REAL INCLUSION, REAL IMPACT, TRUE EMPOWERMENT

Taking the best of proven, innovative

solutions for communities, from around
the world.

Given the universality our human and social
natures and our human aspirations, the
evolution of ideas and solutions for our
human communities from the modern
neighborhood to the tribal village - can be
shared globally. Despite obvious
differences, much of what works well in a
remote village in Africa, a mountaintop
community in Afghanistan, or a Barrio
enclave in South America can work well in a
US community, and this can then evolve
further into something which has lessons
for these same models abroad. Evolution in
this manner would involve adapting to the
local environment the Mangwel village
(Kunar, Afghanistan) or the Tika Tika Barrio
(Cusco, Peru), or the villages of the Akassa
clan in Nigeria. Neighborhoods in my
hometown of Atlanta are not Red Hook
which is not Crown Heights, which in turn is
not Bayiew or Hunters Point in San
Francisco. There are differences which
preclude direct comparison. But there are
similarities and common trends at the
human and social level which warrant
sharing, emulating, and taking on as
beneficial traits. That is the epitome of
progress- taking what works and
abandoning or modifying what does not, all
the while learning from past successes and
failures, and doing so in a way that flows
and adapts to ones environment. As an fan
(and off and on lifelong practitioner, when I
have the time and energy in all this work at
home and abroad) of martial arts since the
age of 6, a clich but timeless and
invaluable Bruce Lee quote may suffice to
give perspective to the near-universal
application of this mindset:


You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a
cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the
bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapotbecome
like water my friend.
That said, let me talk about how we can
look at the failures of the top-down model
of charity and development and turn it into
a ground-up, naturally watered, organically
self-organized model of true growth and
empowerment, locally driven by the
residents of the area, from rich to poor,
rom business owner to unemployed
tradesman, from young to elderly, and all in
between.
The following is an excerpt from my larger
publication One Community at a Time,
written on replicating ground-up
solutions to struggling and emerging
communities across the US. While there is
only room for a summary here, the read
itself is highly encouraged for a wider
understanding of the depth and scope of
the problem as well as the solution.

From One Community at a Time, PROBLEMS, PRESSURES, AND CHALLENGES AHEAD
_____________________________________________________________
Why an inclusive, participatory, bottom-up approach is so essential.
In short, people and the communities they live in are living, breathing entities with a desire to
succeed, dream, and move beyond the bounded conditions and constraints that hold them
back from becoming who they aspire to become. There is no possible way to expand on this
and do it justice in the short space provided but there is ample literature and commentary from
many (myself included) on this timeless subject. To sum it up in one sentence, the ability of a
community and its members to have a real, meaningful say in their future and a measure of
control over their resources is important beyond words, while the decades of outsiders trying
to dictate it for them by knowing whats best, has been damaging beyond words. The idea of
only the well-off, well-funded, and the big players having real access to making an impact on
the playing field is logically backward and morally absurd. The real heart of change lies
underneath the red tape and affluence, in the heart of the community itself.
______________________________________________________________

The Niger Delta, Nigeria.


Chief (honorary title in several Nigerian villages) Bill Knight, with 2 decades of experience building
communitiesor rather, helping facilitate them building themselves. After his visit to the Brookings
Institute in DC and his correspondence with me in NYC, he is confident that this process can work here
at home, especially in Red Hook, a community he has come to like and admire.

Background and context. Just recently
the Brookings Institute in Washington took
a look at the Akassa Model of community
development (see links below) in the remote,
marginalized, under-developed and conflict-
ridden Niger Delta, in Nigeria. Here are
some quotes and extracts from this
program and its documentations, findings
and insightful commentary. These are taken
from the correspondence I have been
having with Bill, on ways to take what
worked with the Akassa clan, understand
why it worked, and apply it as appropriate
to communities here in the US.



