History

SCI Founder David Crowley grew up in Woburn and graduated from Woburn High School in 1987. College and a career in the nonprofit sector took David elsewhere for his first dozen years after high school...but like many Woburnites, he found himself returning home in 1999 when he and Jodi bought their first home in Woburn. Shortly after returning to Woburn, David read Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam and was struck by the importance of social capital for building strong communities. Meanwhile, the process of reconnecting to his home community after some 12 years of living elsewhere provided tangible examples of barriers to building social capital in today’s society, but also suggested that there were many community assets that could be harnessed through collaborative, community-wide social capital building initiative. The basic idea of developing a local model in Woburn to address the decline of social capital and civic engagement was born. David began informal discussions with people about the concept for SCI in 2001. The first formal SCI Woburn community planning session was held in January 2002 in Woburn, followed by six months of planning work that involved over 50 residents and community groups. The first SCI Woburn programming become operational in the summer of 2002. One of the first SCI Woburn projects was the coordination of "Civic Participation Week" to recognize the first anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. Major programs developed in the first year included the Woburn Youth Council, Leadership Woburn and the development of the SCI Woburn website and email system. During the 2003/04 program year, new efforts included the Civic Welcome Wagon, the Citizens Park Concert Series, and the Downtown SummerFest. SCI expanded it's staffing during its second year to support these new programs, adding an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow position and Margie Bose as Administrative Assistant. This year also marked the beginning of SCI's efforts to replicate the successful model developed in Woburn.