COMMUNITY STRENGTH

I help people who are empowering others,and I truely believe The Strength of a Community is its people and their relationships.

6042 View Loop
Florence, OR 97439
541 902-8422
Email

In June of 1998, I set up Community Strength in order to test the idea that communities can increase their economic and social worth if people work more together to achieve mutual goals; and that an organization which serves this need can both survive and prosper. I was catalyzed in doing this by GOING LOCAL, a book by Michael Shuman.

There are a great number of similar projects going on all around the world and they all are needed if we are going to draw upon our collective human wealth to solve the pressing problems of today.

I believe that if we each reach into our inmost beings and follow the actions we feel unavoidably drawn toward, our collective social impact will create effective working relationships and happy and healthy people. It is toward this that I work.

Bruce Baumrucker
Director

Community Strength Mission Statement

Community Strength is a for-profit educational organization whose mission is to strengthen community through gathering and sharing activities and insights. I do this through a VideoTaping Service and by connecting and supporting good works by local people. I network human resources.

Some relevant history: THE TERRAN PROJECT

In 1972, I carried out a study of the community of Phoenix, Arizona, with Frank Fiore, a student at Arizona State University. We evaluated how well that community carried out 5 functions:

1. Awareness - of itself and what was going on with its people;
2. Understanding - how well it used available knowledge resources of local business, government and university to aid the communities understanding of what was happening, human needs, and resources available;
3. Inventing/Imagining - exploring new possibilities for addressing local trends and needs;
4. Social Decision Making - how people came together to understand and create constructive action plans;
5. Action - how community members acted in a coordinated way toward changing things for the better.

We designed a three part solution:

• A series of regularly occurring community futures conferences;
• A living library which any person or group in the community could contribute to or draw from for the latest knowledge of the community (community memory); and
• A College to train facilitators, leading to a degree in Community Facilitation Skills.

  We explained this endeavor in "The Terran Project" (a book that never was published), held a conference with future thinking educators and business people coming from across the country at their own expense (with one exception) with futurist, Bob Theobald as a luncheon speaker, and made public presentations of our work. The resulting ambivalence of the community was quite unexpected and took the wind out of our optimistic sails. We considered fund raising, but decided not to get into that whole new game. Frank went on to do a masters in consciousness research, is now a web designer and writes books about creating online businesses.

  I worked with some community folks to create an Aquarian Communications Center in Phoenix. We rented and remodeled a three story house on Central Avenue, offering mostly free display and meeting spaces to local groups. Without outside funding, we were carrying other jobs to support this and so that service to the community ended in less than a year.

  I was a Future Studies instructor for several years at Phoenix College, and did custom designed cabinetry and carpentry before moving to the San Franacisco Bay area and becoming a general contractor. Where our family lived for 20 years. I am a founding member of Living Directory, and support internet communities through Planetwork. In April of 2005 my wife, Ruth, and I moved to Florence, Oregon, which is a small coastal village just 1 hour drive west of Eugene. Here we live 7 miles outside of town in a beautiful wooded area and are active in this new community.

  (revised 4-30-03 by BB)