2023 Winner of the Peace Corps Writers’ Publisher’s Award
Building Community:
Answering Kennedy’s Call
Harlan Russell Green
(Turkey 1964–66)
Building Community: Answering Kennedy’s Call, Harlan Green’s memoir of his years working to build successful communities at home and abroad, shows what is possible when communities come together to improve their lives.
He describes his work as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a rural community development program in a Turkish village teaching vocational skills and convincing the villagers to develop new agricultural methods.
Green also worked as a photographer and filmmaker for the USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) in its earliest days lobbying communities to implement the Clean Air and Water Acts that were enacted to mitigate the growing air and water pollution.
He joined Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers of America during its mid-1970s struggle organizing seasonal farm workers to better their living conditions; and documented the grape and lettuce boycotts, and Cesar’s charismatic leadership using non-violent methods to fight violent opposition by growers and the Teamsters Union.
Hardan then brought what he learned home. There he found in his own community similar needs, and lead a neighborhood planning effort that resulted in the formation of a livable city safe for children as well as adults.
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Building Community: Answering Kennedy’s Call
Harlan Russell Green (Turkey 1964–66)
Peace Corps Writers
148 pages
$9.99 (paperback), $8.95 (Kindle)
That is fantastic news. Harlan Green is a true example of someone who has continued to take Peace Corps values into the rest of his life, and his work as an economist is helpful to us all. So glad to see this elegantly concise book get the recognition it deserves.
Thanks you, Jan! This is a complete surprise to me! Keep writing you wonderful Flint Michigan blogs…loved your book!
Good news indeed! I met Harlan on the board of Partners for Peace and look forward to reading his latest work.
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