Antibodies

Antibodies in the neighborhood are like antibodies in the human body, says this community development leader.

"We look at our grass roots leaders as antibodies. They are indigenous to the body, they are closest to the source of disease. If you strengthen the body's immune system, the body will heal itself.

"What government does when there is a problem is to sort of do a transplant instead of looking for the remedy which is closest to the problem."

When they go into low-income, high crime, drug-infested neighborhoods, they ask questions that professionals "never ask" of poor people: who is raising children that have not succumbed to those lures? When they find those people, they "apply miracle-grow" in the form of training and technical assistance. They "grow remedies" indigenous to these neighborhoods by reaching out to grass roots leaders who are in the midst of it all.

Find out how the pizza delivery solution worked in a New Jersey city (at about 1:45 in the video)

(cont'd tomorrow)