Photo used in my main pamphlet, One Community at a Time


Suffice it to say that there is a large body of
literature on the methodology, approach,
and the logic behind such, from not only the
Niger Delta but from other overlapping
endeavors in the US and abroad (for
example, the ABCD approach described
previously), and a separate paper would be
needed to really break down and explore
the possibilities frontier within and
between these models, and why they work
across a human tapestry and how they are
relevant for our most under-served
communities. Such a paper titled An
Asymmetric War on Poverty is in the works
for this very thing
.*


For the time being, let me cite some of the
main areas of the Akassa literature and
findings:

In particular, the Akassa Development Foundation offers useful learning for any development
organization, regardless of where they work, about the value of truly community-driven development
and the importance of genuinely inculcating participatory approaches into a development project.
Extract from: http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/africa-in-focus/posts/2014/05/28-models-development-
learning-niger-delta-flemming?rssid=Blogs
Myself with Wally, a lifetime resident and war veteran of both the Vietnam War of
the 60s and the Red Hook crime epidemic of the 70s and 80s; and with Bill Knight,
an African born Brit who lived most of his life in Africa, worked for 2 decades in
community and village development, and has been an honorary Chief in several
Nigerian villages. Together we are combining our knowledge to bring the Akossa
model to Red Hook, letting residents define their own way forward.

The Akassa Development Foundation (ADF) is a community-led development intervention in the Niger
Delta that manages a package of initiatives for the 3,000 households (18,000 community members) in
the Akassa Clan Territory. This bottom-up approach to development is based on the premise of
community ownership and responsibility for the planning, implementation and monitoring of projects.
The organization selects, plans and implements annual development projects, such as health campaigns,
infrastructure and conservation programs. The ADF has a 38-member general assembly made up of two
membersone male and one femalefrom each of the 19 villages. It also features a nine-member
board of trustees in charge of resolving conflicts, and a five-member secretariat that handles day-to-day
operations. Moreover, under the general assembly are interest-based subgroups (e.g., womens group,
youth group, group of chiefs) that encourage members to organize around their specific interests,
facilitating decision making. See: http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/05/community-
driven-development-nigeria-niger-delta
The Brookings Institute team reports include these statements:

Our results show that a majority (nearly 93 percent) of the respondents (the heads of households sur-
veyed in Akassa) are satisfied with the design and implementation of procedures of ADF. Additionally,
while nearly 36 percent of the respondents described ADF as successful, 62 percent of the respondents
described ADF as very successful.

The absence of evidence of elite capture and the significance of broad community involvement in the
project cycle of ADF define the success of ADF.


Red Hook is clearly not Akassa.but
is there anything that Red Hook might
usefully and appropriately adapt and adopt
from Akassa? Think about this for a second.
Red Hook, Brooklyn is becoming a working
model for a neighborhood coming together.
For a community voicing its concerns and
sharing ideas for sustainable development
across different organizations and walks of
life. In many neighborhoods in the US, due
to ingrained distrust, generational poverty,
lack of education, growing dependency, and
a strong presence of crime, this model may
not yet be workable, especially in the places
for the reasons above it is needed most.
It certainly would not have worked in much
of Brooklyn during the 70s and 80s. In Red
Hook today, however, it most likely is
workable. Quite workable.
After God knows how many
community meetings of various sorts Ive
sat in on, how many face-to-face
engagements with lifetime residents Ive
had, how many hear tot heart discussions I
have in my memory bank, it is fair to say
that it is the sentiment of many that we
need a better way of doing business in the
area of how outsiders help the
neighborhoodand how insiders can work
together to communicate and make
decisions regarding how local problems are
resolved, in a way that is more inclusive of
all groups, as well as truly empowering. I
cannot even cite how many times Ive heard
someone, especially the older men and
women of that neighborhood, say that they
want to be able to contribute, but in
meaningful ways. One lifelong resident, a
lady by the name of June, said this very
thing at a town hall gathering in front of
their city council rep, a member of
Congress, and a Senator. I dont mind
helping my communitybut I want it to me
something meaningful, something that
holds meaning. I know this may sounds
petty or miniscule, but it is actually a big
deal (**). People often talk about how
Sandy relief was so significant to them
because people got the attentiveness of
donors that they needed, with simple things
like medical supplies and laundry soap aging
where it needed to go. Inclusiveness and
attention to what residents want is far
more important than we tend to think.


