Things fall apart

There are 1m people living in these mission critical neighbourhoods. Half of adults in mission critical neighbourhoods (375,000) are economically inactive. Moreover, 40% of working-age people in mission critical neighbourhoods have no qualifications – more than double the national average. Productivity is 40% lower in mission critical neighbourhood... See more

We replaced attending to the proximate and tangible with attending to the distant and abstract. And we replaced engaging with our rich local cultures, instead engaging with the monoculture of consumerism.

representation without redistribution – of power, resources or decision-making – is not justice

This is not an individualized form of loneliness; it’s a structural aloneness rooted in the adult transition, with the college degree as the dividing line.

today’s emerging adults who do not attend four-year colleges and do not join the military often completely miss out on a collective experience of the adult transition. They may attend community, commuter, or for-profit colleges that are predominantly for part-time students and lack a cohort experience. They may get full- or part-time jobs immediate... See more

Social connections created outside of a shared institution — such as work, school, or church — require greater resources to build and more intentionality to maintain. Belonging and trust are more slowly earned, more tenuously held, and more easily broken

In a recent report, “Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life,” we found that nearly a quarter of Americans without degrees report having no close friends, compared to 10 percent of Americans who completed college.