Use GOOD Spots to Find and Share the Best Small Businesses

We’re excited to announce the launch of GOOD Spots, an interactive map for the GOOD community to share and find the best small companies. So whether you want to try a new coffee shop, or have one you think is worth raving about, we want you to join us in celebrating local businesses. It’s easy to search and share by location, category and name to find and spread the word about small businesses in your area—or even the next place you plan to visit.

Join us on GOOD Spots and help us find and support the small businesses that everyone should know about.

Posted by GOOD Community member Emily Howard in Business, Community and Infographics

The GOOD Global Exchange 2013 Highlight Video

Following the success of the first annual Neighborday back in April, GOOD created the Global Neighborhood Challenge to identify and convene some of the most effective community-level innovators from around the globe.

Five impressive candidates—Regina Agyare (Ghana), Bruce Good (South Africa), María Morfín (Mexico), Kurt Shaw (Brazil), Coralie Winn (New Zealand)—were invited to come collaborate in Los Angeles as GOOD Exchange Fellows. 

The Fellows shared ideas with one another and like-minded people and organizations based here in Los Angeles. The Exchange culminated with a unique event in a pop-up space in DTLA where the Fellows presented what they learned over the course of the week, and guests from the GOOD community celebrated together.

A byproduct of the Fellowship was the launch of the The GOOD Pioneers of Health: Africa Edition Challenge. In partnership with one of the fellows, Bruce Good from Name Your Hood, we’re searching for the most creative and innovative leaders in health work across the continent of Africa.

Read more about the GOOD Exchange fellows and check out these albums for photos from the week: GOOD Exchange 2013 and GOOD Exchange 2013: The Celebration

A collaboration between GOOD + Naveen Chaubal

This is what happens when you give a creative community an empty 14,000-square-foot building
- Fixing TheFuture wrote in Greenliving, Environment and Community

Everything in the space is donated or foraged: the couches, the desks, the refrigerator, everything inside the refrigerator (much of that has been donated by the Facebook Causes office).

Continue to fastcoexisit.com

[Updated: Challenge #3] Let’s Make a Neighborday Documentary Together
- GOOD HQ wrote in Neighboring, Community and Film

Hey GOOD Community,

We want your help documenting the awesomeness that is Neighborday. We’ll be issuing four video challenges leading up to the big event, in an effort to chronicle all the cool ways you’re gearing up for April 27th. Then, once we’ve collected all the footage, we’ll use it for a documentary we’re releasing in May about Neighbordays across the globe that you can share with your friends and neighbors.

Capture yourself going to invite a neighbor to Neighborday. Okay, we know, this one might be a little awkward, but Neighborday is all about getting out of your comfort zone. We want to see your nervousness, your excitement, and some authentic moments of you interacting with your neighbors. Brainstorm some activities, plan a menu, or compare playlists with that guy who you’ve seen a million times but never had the nerve to say hello to!

When you’re done, remember to Go HERE to submit your video!

Illuminating Brooklyn’s Sky in Solidarity With Boston
- Lucky Tran wrote in Community, Creativity and Boston

After the bombings in Boston yesterday, the security response was huge in New York. Manhattan was in lockdown, with police swarming everywhere, and people were told by the authorities to run and hide inside their homes. So we decided to stay in Brooklyn and project on one of it’s most iconic and most loved buildings: the Brooklyn Academy of Music. BAM didn’t know about it, and at first security was suspicious, but as soon as they saw the message, they embraced us with approval. Even police officers who drove by gave us a warm nod and beep. It was a sweet moment when we saw a plea for peace trump the rules…

Continue reading Lucky’s story on good.is

[Updated: Challenge #2] Let’s Make a Neighborday Documentary Together
- GOOD HQ wrote in Neighboring, Community and Film

Hey GOOD Community,

We want your help documenting the awesomeness that is Neighborday. We’ll be issuing four video challenges leading up to the big event, in an effort to chronicle all the cool ways you’re gearing up for April 27th. Then, once we’ve collected all the footage, we’ll use it for a documentary we’re releasing in May about Neighbordays across the globe that you can share with your friends and neighbors.

Unleash your inner Wes Anderson while filming the look and sound of your neighborhood. Go out into your street, find some cool shots, and just let the camera run for 5 or 10 seconds on each. You can keep the camera fixed, or you can pan around; now’s your chance to show off that artistic side of yours.  Capture a street sign, a row of houses, or even a hallway if you live in an apartment building – it’s up to you!

When you’re done, remember to Go HERE to submit your video!

This one’s easy, folks.  All you need to do is introduce yourself on-camera, including your name, what neighborhood and city you live in, and that you’re hosting a Neighborday. Something like this: “Hi, I’m Casey. I live in Echo Park, Los Angeles, and I’m psyched to be hosting a Neighborday this year. Also, I love chocolate.” If your name isn’t Casey and you don’t live in LA or like chocolate, then feel free to change the script accordingly!