Just as with a war on insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, the human
terrain is the center of gravity in the war on poverty and destitution. This
is a local war, fought every day in our own backyards against the forces
of mediocrity, letdown, learned hopelessness, elite corruption, and
neglect. In this war, the lifetime residents, the elders, the skilled
workers, the organizers and activists, the veterans, and (above all) the
youth are the tip of the spear.

All we need to do is afford them the opportunity to discuss, plan and
execute, and the tools with which to do it.





Grounded Research and a Zero-
Assumptions Approach
**(ZBD)
This is
something which draws on our Human
Terrain Team research in Afghanistan, my
freelance work in the Peruvian Highlands,
and Bill Knights work with the Akassa Clan
in the Niger Delta. In all cases, we started
from the position of zero assumptions, an
open mind, and an analytical outlook for
seeing things from all angles, or as many as
possible. One of our techniques involved
what could be described as a shortened
On the left is a view from a helicopter I was in flying over Afghanistan. On the
right is a view over Red Hook after the storm. If we put a fraction of the
thought, innovation and effort into nation-building at home that we do abroad,
massive human suffering would have been avoided after Sandy.
version of Participatory Rapid Assessment
(PRA), to include participatory mapping and
participatory transects. This was used in
part during my immersive research and
participant observation in the surrounding
Barrios of Cusco, Peru (as further
summarized and expanded upon in Bonus
attachment section).
As ethnographers, anthropologists
and social scientists know, there is a garden
variety of tools for robust, ongoing
assessment. Something useful here in
dynamic environments is called the
Observe, Orient, Decide, Act / OODA
framework, or Boyds Loop(*) as it is
sometimes called in COIN Doctrinal
literature
1
. This is a process for using a set
of cultural, social, economic, tribal and
religious factors in an area to form a lens
through which to filter what we see and
observe around us, then to make an
informed decision and, finally, to act.

The Internal Focus-local actors, assets
and action. The next step is to build on a
core team of supportive locals. The idea of
a core team reflects the people with a
vested interest in seeing the project takeoff,
and with skin in the game, as Brother B (a
recurring character in One Community at a
Time) always puts it. Trusted local residents
with vested interest in mission success. As
my SF, MISO, IO, CA and Human Terrain (*)
friends know (and many soldiers in general,
especially leaders), you cannot win
without the buy in and support of the local
population. And just as most every village
and tribe has its key leaders,
communicators, and facilitators with who
one must talk and earn the respect of, so
too must any team of community builders
identify and engage the same in a US
community.
Remember, the ones making the
real change and doing the actual building
are the people of the community, and
without them, there is no success. Just as
with a war on insurgents in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the human terrain is the
center of gravity in the war on poverty and
destitution. This is a local war, fought every
day in our own backyards against the forces
of mediocrity, hopelessness, elite
corruption, and neglect. In this war, the
lifetime residents, the elders, the skilled
workers, the organizers and activists, the
veterans, and the youth are the tip of the
spear. All we need to do is afford them the
opportunity to plan and execute and the
tools with which to do it.
We as community builders dont so
much build as facilitate others building, as
good middle-men in the non-pejorative
sense of the word*. We should act as hubs
so to speak, for the people, groups and
organizations within the community who
wish to make a difference and work toward
a better way of life. Alongside the locals, we
simply help research and assess the needs,
inventory the skills, map the human terrain,
and mobilize existing people and reprocess
into new ways to define their own way
forward. It goes without saying that the
approval and wishes of the people,
especially lifetime residents and key players
most involved in the community, is
essential.
This is not always easy, in any
community. Even as factions, rivalries and
disagreements may be present, we can still
act and strive to include everyone who
wants to be a part of it, to the extent
reasonably possible, and remain as fair and
cognizant as we can, just like we had to do
in Afghanistan or Iraq during complex key
leader engagements and village
assessment, project plans, and village
stability operations (VSOs). These skills used
by US military special operatives and civil
affairs experts are not selectively applicable
to warzones nor foreign, violent or exotic
parts of the world; they are applicable
anywhere there is a human population with
a culture and a history, existing in some
form as a community.










