Connected to Place looks at place-based systems change as a real-world solution to our growing environmental and social crises. Distilling lessons from a thirty-year career in the social sector, Matt Biggar offers a practical guide to creating conditions for societal transformation. He presents a vision that reorients people's daily lives around their neighborhoods and communities, and he shows us how we can get there. When thinking about place-based systems change, many questions arise. What systems do we change? How do we change them? What outcomes are we seeking? In Connected to Place , Biggar answers these questions for advocates, planners, policymakers, educators, and others interested in systems change. Readers will learn about the ideas, tools, and pathways imperative to creating lasting, regenerative change. By reframing our approach to social progress, Connected to Place outlines the way toward rebuilding connection with nature and local community and revitalizing local and regional economies. Connected to Place is a resounding call, reminding us that we could live in real places that work for us and our neighbors. It's an important book, full of stories about communities that have figured out better paths. Read it and breathe! -- Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun Matt Biggar takes readers on a compelling journey, exploring how systems thinking can generate powerful win-win-win solutions and sharing everyday tools that can be used to connect to place and make a meaningful difference. This remarkable book serves as a clarion call for regeneration?and offers a pathway to get there. -- Scott D. Sampson, California Academy of Sciences Biggar shows us how we can bridge differences and come together to address our most pressing global problems in our communities, cities, and regions. This valuable guide to place-based systems change is filled with helpful examples for planners, educators, and all those who want to make better places. -- Karen Trapenberg Frick, University of California, Berkeley This book is the medicine that we need right now. In clear, warm, and concise language, Biggar brings to life the pathways for embodying our innate care, love, and concern for our world, in highly pragmatic ways. As our world becomes ever more complex and volatile, Biggar provides a reassuring roadmap for finding ground and connection, and for channeling our capacities for care in the places we live. -- Dr. Renée Lertzman, Environmental Psychologist Biggar offers a compelling analysis of the growing disconnectedness that lies at the root of our biggest challenges and a clear path forward to reverse it. The systems change framework and examples in Connected to Place show us how to reinvigorate our places and repair our social fabric, community ties, and so much more. -- Seth Kaplan, author of Fragile Neighborhoods Biggar offers a compelling analysis of the growing disconnectedness that lies at the root of our biggest challenges and a clear path forward to reverse it. The systems change framework and examples in Connected to Place show us how to reinvigorate our places and repair our social fabric, community ties, and so much more. -- Seth Kaplan, author of Fragile Neighborhoods Matt Biggar is Founder and Principal of Connected to Place. He has worked as a strategy consultant, researcher, writer, speaker, teacher, and educational leader. He focuses on systems change and strategic collaboration within local and regional contexts.