You can be effective in your community. Here are a few ideas to help you get started:
More than 280 organizations, representing more than 310,000 citizens, already endorse us! Click here for a list of endorsing organizations. If you are active in an organization concerned about these issues, tell your leadership about 10,000 Friends, and encourage them to visit this website. If they want to help, an officer of the organization simply needs to sign the form provided and e-mail, fax, or mail it to us. We'll add the organization to our list of endorsing organizations and keep you informed about our work. To become an endorser, click here.
Individuals can join our work simply by completing a simple form and faxing or mailing it to us. As an endorser, you will be kept up-to-date on what we are working on, including receiving our newsletter and action alerts. For more information, click here.
You can make a significant difference right where you are. Here are a few ideas to help you or your congregation get started making better use of our land:
Read The Costs of Sprawl: A Spiritual Perspective and hand it out to members of your faith community. To download a .pdf version of The Costs of Sprawl: A Spiritual Perspective in Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here. (If you don’t have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download a free copy at the Adobe Acrobat Web site.) To order printed copies, contact us at info@10000friends.org, or 877-568-2225 (toll-free).
Endorse 10,000 Friends. Become an endorsing organization or an individual endorser. (More than 200 organizations, representing over 310,000 citizens, already endorse us!) For more information or to become an organizational endorser, click here. To become an individual endorser, click here.
Contact the Center for the Celebration of Creation. The Center can help you find more information on how communities and members of communities of faith can help to help make better use of our land. Contact the Center at Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church 215-242-9321, ext. 1, or chumc8812@aol.com.
The best way to promote cities, villages, and towns, of course, is to live and work in one. But you can also bring about positive change by getting involved in the democratic process. Educate yourself. Keep up with projects planned in your area. Visit your local municipality to see what kind of planning your community is doing for the future. Attend meetings. Urge your local government to take an active role in determining the future of your community. Get involved with your local planning board. Contact your local elected officials. For links to Pennsylvania local governments’ Web sites and their contact information, click here.
Contact your county officials to review your countywide comprehensive plan. Ask how you can get involved and be supportive. For links to Pennsylvania local governments’ Web sites and their contact information, click here.
Read or Watch Save Our Land, Save Our Towns by Tom Hylton. Tom Hylton is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with a thorough understanding of the issues, and the solutions. You can find a copy in many libraries, your local bookstore, or by clicking here. You can also watch the video, an hour-long public television documentary designed to show how sprawl came about, why it's bad, and what we can do about it. For more information or to purchase a copy of the video, click here.
Read a sermon on sprawl by Joy Bergey presented to the Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church on November 18, 2001. Ms. Bergey is Lay Leader of Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church and a founding member and Executive Director of the Center for the Celebration of Creation, a program of Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church involved in educating religious communities about areas of environmental concern, including sprawl. To download a copy of the sermon in MS Word format, click here.
