The Community Hope Project is a global grassroots project by, with, and for ordinary people. The aim is to foster hope, health and opportunity in communities across this crazy, lopsided globe. It is predicated on the radical notion that what matters in life is not profit but relationships, connection, warmth, laughter, empathy and a sense of purpose, self-efficacy and meaning.

The idea is to connect people, resources and hope across traditional boundaries of nationality, race/ethnicity, class, religion and other socially-constructed divisions, one project at a time. The broader goals are many: to create locally-based, sustainable and self-perpetuating opportunities for positive change in communities across the world, to facilitate improvements in education, nutrition, clean water access and health care through infrastructure and capacity-building, and to create genuine connections between and among people from vastly different backgrounds.

Global grassroots may soundoxymoronic, but we believe that it is grassroots projects, fueled by local people but connected to one another, that will truly bring recognition of shared goals with respect to health, climate, justice, and peace.

The following priciples guide this project:

Partnership with Communities: community-based, community-driven; we play a supportive role, offering ideas, caring and resources, but ultimately being guided by the desires and vision of the local community.

Respect, Mutuality and Humility: We contribute, but we gain a great deal; we teach and also learn; we are not the experts on the community in question, the community members are; we bring information, ideas, energy and resources, and these are matched by the ideas, capacities, strengths and offerings of the local community.

Specificity: One size does not fit all; efforts at change have to take into account the particular historical, cultural, political, economic, and religious circumstances of each community.

Social & Environmental Sustainability: For positive change to occur and be sustained, it must be fostered and supported at multiple levels, i.e., at the level of individual thinking and behavior; sociocultural norms, beliefs and practices; local systems and institutions; and broader national and international policies.