Shareable has a strong focus on sharing cities—places where sharing drives sustainable and just solutions around transportation, housing, work, community, food, public space and more, from the municipal level down to the neighborhood and the individual.

Sharing cities are also places where people know and share the stories about the issues, joys and challenges that affect everyone.

Neighborhood Stories is a project that helps people tell the stories of their neighborhoods and amplify their community voice. Created by buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, a Texas-based nonprofit community design center, Neighborhood Stories is a “research and documentation project that celebrates community identity, history and culture by showcasing neighborhood histories.” As the website states:

"Neighborhood Stories give the histories and context of neighborhoods from the perspective of the past, and the people who currently live there. The stories we document are about people, places and things that make a community."

Among the Neighborhood Stories are films about urban community gardens, the impact of segregation on communities, innovative solutions to housing the chronically homeless, auditing existing public spaces, improving the disaster recovery process, the creation of a parklet, and issues surrounding community stormwater management and drainage.

To enable others to launch Neighborhood Stories in their communities, bc created the Neighborhood Stories Project Guide, a short, free guide to creating a Neighborhood Story of your own. The guide has useful tips and tools for researching your neighborhood story, creating booklets, exhibits and films, and celebrating your project. For more information visit bcworkshop.org.

Here are a few examples of Neighborhood Stories to inspire your own projects:

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Photo: bcWORKSHOP. Follow @CatJohnson on Twitter