state. This is all growing because more and more people are
understanding that the old way just doesn’t work.”


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Round 4

Ed: “I am looking for a scalable model. My current focus is
teaching the I-Open model with a belief that if it is teachable, it is
scaleable. Not scaleable in the vertical industrial philosophy of
creating a huge organization , but in the “open network model”
where you can spread these practices.”
Mack: “CRI has this scalable model that can emanate into a
concrete model of economic development. CRI has an actual
model that can network an entire city on the commonality of
caring.”
Mack: “A social technology is a set of practices that illustrate how
to place human relational principles into a systematic process that
can be replicated over and over again. Understanding those
principles (e.g., one of those principles is that we are free to act)
and using them in a practical methodology to structure our inter
relationships allows us to transform our environment (i.e., it
changes us and it changes our entire environment). This is why I
consider the term social technology appropriate for the CRI model.
Is the social technology coming in time to stop the collapse of our
society (the 33rd to follow the path to collapse)?”
Ed: “Can we transfer our 1st curve assets to a 2nd curve
economy? If we can’t, those assets will become irrelevant in the
2nd curve” (collapsing of 1st curve economy).
Mack: “Clark Maxwell, a brain with toenails, said, ‘Any assessment
of history that does not take into account the possibility of miracle
is a false assessment of history.’ He defined miracle as that which
occurs within history, not outside of history, but statistically is so
infinitesimally small that no one notices when it happens. He
described the phenomena in an essay called ‘Singular Points’.
The more complex the society, the more the possibility for singular
points to occur that will change everything. We may be at one of
those singular points. Who notices this singular event today and
what we are doing with these conversations and staying up all
night to explore these ideas? Who knows? While society is on a
downward cycle, uncovering the power of the network through
converging I-Open and CRI models, could be one of those
singular points, those miracles, that changes the direction
and moves society upward. I heard this today.”


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Round 4

Ed: “We are inventing new language. I tend to think about the
challenge we face as reinventing and redesigning our civic spaces
because all the things we care about take place in our civic
spaces. We have allowed our civic spaces to be vandalized. We
currently think that holding a conversation on critical issues is
yelling at one another on Fox News. That is as far away as you
can get from having a civic conversation in my book. We need to
rebuild these civic spaces, not only the physical spaces, but
we need to build the models, the tools that will enable us to
get where we need to go. I have hope because of the “power of
the network”. I have seen it happening. The shifting power comes
from opportunities.”
Ed: “The demographic shift is the first generation coming to
adulthood in the internet age. The Internet is our first interactive
mass media; and we still don’t understand it’s potential. It
holds tremendous potential. The Internet enables us to have mass
communication. It changes fundamentally the concept of “nation
state” toward “region states”. It changes the role of University in
creating civic spaces, and changes the role of education. The
most important thing it changes is the “way we think”, changing
from vertical thinking to network thinking. We are talking about
cognitive models—the way we think. If you know how you think,
the patterns of thought—you can choose how you think. If we can
create powerful experiences where people walk away saying
“Wow, I never thought about that! Networks of the willing. I don't
have the time to try to convince people. If I can figure out how to
do this in Shreveport, I can do it anywhere.”
Ed: “John Quincy Adams quote, ‘If you inspire people to do more,
think more, be more, then you are a leader.’ At a Council of
Competitiveness meeting, in Washington D.C., when asked how
to identify regional leaders I responded, ‘The regional leaders are
those being followed.’ If they have the integrity, compassion,
trustworthiness to be followed by people, they are the leaders. It
has nothing to do with position. You find these leaders.”
Ed tells the Phil Lane Story to explain how creating trusted civic
spaces can identify real leaders and lead to innovation and
prosperity :


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Round 4

Ed: “I got a call expressing interest in one of our ‘Case Forums’ on
Bio-Fuels—’What would N.E. Ohio look like as a national leader in
Bio-Fuels development?’. The Caller: “I would like to come to the
Forum”. Ed: “Great; come on!” Caller: “Well, I don’t have a coat
and tie”. Ed: “That’s okay; you don’t need a coat and tie”. Caller:
“I will be in overalls”. Ed: “That’s okay”. Caller: “Well, I’m coming
from work and they will be dirty”. Ed: “That’s okay”. Caller: “I am a
mechanic in East Cleveland” [the poorest section of Cleveland].
Ed: “Don’t worry about it, just come on down”. Caller: “How will I
get past security”? Ed: “Just come on. I will see that you get past
security. By-the-way, what is your name?” Caller: “Phil Lane”.
“Phil came to the meeting. He is a big guy, probably the only white
living in a black neighborhood. He runs an auto repair shop. At
the first meeting he attended, he doesn’t say a word. At the
second of a series of meetings, he asked a simple question about
Bio-Fuels. One of our group responds and answers the question.
The third week he gives the group a lesson about Bio-Fuels. It
turns out Phil is unbelievably knowledgeable about Bio-Fuels. He
builds cars that run on Bio-Diesel and knows all about Bio-Diesel.
Phil is now the Chief Technology Officer of a Bio-Fuel Company.
You have no idea where your leaders will come from. They
are not on any organizational chart. Until you have regular civic
forums, you will not understand what your opportunities are.
The story about Phil Lane comes down to this:
•
•

•

What was Phil doing at the first meeting when he didn’t say
anything? He was watching how people behave.
What do you think he was doing at the 2nd meeting? Did he
know the answer to the simple question he asked? Yes, he
knew. He wanted to know how he would be treated with a
simple question. Would he be ridiculed? Would he be treated
with respect?
It was only at the third meeting that Phil chose to reveal his
gifts to the group. That is why civic forums are important. It is a
process, not a series of events. More and more people will join
the process as you demonstrate the basic values of respect
and trustworthiness. Phil Lane is my poster child for why we
are creating new civic spaces.”