THEN WHAT?

Go HERE to submit your video!

Let’s Make a Neighborday Documentary Together
- GOOD HQ wrote in Community, Film and Documentary

Hey GOOD Community,

We want your help documenting the awesomeness that is Neighborday. Over the next four weeks, we’ll be issuing four video challenges leading up to the big event, in an effort to chronicle all the cool ways you’re gearing up for April 27th. Then, once we’ve collected all the footage, we’ll use it for a documentary we’re releasing in May about Neighbordays across the globe that you can share with your friends and neighbors.

This one’s easy, folks.  All you need to do is introduce yourself on-camera, including your name, what neighborhood and city you live in, and that you’re hosting a Neighborday. Something like this: “Hi, I’m Casey. I live in Echo Park, Los Angeles, and I’m psyched to be hosting a Neighborday this year. Also, I love chocolate.” If your name isn’t Casey and you don’t live in LA or like chocolate, then feel free to change the script accordingly!

THEN WHAT?

Go HERE to submit your video!

Why My Lease Says ‘Be a Good Neighbor’
- Adele Peters wrote in New York City, Brooklyn and Community

I don’t think I had specific expectations of neighborliness when I first moved from California to New York. If someone had asked me, I would have probably guessed that things in my new neighborhood wouldn’t have been that different from parts of the Bay Area; a steady flow of people moving in and out of apartments on the block, and people often passing each other on the street with heads down, without stopping to say hello. 

Instead, I ended up in a neighborhood that reminds me of Sesame Street…

Continue reading on good.is

GOOD Local: Coming Soon to Your City
- GOOD HQ wrote in Community, Local and Cities

We’re incredibly excited by the overwhelming interest in GOOD Local. In the past two weeks, more than 1,000 applications have poured in from all around the world.  Members of GOOD community from over 400 cities have raised their hand to start GOOD Local in their community.  Thank you for your energy and enthusiasm. We can’t wait to get started.

We closed the first round of applications on February 1, but we’re still accepting applications on a rolling basis and will be inviting select applicants to join their GOOD Local chapter team throughout the year. You can apply to become a GOOD Local Chapter leader here.

Many of you have written in asking us how you can stay posted on GOOD Local developments in your city. Sign up here to be notified when GOOD Local launches in your city. 

As always, feel free to drop us a line in the comments below or email us at local@goodinc.com

Illustration by Corinna Loo

Bring GOOD Local to Your City
- GOOD HQ wrote in Community and Good Local

What if awesome people everywhere came together to learn and do good in their communities?

Starting this March, we’re embarking on a new venture to see what happens if we bring together cool people in cities around the country to do interesting things that improve their communities. We’re calling this endeavor GOOD Local, and we’re looking for curious changemakers to work with us to spearhead new ways to learn and do good.

If you’re excited by big questions, have a desire to do good, and a knack for organizing and connecting people, then we we want to hear from you.

We’ll be selecting a team of superstars from each city to lead GOOD Local. Selected leaders will collaborate with GOOD staff to organize local events and gatherings and join a global community of changemakers who are moving the world forward.

Interested?  Learn more about GOOD Local here and apply to join us on this new adventure.  Questions? Ideas? Hell Yeahs?  E-mail us at local@goodinc.com.

Illustration by Corinna Loo

Sitegeist: A Data-Rich Mobile App To Help You Learn About Any Neighborhood
- Adele Peters wrote in Technology, Community and Cities

What do you know about your neighborhood? Sitegeist, a new mobile app designed by the Sunlight Foundation and IDEO, might help you learn a little more. The app draws from publicly available data on everything from demographics, to the average cost of rent, to recommended restaurants. All of the information is displayed in easy-to-read graphics. 

Continue reading on good.is

Hopscotch Detroit: Community Building With Miles Long Pop-up Playground

Turning the classic children’s game into a city-wide, record-breaking happening.

good.tumblr.com

Ask a designer.

Hey everyone, we wanted to try out opening up the channels today for any discussion you might want to have with someone on the design staff at GOOD. Any questions or comments you might have about design at GOOD, feel free holla at our ask box. 

GOOD Citizenship Task 5: Research the People and Organizations Working On Your Issues #30DaysofGOOD

Remember, if you want to get involved, you have to act first. Search online, look for flyers, and talk to friends and family to get some ideas to help out in your community.

Get a head start at good.is→ 

The GOOD 30-Day Challenge: Become a GOOD Citizen

Distilled to its most basic form, GOOD is about the various ways, big and small, people give back to their communities. Our GOOD Challenge for February is to snap you out of the selfish habits into which we all sometimes fall and make you a great citizen—for a month, at first, but hopefully for ever after come March. 

Take on the February challenge with us at GOOD→