Tools and Resources
Section 1: Public Hygiene
The World Toilet Organizationsupports organizations working to bring sanitation to the world's 2.6 billion people who live without it.
Sulabh International was the host of the World Toilet Summit 2007. This award-winning, volunteer-powered non-governmental organization has built 6000 community hygiene complexes throughout India. Open around the clock, these shauchalayas offer free toilet and handwashing facilities and low cost baths and showers. Their contribution to human rights and dignity includes liberating 60,000 scheduled caste scavengers from the demeaning job of manually removing human waste from the homes of their neighbors.
The American Restroom Association advocates for the availability of clean, safe, well designed public restrooms and provides information on state plumbing codes and organizations working to improve the lives of restroom challenged people.
“Portland Can’t Wait” inThe Next American City (Winter 2006/2007) is a good introduction to the Portland initiatives in public restrooms.
Section 2: Participation for Sustainable Community Development
A well-organized, current resource guide to participation theory and practice is available on the ELDIS Gateway to Development Information. More than 22,000 full-text, online documents are available free.
The Appreciative Inquiry Commons is the principal portal for an approach that involves asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It focuses people on achievements, assets, unexplored potentials, innovations, strengths, opportunities, and lived values. Instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is the discovery, dream, and design that lead to sustainable change.
The Change Management Toolbook is a collection of 120 tools, methods and strategies for personal, team and organizational development.
Open Space Technology enables all kinds of people, in any kind of organization, to create inspired meetings and events.
Canada’s International Development Research Center offers books in print and on line, many free. The Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development defuses findings on ways change-leveraging ideas promote sustainable development.
Section 3: Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship has been defined in many ways and varies from country to country. Inspiring stories of social entrepreneurs are posted on the sites of organizations which identify and reward them. The Schwab Foundation and the Skoll Foundation are international in scope. Ashoka not only identifies social enterprises but invites “open sourcing of social solutions” in on line competitions.
REDF, formerly known as the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund, promotes social enterprises through organizations dedicated to reducing poverty through employment opportunities for those in need in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Sustainable Business Network of Portland is non profit business alliance of locally owned independent businesses, community organizations and individuals/customers committed to building a more socially, environmentally, and financially sustainable local. Their Think Local First campaign makes the case, in economic, social and environmental terms, for doing business locally.