Standing outside Red Hooks public housing on Columbia St, a main intersection of daily life, and an
interaction hub of lifetime residents, both old and young, from those the sitting bench to people using the
walking paths to other areas.

Here is a snapshot of two of our main team members, who are lifetime Red Hook residents.
Core Team Member: Wally Bazemore

Relevant experience & expertise: Decades of working with his neighborhood and native
community, Red Hook, Brooklyn. US Army Vietnam War combat veteran, as well as veteran of
the infamous 70s and 80s crime epidemic in Red Hook. Wally has helped raise sizable funds and
mobilize immense resources for his community during his lifetime, and remains in many ways a
central figure and a link to neighborhoods residents, especially the youth as well as the veterans,
longtime residents, skilled workers, and seniors. He has served on multiple community forums
and boards across a range of relevant issues, from local schools to crime and sociocultural issues, as
well as the Peacemakers Program connected to the Red Hook Justice Center.

Core Team Member: Ricardo Reid

Relevant experience & expertise: From boyhood to present, Ricardo has been through and seen
more of the heart and soul of Red Hook and the realities of live than most would believe, from the
street to the recording studio. He has profound insight into the character, heart, sentiment and
pulse of places like Red Hook, and has an equally impressive ability and passion in orating it. He
understands how to employ music and oration to bridge many of the cultural and socioeconomic
gaps between the youth, adults, seniors, workers, business owners, and many others.

Mapping of the Veterans within the local
community, both of individuals and groups
alike. This would include the assets and
skills they have, their needs and aspirations,
and the issues they want to raise, as people
and sometimes as a community. The
relevance and importance of all of this
should be quite obvious in todays
economic and political landscape, with
everything from government
shutdowns and VA scandals to
austerity measures and politically-
driven cuts to veterans benefits. This
will apply the same ABCD and rapport-
based approach stated throughout, with
each team member offering their unique
insight and ability, to include indigenous
knowledge of their own neighborhood and
the people and networks in it. *
1
.
This can lead to the mobilization of
a Veterans Support Group*^. This would
draw on the already existing networks of
support and sense of solidarity among
veterans, but would help to bridge the
generational and service-era divide
between the Vietnam and Korea-era Vets
(there are also WW2 veterans in Red Hook,
lifetime residents of the neighborhood) on
the one hand, the Gulf War veterans and
the more recent and younger OIF / OEF
veterans, with special issues specific to each
group.
For example, many Vietnam-era and
Gulf War veterans are unaware of many of
the newer services available to them post-
9-11 and even more recent, while many
newer Iraq and Afghanistan veterans need
job opportunities, and - finally - many Gulf
War vets need job training, the skills of
which are possessed by many younger vets
as well as residents we can all help identify.
Mapping the community will give us a clear
picture of how all of this will interact, and
how these moving parts can come together.

Building local capacity through train-the-
trainer. We recently sent 300 special
advisors Iraq, into arguably one of the most
war-torn, dangerous and monumentally
complex (I know first had) places on earth.
Why can we not train and build capacity
within our own communities? What is
keeping is from using local community
funds to paying low-income residents to be
trainers to the rest of their community for
healthy eating, financial literacy, or tech
skills? The answer is nothing. In fact, some
of the above already occurring in both Red
Hook* and elsewhere**. Lets build on this,
to the fullest. If we can train, equip and
advise former Mujahedeen warlords, Syrian
rebels and Iraqi Army, and Shia militia, why
can we not find a workable way to scale a
peacetime solution to our most needed
skills in our own communities?

