One Step at a Time

You’re a problem solver. You know that, right? If you’re not convinced, I’ll make it easy. Each day, you solve the problem of acquiring life-sustaining oxygen by breathing. Okay, let’s make it a little harder: You also solve the problem of acquiring life-sustaining calories by eating. Now, those aren’t difficult tasks, and if you’re reading this article, you’re almost certainly someone who’d rather think about the big problems; this is, after all, the magazine of a policy institute that likes to take some big swings, arguing about the End of College or the Future of War.

Still, there’s an entire world of everyday problems between those two poles: Why are so many people locked out of our current economy? Why are some communities finding it difficult to come together? How do we extend second chances to our neighbors who might have made mistakes?

Those are some of the questions driving the subjects of “Our Towns,” an ongoing project by Deborah and James Fallows for The Atlantic (disclosure: James is on the board of New America, Deborah is a New America fellow, and I helped produce these pieces). The solutions advanced by the three problem solvers below are simple, compassionate, rooted in community-based experimentation—and serve as small but mighty examples of what we can do for our own towns.

Battered by the 2008 recession, Indiana’s construction sector began rebuilding itself around 2012—but the intervening years, Chris Price noted, had depleted the industry’s workforce. At the same time, Price observed—and was deeply ashamed of—increasingly vitriolic racial tensions bubbling up across the country and within his own community. His Build Your Future program linked these two ostensibly disparate issues: Connect companies in need of workers with marginalized individuals—those who would most benefit from good jobs and skills training. As you can see in the video, while the act was generous, the solution was remarkably simple—and all it took was saying, “Let’s fix this.”

Same for Jim Walker—but with a twist. An Indianapolis-based artist, Walker views art as a catalyst for human connection—and as his art collaborative grew, he invited the community in, using art and fun and celebration as, in his words, a “piece of social infrastructure.” The problem was right outside his door, and he tackled it using what he knows and loves best. It’s a lot of work, requiring constant partnering, cajoling, and collaborating—but the Big Car Collaborative has flowered into a jewel of Indianapolis’ ecosystem.

Elizabeth Wallin saw women leaving prison immediately confronted with myriad obstacles—an enormous, multi-faceted problem. Her Project Lia empowers these women to craft their own solutions, teaching them skills that allow them to transition back into the labor market—and everyday life. As Wallin puts it, it’s a way for previously incarcerated women to “own their history.”

Their work doesn’t diminish the scale and complexity of these problems, and it cannot serve as a replacement for broad, systemic solutions and policymaking; we can’t fix everything with moxie and good intentions. But sometimes, the path toward making things just a little better is straightforward, and it’s closer than we might think—if only we choose to take that first step.