In his travels around the country as a trainer and speaker, James Vollbracht has heard an all too-common theme: community has changed. The kinds of things that kids once took for granted—stability, safety and knowing all the neighbors—have been eroded in many small ways over the years. Even if we feel we're doing all that we can to support our own kids in our own families, we're still dealing with what Vollbracht calls a more "assaultive culture."

Vollbracht?s thoughts about community crystallized one day when he encountered a lemonade stand in his neighborhood. Swept up by the enthusiasm of his local entrepreneurs, the author and father of four realized that lemonade stands are as much about kids sharing themselves with the world as they are about selling. "I was having a very close encounter with the most important resource in our community," writes Vollbracht. "Our youth!"

If community has been lost in small steps, Vollbracht decided, it can be reclaimed the same way. The result is his latest book, Stopping At Every Lemonade Stand: How to Create a Culture That Cares For Kids.

Neighborhood Building Blocks
Vollbracht's philosophy is simple. Kids need meaningful connections with positive adults in their everyday lives. But instead of trying to fix everything that's interrupted those connections, he advocates looking at what we already have and building from there. "We've given away far too much power to programs and professionals," writes Vollbracht. "If we are to effectively deal with our problems, we must first name and claim what is present rather than what is missing and begin to work with our current assets."

Sharing facts and stories in very user-friendly ways, Vollbracht describes this asset-building philosophy throughout his book. He cites the research of Northwestern University's John McKnight and Jodi Dretzman, which is discussed in their book Mobilizing Communities from the Inside Out. McKnight is well known for his pioneering work in mapping neighborhoods by strengths, then connecting all sorts of people at the community level instead of relying on institutional service delivery.

Vollbracht also weaves the asset framework developed by Search Institute in Minneapolis into his storytelling. Based on its research into what goes right with kids who grow up healthy, Search Institute has designed a list of 40 developmental building blocks that all kids need to grow up successfully. What makes this work and Vollbracht's book so accessible is that anybody can build assets and community for kids. In fact, as you read this book, you'll discover all the ways you're already doing it.

Keeping it Practical
The book is divided into chapters that offer tips about how to restore connections between kids and six circles of community that surround them: the individual, the family, the neighborhood, the community, business and government, and our elders. Each chapter offers a definition of that circle and how it's changed, along with a few carefully selected facts to stimulate your thinking. For example, in the chapter on family, Vollbracht notes that in the 50s, 50% of all American homes had grandparents in them or near them. Today, that figure has dropped to less than 10%.

The substance of each chapter is, of course, all the wonderful and creative stories Vollbracht has to share from his encounters with positive community builders of all kinds. Through the voices of many people and many cultures, Vollbracht offers us all sorts of inspiring ways we can build community with kids.

Stories range from a father simply observing the importance of family stories shared at a reunion to the very deliberate act one single mom took to invite her most trusted friends to be surrogate relatives in her kids' lives. Along with all of the stories, there are also short, specific lists of ideas on things like five ways you can create a kid-friendly neighborhood or the top ten ways to save a kid in the community circle. Vollbracht pays special attention to restoring the lost connections between young people and elders. Tips are written for a wide variety of readers such as police officers, business owners and people in the media.

The book is clearly written with parents in mind, but anyone who cares about and comes in contact with kids can find ideas here that will be fun and easy to try. The book is also rich with the voices of kids who teach us that our effects are most effective when we do things with them rather than to them.

The one thing the book lacked was detail about how an interested reader might contact some of the organizations mentioned. Vollbracht has addressed this by posting a Web site . Contacts and links for resources mentioned in the book will soon be included on the site. You can also share your own community building stories on this Web site.

The lesson that emerges as you read this book goes back to the teachings of the lemonade stand. Building community for kids not only strengthens them, it nourishes us as well.

Stopping At Every Lemonade Stand: How to Create a Culture That Cares For Kids by James Vollbracht; Penguin Books, 2001; $13.00. ISBN 0-14-771632-2

Deborah Fisher is a freelance writer in Seattle specializing in children and family issues. She is working on a book for parents about using asset building in raising adolescents.