Train core team to map veterans. Will
employ a combination of core concepts
(human terrain mapping, social network
analysis, asset-based appraisal) and local
knowledge of the community to foster a
phased and workable training plan, which
also draws on the existing skill and
knowledge capital of the team members.

Train core team and veterans to map
community. Veterans tend to share
qualities of self-leadership and
understanding of problem-solving and
teamwork. Many possess skills relevant,
directly or indirectly, to the work of
mapping communities, such as skills in
assessment, analysis, and information
management. Many have done this to a degree
in foreign countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, the
Balkans, South and East Asia, and other places),
or have been trained to do it. Many more can
learn, and have a willingness to better their
skill-set for the betterment of their
communities and their own futures. The task of
mapping the community involves not only
networking and assessing the needs and assets
of an area, but understanding the wider
dynamics and human profiles - social,
psychological, and cultural - of the area.

Other Community Assets (of all sorts)
would be mapped, as the above process is
extended to all other community groups.
Examples of groupings would be: Youth;
Seniors; Latino / Hispanic community
(including above two groups); Public
Housing residents ( sub-categorized as
youth, longtime residents, skilled workers,
etc.); those generally skilled in trades, (IT
specialists, skilled craftsmen, apprentices,
etc.); seasoned or lifetime professionals
(including construction, restoration and
renovation); small business owners; Arabic-
speaking bodega owners and worker;
smaller nonprofits and other community
impact organization; churches and faith
network; volunteer networks and group;
schools and education forum; business and
commerce class; and local leaders and
facilitators, including key communicators

Where all this leads (not just for Red Hook but ideally for your community as well). As the
team and its growing community members seek to create a platform where information and
knowledge can be shared in a grassroots movement, well start to see a direction toward
sustainable innovation for individuals, organizations, and the community

Using the HEN(*) comprehensive information analytics and communications platform, we will
work as a team and eventually as a neighborhood to create a forum that brings together
business owners, nonprofits, local artists, the citizens association, and concerned residents to
Share needs and resources in the same digital space and across social lines of
communications
Construct their own business plans, based on needs defined from the ground up
rather than the top-down, and from those within the neighborhood rather than those
from without.
Partake in a dialogue on the local micro-funds available for community deliberation,
and decide which existing programs and projects (which they co-define to begin with,
based on linking needs and resources) they want to see get off the ground. From
construction to IT and financial literacy, even small things are big when they are
meaningful, locally owned, and the resources are there for their success.


Taking the Akassa framework to the next step-A Steering Committee for the community and
its groups. In the short term, this could start or multiply the process of community-driven
development;
first doing stakeholder mapping and analysis
i
, then gradually reaching out to all existing
known interest groups and stakeholders, inclusively;
bringing unknown and new interest groups and stakeholders into the process as they
become known or when they are formed.

This is actually a pretty big deal, not just a dry formality or step on paper. It would have
provisions for how the neighborhood or wider community shapes its vision, tailors its approach,
and even appoints a board of trustees. Here are some ways to look at it from a brief bullet
point perspective:

Vision

o The communities primary
ii
and secondary
iii
stakeholders partnering, in a manner
inclusive of the whole community, to drive their own development, in line with
their own perceived needs and priorities.


Approach

o Building capacity and empowerment of interest groups and their individual
members to recognize and use their own assets to help themselves
o Calling on other CBOs, NGOs, Community Board, Borough and City Council,
Federal Government and Donor Agencies to support / fund / provide technical
assistance / partner with local Community in a coordinated way.