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Round 4

Mack: “Scott Peck’s book ‘The Different Drummer: Community
Making and Peace’, discusses the building of community. Here
we are on the verge of a worldwide community through the
internet. Connections are important in who we have access to and
how we sustain those connections. We also must have a
geographical connection, because we all live someplace. If we
do not build connection to those around us, the virtual community
is not strong enough to stop the implosion of the civic spaces
around us. Community must include place. Are you hooked to
your neighbors? Both virtual and place communities are very
powerful with the potential for Quality Connected Places.”
“Both I-Open and CRI models are not rigid formulas and can be
modified and shaped to different environments. Both are at pilot
scale and growing.”

Resistance Forces,
Navigating the Maze of Good and Evil:
Don’t be naïve, forces attempt to block transformational work.
Forces resisting the second curve economy of open networks are
often manifested in organizations created in the first curve
economy. The vertical decision-making structure that created
these businesses and organizations is threatened (e.g., “command
and control” or “benevolent dictatorship” are among terms
descriptive of vertical decision-making). Examples of these
organizations include established economic development
organizations such as chambers of commerce and foundations.
Ed and Mack suggested the following two books to assist in
understanding this resistance to positive change and innovation:
•

Scott Peck’s book, People of the Lie: The Hope of Healing
Human Evil, is an exploration of evil. There are people in
power that have the characteristics Peck describes. If you have
a new paradigm, some people feel threatened and they will try
to destroy you. Ed and Mack have encountered this resistance.
When the light is turned on, there are huge forces that will seek
to turn that light out. If you are involved in a new paradigm you
must recognize evil.


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Round 4

•

Eric Fromm’s Book, The Heart of Man, It’s Genius for Good
& Evil, talks about Narcissism and Group Narcissism. You
must recognize evil within the system and within human beings
and how to meet that challenge. This evil is beyond
competition; it is people that will actually try to destroy you.

One of the analogies Mack describes occurred in his experience
pastoring when the CRI model came to him. When he attempted to
begin this new paradigm he encountered resistance and physical
threats. This was his suffering and preparation for what he would
encounter in working for change.
Ed described his being fired at Case and an experience in
Shreveport where he encountered evil and personal attacks to
destroy him financially and to run him out of town. He gave an
example of a Fortune 100 Company that asked him to publish a
study they had done to show why they shouldn’t pay more taxes.
They wanted the Case brand on their work. Ed refused. The
Company Foundation then withheld annual funding they had given
for 20 years. This was one of a series of retribution events that led
to Ed’s firing for creating new civic spaces. One of the last evil
control measures was when the Dean said, I want to review and
edit every e-mail Ed intends to send.
Ed spread the word through the internet when he got fired for
doing good and his principles. The bloggers called Ed wanting to
know what happened. The bloggers went to work and a business
publication called the Dean, and he lied about the reason for the
firing saying he did not show up for work. Ed’s trusted network
allowed him to combat and thrive despite the aggressive threats
and actions. When you do innovate, you do threaten evil people
who will act out against you. Networks can be good or evil.
Mack described the current CRI / I-Open paradigms to an analogy
of the new paradigm represented by the Revolutionary War. “We
don’t ask anyone’s permission to serve. We just do it. There are
always those groups and individuals that feel threatened by
turning on the light. The nobility of every community has a means
of withholding resources to turn out the light on new models or
paradigms.”

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Round 4

Ed: “Part of the strategy to stop transformative work is the
personal shaming of those involved in new paradigms. This is
extremely hurtful and destructive and causes personal
transformation that first crushes you. Why would anyone do this?
How can anyone be so mean? If you continue, this same
retribution can happen again. There can be times of isolation
where the evil network positions you as—what is wrong with you?
If you can persist despite this loneliness, you can become
dangerous to the evil network.” Ed’s persistence of his networks
was demonstrated by the picketing on his behalf at Case and his
refusal to move out of Cleveland. “You find out who your friends
are when you are under attack.”
Ed: “You become who is in your trusted networks. Connecting
assets is the power of the network.”
Networks become a link and leverage strategy. For example,
Purdue Business School and the Indiana State Agriculture
Department connected through “strategic doing” networks to
create a statewide rural economy resource for no cost. The
innovation in this instance is taking a tremendous knowledge
resource at Purdue and figuring out where the information could
make an impact and how to make the information resource broadly
available by designating a Purdue computer in each Agriculture
Extension Office throughout the state. The innovation is the result
of converging networks that had not been connected. These types
of innovative outcomes are the result of moving in the
direction of our positive conversations in civic space.
“The “soft stuff” (caring relationships) is the “hard stuff” (innovation
and prosperity) as we shift from an old economy based on
supplying goods to a new economy based on the integration of
new knowledge with goods and services.”


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Final report 6.2.08

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