I created this site to share stories of locally-driven, sustainable development, because people don’t often hear these stories. At least that is what most people have told me.

I began collecting stories of locally-led achievement and sharing them on Hopebuilding wiki in 2006, believing that reading such stories would inspire others living elsewhere to do the same thing. Sadly, however, the wiki got hijacked and now you just land briefly on the page before you are whisked away somewhere else. So all of those stories, sadly, are effectively gone.

Early in 2021, I was part of a discussion group where people were talking about conservation and protecting the environment but didn’t seem to know any of these stories. So I began trying to recreate some of the old wiki stories along with new ones I keep coming across in my reading.

I am a pragmatist. I am interested in what works, and those are the stories you will find here on Hopebuilding. I hope you will enjoy reading them, and that you will share them with others, too. Because, as I have learned, that is how development truly works best – when neighbours share with neighbours.

I hold a Master’s degree in Human Security and Peacebuilding, have been an election administrator in Canada and an election observer in Africa and eastern Europe, and have worked in and evaluated international development projects and community development activities. As part of my research on locally-led peacebuilding, I spent time asking local people in a number of countries what they did to build and sustain peace after conflict. They taught me a great deal about practical peace and development.

I lived in northern Canada for many years. So when I look around at the world, I think about it in terms of ‘seven generations forward’, as Indigenous people do. I also am a mother and grandmother, so that thinking is personal for me, too.

Welcome – and I hope you will share the stories you find here, with others.