The U.S. Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C., commonly referred to as the ‘Soldiers’ Home,’ is one of the country’s oldest veterans’ retirement homes and certainly one of the most beautiful. Located on a 273-acre campus in Northwest D.C., the Home’s green pastures and tranquil lakes sit in stark contrast to the developed neighborhoods of the surrounding community. Since the home opened in 1851, the retirement community has been home to thousands of retired elderly and disabled veterans in the Washington area.
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In 1923, when the Lafayette Building was constructed in downtown Detroit, the city was one of the cultural centers of the United States and home to an exploding automotive industry. Famous American architect C. Howard Crane designed the cutting edge, Italian Renaissance-style building in a unique ‘V’ shape to maximize the amount of natural light allowed in. Today, however, Detroit has fallen on harder economic times, and the once striking skyscraper at 144 West Lafayette was torn down in 2010 after being vacant for more than a decade.
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Terms:Community Building, Cultural Institutions, Downtown Development, Environment, Health & Wellness, Historic Preservation, IFC Best Practice, Neighborhood Revitalization, Parks, Playgrounds & Gardens, Urban
When kids from Commerce, a small working-class city outside of Los Angeles, are asked who their heroes are, they will, more often than not, mention local residents Brenda Villa and Patty Cardenas. Villa and Cardenas were both key members of the Women’s Olympic Water Polo Team from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, and they are both products of the Commerce Water Polo Club.
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 The Arlington Energy Masters program is a joint venture between three Washington, DC area nonprofit groups - Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment (ACE), Arlington Thrive, and the Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) – which aims to increase energy efficiency in Arlington’s low-income residences. Volunteers from the DC suburb are put through a 20 hour training course on what impacts a home’s water and energy usage and strategies to make homes more efficient. Once the training is completed, volunteers spend at least 60 hours in the community applying their knowledge to help lower energy and water usage in low-income apartments from throughout the county.
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Creating The Healthy Community
Using All Assets: Civic Institutions as Fulcrums of Change
Organizations and government agencies all across the nation are working to improve public health. It’s a huge and complex task, and there is much to be done. Partners for Livable Communities, long recognized for its expertise in mobilizing communities to address social challenges, believes that using a community-based approach to health and wellness can create a more caring, compassionate community and a healthier life for all Americans.
So we’re doing just that. In the Spring of 2014 Partners will kick-off a new agenda: Creating the Healthy Community, Using All Assets: Civic Institutions as Fulcrums of Change (“Fulcrums”). Partners and a network of U.S. cities will address public health issues specific to the community at hand, with a focus on three key demographic groups: at-risk youth, the vulnerable elderly including veterans, and distressed communities. To do so, Partners and its network of Healthy Communities will collaborate with and utilize the resources and expertise of a variety of anchor institutions, ranging from schools to zoos to libraries, museums, community gardens, arts and culture organizations, community development corporations, and beyond.
Members of the Fulcrums network will be considered until February of 2014, so inquire with Program Officer Arianna Koudounas (
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
; 202-887-5990 x106) if you are interested in making your community a Healthy Community.
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