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Through creating avenues for authentic civic engagement of individuals living in vulnerable communities, the Food & Fitness community partnerships have actualized innovative ways to change the trajectory of health outcomes in neighborhoods across the United States. Working to increase the availability of healthy, locally grown food and opportunities for physical activity in communities that have suffered from years of disinvestment, the partnerships have moved toward and beyond merely bridging the equity gap. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This special issue ofCommunity Developmentintroduces the Food and Fitness community partnerships and their work to increase access to healthy, locally grown food, and opportunities for physical activity, in vulnerable communities across the country. Established in 2007 and funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation, the partnerships are increasing the capacity of communities to participate in policy and systems change to positively affect their health and well-being. These articles together provide an illustration of how funders, grantees, and partners can work together to create sustainable change at the neighborhood level to ensure that all children and families are able to thrive. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contrasting Hezbollah's local community development projects and engagement in armed struggle, this study seeks to understand how the local community emerged from a history of neglect and discrimination to acquire notably high levels of pride in the areas under Hezbollah's de facto control. Research for this topic involved over a dozen first-hand interviews with Hezbollah officials to understand how Hezbollah impacted the local identity of a demoralized community. Standing at the crossroads of local community development and armed struggle, Hezbollah reveals how an endogenous development strategy enables the implementation of creative solutions to further the community's development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we describe a six-year effort to create a university-community partnership in a disadvantaged neighborhood bordering Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We discuss the traditional community research and development (TCR&D) model employed by universities and how assumptions made by the university about the capacities of community brokering agents can significantly influence both the time and trajectory of partnership building activities and the implementation of research and planning recommendations. We present a strategy of targeted mutual interests which can advance both university TCR&D and a community's social capital formation in an environment where initial social capital levels are low. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For new social movement theorists, changes in Western capitalist societies brought about by the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial era are fundamental to understanding the formation, structure, and operation of new social movements. Using observational and interview data from a 2008 World Water Day rally, this article draws on and examines theoretical contributions of New Social Movement theorists Alain Touraine, Alberto Melucci, and Claus Offe to inform an exploration and analysis of growing collective action on water issues in Guelph, Ontario. The authors argue that growing citizen engagement in water issues in Guelph and area, operating primarily through loosely organized informal social networks, represents growing collective action that constitutes a vibrant New Social Movement. So conceptualized, the authors discuss implications for theoretical understandings of citizen mobilization in general and for the strengthening of collective action on water itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]