This inclusive, ground-up system of building
on local decision-making alongside the
culture and norms of doing business are by
no means impossible in our communities.
Its been done in this country, to an extent.
This has also been done in Afghanistan, a
place not much more educated or literate
than people in Biblical times, yet Ive seen
firsthand how dozens, sometimes
hundreds, of elders (and even youth and
commoners in many cases) can come
together, figuratively and often literally,
and be part of the solution, rather than
being told what is best for them by
outsiders. In Afghanistan, the former
approach is the only way to operate
successfully, while the latter approach will
run you into failure very quickly. This holds
true in many of our communities here in
the US.



The above photo is from an Afghan Jirga I
attended on the rugged mountains of
Pakistan border, one of many from my time
as a human terrain mapper in Nangarhar
and Kunar Provinces (thats me in all black
man-pajamas standing in background on
the right of the photo, next to my
interpreter Farid in the green fleece jacket).
Pashtunwali is the honor and reciprocity
system of the Pashtun people of
Afghanistan and parts of East Pakistan and
its tribally administrated areas. It is an
ancient system with modern applications,
encompassing everything from respect to
revenge, to the hospitality of strangers and
even enemies. Most longstanding
communities have their honor systems and
rules of reciprocity and respect, some more
intact and uniform than othersbut present
as a reality nonetheless. We can either work
through this reality something many
public programs have failed to do, with
social, economic, fiscal, and human
consequences and political blowback or
we can work with it and through it.

Jirga is a form of decision-making,
participation, and transparency within
Afghan culture, from small villages to the
National government. Often used for
conflict resolution and mitigation of
disputes. I have partaken in numerous
Jirgas and their effectiveness is arguably
mixed, but it functions well overall in the
scheme of Afghan culture.

Our communities have a similar process of organic, natural neighborhood formation to
collaborate and make decisions, we often just dont see it. It can grow from the ground up.


After the initial mapping process
has been completedwhat next? The
implementation phase

This will be determined by the community
and its stakeholder partners. It will be
inclusive of all groups and sub-groups in Red
Hook, including the most vulnerable and
disadvantaged, and look at people first and
foremost as assets rather than just as
needs, from low income to affluent, from
youth top seniors.
Will help community to better plan
the develop, and build on its assets
in a way that is sustainable and
reflective of local reality and culture,
from the ground up, rather than
reflecting something imposed or
asserted from the top down by
outsiders.
This indigenous capacity building
and the formation of local asset
networks has been successful
around the world, from elite and
irregular Special Forces units
embedded in the Philippines or
Central Asia to non-governmental
asset-based community
development in rural Africa (such as
Chief Bill Knights track record in
Nigeria and other places).



An Afghan Jirga (sometimes called a Shura). If we can do this in Afghanistan, a place not much more literate or
educated than average people were during Biblical times, what specifically is stopping us from doing this in our
own communities? And why arent our elite veterans and social entrepreneurs being called on to help do it?

This would lead to inclusive participation in all aspects of the development cycle. This will
ultimately foster an opportunity for segments of the neighborhood, from different backgrounds
and walks of life, to 'come together' and conduct an exercise of sorts in local participatory
budgeting, on a grassroots scale. While modest in dollar amount, the implications are rather
large and significant. Possibly game-changing.

For decades, the traditional paradigm has been for funding to trickle down; from the top and funnel
through well-established channels (what military and defense analysts sometimes term patronage
networks) without large degrees of resident involvement or transparency of funds. This is the old way
of doing business. We want a new way, a better way, with more inclusiveness and transparency, and
more grassroots empowerment of residents.

In part, this will be the start of an emerging paradigm shift in the neighborhood as to how money goes
into Red Hook and other communities around the country, and how it is decided upon by residents, in
an inclusive rather than an elite or exclusive manner. The momentum for such a shift in how business is
done already is already present to a degree, with many residents showing the energy and desire for
such, across all walks of life. People are tired of the status quo and this would be a small way to bring a
game-changing toolkit to the table.

