07071 Community Inventory

Our real freedom comes from being aware that we do not have to save the world, merely make a difference in the place where we live. — Parker Palmer

Here are some questions to help you develop your community inventory. The Invisible Structure inventory anticipates some of these structures. The redundancy indicates the critical nature of these observations.

What is your community? Alternatively, what communities do you affiliate with? Some may be based on geography, others on politics, ideology, or religion. You may belong to communities whose only existence is in cyberspace. Observe this in your life and write it down on paper so you can study it.

What strengths does your community (communities) have?

What problems are found in your community (communities)?

What groups do you identify and/or affiliate with? List by name and sort by activity, purpose, or characteristic that you identify with. This is not quite the same question as the question on your community affiliations.

Identify organizations where you affiliate located within your immediate geographic community. E.g., neighborhood or building association, school, fraternity or sorority, lodge, religious, economic, civic? List by name and group by activity or purpose.

What organizations do you affiliate with that are regional, national or international in scope, or that relate to your profession, religion, or education? Group by purpose.

Are there any patterns of connection between/among these groups?

What needs in your life are not presently being met by your community?

What new structures or systems does your community require so that your needs could be met locally? Do your organizations and groups support the permaculture ethics?

Or are they integral components of the system of domination, destruction, and greed which drives us toward the ash heap of history?

Is your participation consistent with the permaculture ethics?

Do you give aid and assistance to institutions that support political criminality and economic irrationality and drive environmental catastrophe? If so, what organizations are those and what do you do with them?