Using our past for a more sustainable future

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john Haigis

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Jan 22, 2026, 2:27:53 PMJan 22
to jor...@dccc.edu, rl...@dccc.edu, svi...@dccc.edu
Jennifer Orazi, Dean of Workforce and Economic Development:

It was a pleasure to talk with you all today at the new DCCC Upper Darby campus. If any of your students need tutoring in English, I will be at the Upper Darby campus from 9-3 on Wednesdays and Thursdays and would be glad to help in any way I can.

This is a link to an archived version of "Shop Class as Soulcraft; an inquiry into the value of work" by Matthew Crawford which may be of interest. Crawford came up as an electrician and said he always remembered the feeling of competence and agency when the job was done, and he flipped the switch, and the lights came on. 

One of my favorite quotes is by Kahil Gibran; "Work is Love made visible." 

Our world is changing and our frontier may be turning inward, with a call to take a new look at existing assets (buildings, people and communities) with new eyes for general benefit. Botanist John Bartram was born and raised on the Woodburne Plateau and there is a story of him plowing the field and cutting down a daisy and being struck to his very core by its beauty, complexity and symmetry. He said, "I have looked at these things all my life, but I have never SEEN one."  What else are we looking at but not seeing? 

Asset-Based Community Development may be summed up by Theodore Roosevelt's advice to a commander who asked him what to do. He said, "Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are." This is good advice.  

This is a link to information about a concept we have been working on called "Healing History" to do that.
ABC--plan


This is a two-minute video about a County owned building which could be a laboratory for sustainable design, teaching skills like flat plaster, wooden window repair, masonry, tiling, roofing, painting, plumbing, HVAC , project management etc etc



John W Haigis
1006 Main Street
Darby, PA 19023

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