As I have seen in Afghanistan and to some degree, Cusco, Peru, this really works well if done right, in a
manner cognizant of local culture, and respectful of human nature and realities on the ground. The
defining impact here is not the money (it will be a small amount) but the ability of residents to
collaborate and define their own business plans across different walks of the neighborhood. This has
profound meaning in and if itself, if done right, and can set the stage for the same thing to happen with
larger funds. Starting small and responsibly, however, is the key to true, hard-earned but well-reaped
success.
Fig. 1. From the Akassa model.



A way to get funding and resources directly into the community, that be adopted in and adapted for use in not
only Red Hook, but across the US. When a community comes together to give money somewhere to go, it is a
matter of finding the best ways to get money into the community. The groundwork sets the stage for the
outside sources to have something to fund, to support, to water and invest in (rather than merely to donate),
and to grow over time, with the community in control of how it grows.


In practical terms, Red Hook
residents interested and / or already
involved with the neighborhood (such as
Participatory Budgeting and other
community-based processes) can hold
meetings, in person, to discuss, share, and
ultimately propose a small business plan for
their own neighborhood. This will be
facilitated in part by discussion over the
internet and blogosphere. The important
point is the neighborhood coming together
and people deciding, directly, openly, and
transparently, what they want for
themselves and where the money goes.
Here below is an illustration from
the (Brookings?) Akossa paper on how it
worked in the Niger Delta. As said before,
the differences between one community
and another, much less one country or
culture and another, are obvious and no
one rigid template ca be applied.
However, as also stated, there are
some commonalities of inclusivity,
participation, and local residents feeling
respected as they are made part of the
solution rather than part of the problem,
with a reversal of how the equations works:
Going from our traditional status quo, in
which top-down sources of wealth and
power view them as powerless and in
need of rescuing, and even stigmatizing
them as liabilities, to a paradigm shift in
which they are viewed as assets, building
their own community theyve lived in their
whole lives, from the ground up.


Fig 2. The Akassa model of visioning, ground-up formation of groups, and voting. Working through the
culture and the elders and leaders to include all groups and prevent elite capture of funds and
resources. We could have really used this in Afghanistan from what I sawbut thats a separate paper
entirely.(*)


Final stage: The Culmination. From this
pilot program can grow and flourish a
multitude of community support systems.
Notably, into mutually-supportive Public-
Private / multi-sector Partnerships yielding
long-term income streams to sustain or
support these and other impact efforts. The
pressing trend in philanthropy and social
impact is to make it sustainable and
profitable over time
*(P)
, so as to attract its
own source of revenue and sustaining
capital rather than rely on donations and
charity. This has drawn massive support
from people and organizations with
decades of experience reaching dozens of
countries and changing the lives of millions
of people, just as Muhammad Yunus
(*)

(founder, Grameen Bank, and originator of
microfinance) continually cites in Creating A
World Without Poverty*

Hence, identifying aspiring entrepreneurs
and others with game-changing ideas for
local business ventures which bring some
form of value to the community, typically by
addressing a need or concern the
community has or by making essential
products and services (as well as those
which are helpful in peoples daily lives)
more accessible and affordable to the
poorest segments of the population.*

In addition, HEN will use its
horizontal information platform to
facilitate he best and most robust
ideas coming together across the
neighborhood, from within public
housing to the senior, youth and
veterans communities, as well as
within and between nonprofits,
NGOs, and governmental
organizations and their facilitators
and leaders.

Finally, all of this will be linked by
way of share folders, databases, and
social media, into a wider
collaboration space (via HENs
Digital Village) with outside actors
such as Columbia and PRATT,
focusing on everything from poverty
solutions and social enterprise to
disaster mapping and response to
nonstandard finance to asset
allocation.

The following may become initial
supporters over the medium-term:

Venture Philanthropy
Foundations
Business-side community-based programs
Personal 501(c)3 tax-deductible contributions
Community and Neighborhood Foundations
Participatory Budgets & Local Funds

Closing remarks (from One Community at a Time).

