Community Development

With humor, insight, and a gift for storytelling, Ortberg shows how community pays tremendous dividends in happiness, health, support, and growth. It’s where all of us weird, unwieldy people encounter God’s love in tangible ways and discover the transforming power of being loved, accepted, and valued just the way we are.

Tackling some of the world’s most profound questions through the intimate lens of fatherhood, Bayo Akomolafe embarks on a journey of discovery as he maps the contours of the spaces between himself and his three-year-old daughter, Alethea. In a narrative that manages to be both intricate and unguarded, he discovers that something as commonplace as becoming a father is a cosmic event of unprecedented proportions.

Coping Skills for Teens with Autism provides essential guides and tips for helping teenagers with autism develop the skills they need to navigate life's challenges and improve their quality of life. The coping skills shared here are not just for immediate relief—rather, they will become an integral part of the teenager and fortify them with a lifetime of knowledge and self-help tools.

Get Together is a practical and heartfelt guide to cultivating a community. Whether starting a run crew, connecting with fans online, or sparking a movement of K-12 teachers, the secret to getting people together is this: Build your community with people, not for them. In Get Together, Bailey, Kevin, and Kai share true stories of everyday people who created thriving communities, both in-person and online.

Over the past decade, children’s mental health challenges have reached epidemic levels—stress, anxiety, childhood depression, and suicide are at unprecedented high rates. Amid high-stakes pressure for kids to succeed, parents and teachers have never needed a road map to healthy child development more urgently. And as psychologist and educator Doug Bolton explains in this eye-opening guide, underlying our modern-day stresses is an even more pervasive problem: We’re relying on practices that are not in line with what science tells us about how to truly motivate children and help them thrive.

It’s not like she’s the only woman to ever have a baby. At 35. On her own. But Anne Lamott makes it all fresh in her now-classic account of how she and her son and numerous friends and neighbors and some strangers survived and thrived in that all-important first year. From finding out her baby is a boy (and getting used to the idea) to finding out her best friend and greatest supporter, Pam, will die of cancer (and not getting used to that idea), with a generous amount of wit and faith (but little piousness), Lamott narrates the great and small events making up a woman’s life.

In The Soul of Desire, psychiatrist Curt Thompson suggests that underneath all our longings is the desire to be known - and what's more, that this fundamental yearning manifests itself in our deep need to make things of beauty, revealing who we are to others. Weaving together neuroscience and spiritual formation to open up new horizons for thinking not only about the nature of the mind but about what it means to be human, The Soul of Desire is a mature, creative work.

We are in the midst of a startup revolution. The growth and proliferation of innovation-driven startup activity is profound, unprecedented, and global in scope. Today, it is understood that communities of support and knowledge-sharing go along with other resources. The importance of collaboration and a long-term commitment has gained wider acceptance. The Startup Community Way explores what makes startup communities thrive and how to improve collaboration in these rapidly evolving, complex environments.

So, let's talk about loneliness. Human connection specialist Simone Heng knows a lot about being lonely. She left an enviable career and social life to move back to her family home to care for her mother. All alone in a house filled with memories but devoid of people, she was faced with the realization that human connection is one of our most essential needs. Simone shares her journey to understanding the value of human connection and explains how to distinguish authentic relationships from fake substitutes.

"An instant classic." —Arianna Huffington "Will inspire people from across the political spectrum." —Jonathan Haidt An essential shortlist of leadership ideas for everyone who wants to do good in this world, from Jacqueline Novogratz, author of the New York Times bestseller The Blue Sweater...

After almost every presentation activist and writer Mia Birdsong gives to executives, think tanks, and policy makers, one of those leaders quietly confesses how much they long for the profound community she describes. They have family, friends, and colleagues, yet they still feel like they're standing alone. They're "winning" at the American Dream, but they're lonely, disconnected, and unsatisfied.

David Korten argues that global corporate consolidation of power is but one manifestation of what he calls "Empire", the organization of society by hierarchies of dominance that have held sway for the past 5,000 years. Empire has always resulted in misery for the many and fortune for the few. Now it threatens the very future of humanity. The Great Turning traces the ancient roots of Empire and charts its long evolution from monarchies to the transnational institutions of the global economy.

You are meant to be in relationships that bring joy and connection—that help you know soul-deep peace and leave you feeling loved instead of lonely. Instead, surface-level friendships, filtered social media feeds, unresolved conflicts, and unhealthy relationships can often seem to harm our self-worth, spiritual growth, and mental health—and keep us from the very relationships that could bring that true connection.

In this powerful and practical guide, Minaa shares therapeutic tools, client stories, and actionable insights to help you on your healing journey, along with reflections from her personal experiences. Each chapter focuses on a common emotional struggle—from overcoming dysfunctional family patterns to developing emotional maturity, finding our village, navigating racial trauma, and moving past isolation and despair.

While there are many books about writing, none deal firsthand with the intersection of songwriting, storytelling, and vocation, along with nuts-and-bolts exploration of the great mystery of creativity. In Adorning the Dark, Andrew describes six principles for the writing life: serving the work, serving the audience, selectivity, discernment, discipline, and community. Through stories from his own journey, Andrew shows how these principles are not merely helpful for writers and artists but for anyone interested in imitating the way the Creator interacts with his creation.

Acclaimed author, process-oriented therapist, and earlier Jungian analyst Arnold Mindell teaches us how to find the power to make our own choices and control our own lives. Drawing on his experiences with "witch-doctors" and shamans in Africa, Japan, Russia, and India, Mindell leads us on a "death walk" through our worst fears and deepest emotional crises to wake our inner shaman - which he calls our "dreamingbody." Methods for tapping the wisdom hidden in crises free our own internal sorcery for use in our daily lives. These methods enable us to become whole from within and to avoid the phantoms of unrealistic hopes and desires that limit our lives.

It’s the great paradox of the digital age, what Radha Agrawal calls “community confusion” - the internet connects us to hundreds, thousands, even millions of people, and yet we feel more isolated than ever, with one in four Americans saying they have zero friends to confide in. Where are our people? The answer is found in Belong, a highly energetic guide to discovering where and with whom you fit.

Listen to How to Be a Mindful Drinker: a practical support plan to help you take control of your alcohol intake, with tools to track progress, deal with triggers, social stresses, and stay on track for the long term. Fed up with weekend hangovers? Motivated by budgetary or health concerns? Or just want to feel your best every day of the week? Without preaching or waffling, How to Be a Mindful Drinker will help you to understand your drinking behavior and plan your self-moderation goals.

From “tomorrow’s greatest designer” (The Atlantic), a deeply researched “essential guide” (Chelsea Clinton) to how humankind designs its world and how those decisions shape us. For the majority of the world, purposefully designed spaces are often only available for those who can afford...

Sisterhood is that sacred space where all the masks that are worn for the world fall off. Dr. Joy Harden Bradford has been doing the work to help Black women heal together for over twenty years. In a sisterhood community with more than half a million members, she’s the go-to therapist for Black women looking to prioritize their mental health and become the best possible versions of themselves. Now she’s sharing all she’s learned using the tenets of psychology and group therapy to help us foster relationships that are not only positive, but transformative.