A huge center of gravity to all of this to our country and its very fabric is the American
community, and the ability of a community to come together, functionally and creatively, and
become self-sustaining, locally problem-solving, even disruptively innovative. To put the best
tools we have in social enterprise into practice, and to scale these tools and models across
other communities.
Red Hooks pier, on the waters
edge. The universally acclaimed 50s classic On the Waterfront starring Marlon Brando (whose fictitious
Jonny Friendlys Bar was filmed at our beloved Sunnys Bar, near the pier, Waterfront Museum,
Fairway and Liberty Warehouse). Once a major shipping port, Red Hook Like Brando in the film could
have been a contender. It still can, and it soon will.






(References, links and footnotes available but still undergoing edits)

i
(use formal source) // In addition, for easy personal reference, here is the Wiki article with links:

The process of identifying the individuals or groups that are likely to affect or be affected by a proposed
action, and sorting them according to their impact on the action and the impact the action will have on them.
This information is used to assess how the interests of those stakeholders should be addressed in
a project plan, policy, program, or other action. (Wikipedia)
ii
Residents
iii
Others / outsiders with an interest in RH





Authors Biography and Background
Additional background highlights
Social and behavioral science, to include psychology, sociology, applied anthropology and ethnography (including participant
observation and rapid participatory assessment)
Applied linguistics and culture (Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ayHI6aoFp8 )
Speaks Arabic, German and Spanish with working fluency. High level conversation in Farsi, Russian. Conversational In Pashto, Urdu /
Hindi, Serbo-Croat. Elementary Quechua (Cusco dialect) and Swahili.
Research project in Cusco, Peru
Sustainable development work in Brooklyn, NY (Human Empowerment Network, or HEN)
Does work with veterans via HEN organization and other partners
Military Veteran
Member of the Special Operations
community
Culture and language-oriented
work in Iraq and Afghanistan for U.S.
Army, DoD
Former GS-13 with a Pentagon
DoD project in one of the most
dynamic parts of Afghanistan (N2KL,
RC-E / Nangarhar, Kunar)
Sociocultural and linguistic
immersion in South America,
Western Europe, Southeast Europe
(Balkans), Africa, Middle East,
Central Asia

(Photo: Kunar Province, Afghanistan)

John Kirbow has been to over 25 countries spanning 4 continents. He is a veteran of the US Army
Special Operations community, having served in Nigeria, Iraq (Baghdad, & the Iranian-bordering town of
Basra), various parts of Europe, and US Central Command (CENTCOM), Tampa. He has worked as a
soldier and as a civilian with Special Forces training missions such as UW (Unconventional Warfare) and
with Civil Affairs and Human Terrain units involving complex irregular warfare scenarios with layers of
social unrest, culture and situational complexity.
A devout linguist, John speaks Arabic, Farsi, German, and Spanish as well as near-fluent Russian,
and some Swahili, Pashto, Urdu / Hindi, and Serbian / Croatian, and a little Quechua native to the Andes
mountains of Cusco, Peru. He served in his civilian life as a high-level cultural and language specialist in
Afghanistan as a Department of Defense (DoD) GS-13 with a Brigade Combat Team, which included
working with tribal leaders and helping negotiate face-to-face peace offerings with high-profile Taliban.
He conducted a personal venture to the Andes community of Cusco, Peru, doing immersive sociocultural
research on the topics of social networks, communal reciprocity, barrio and village stability,
socioeconomic coping and survival, and underground economy, with the indigenous Quechua population.
As a member of the Special Operations community, some of his main specialties were sociocultural
analysis, population dynamics, communications, language, social and cultural terrain mapping, peace and
stability, and conflict resolutions. After being honorably discharged in 2008 he decided to put his
knowledge and experience into a new endeavor to help empower people, families, and neighborhoods in a
way that respect and understand culture and human beings, and then find the best ways to help them
amidst hardship.