Something has been lost in American life, and we all know it, even if we can’t quite name it. It is the assumption — once so natural it went unspoken — that the people around you are your concern. That the elderly woman on the corner, the family that just arrived speaking a language you don’t know, the kid down the street who needs a little more than his circumstances are offering him — that these people are, in some meaningful sense, yours to care about.

It doesn’t have to stay that way.

We have spent years doing this work quietly, in neighborhoods across the Wasatch Front — and we are proud of what has been built. Today, we are glad to share it with you.

Near the end of our new film, a woman whose backyard has just been restored by a crew of volunteers — people who showed up on a Saturday morning, for free, because that is what neighbors do — looks into the camera and says simply:

“I just can’t even know that any of this could ever happen. I just want to thank everybody for all their volunteers. Nobody’s getting paid to help me. And they’re all so friendly. And now my house looks good.“

There is no speechwriter in the world who could improve on that. It is the whole argument, in four sentences, from someone who lived it. That is why Cities Strong Foundation exists. And it is why we made this film — to help people understand what we are doing, and why it matters enough to do. Watch the full film at citiesstrong.org.

The Problem Worth Solving

Utah is, by almost every measure, a success story. Consistently ranked among the top states in upward mobility and economic growth, it has built something real over generations — a culture of neighborliness, hard work, and civic participation that most states would envy. But that prosperity isn’t equal.

The gap between the communities that thrive and the communities that struggle is real, measurable, and growing. Cities Strong Foundation exists to close it — not by delivering services from a distance, but by building the partnerships, programs, and people-powered infrastructure that allows neighborhoods to strengthen themselves from the inside out.

Partnership Is the Model

“This can’t be done just by one group,” Dan England, Chair of Cities Strong Foundation and Chairman of C.R. England, says plainly in the film. He’s right. And Cities Strong’s power comes precisely from its willingness to act on that truth.

The foundation works with a growing network of partner organizations — civic, nonprofit, business, and faith — each bringing what they do best:

myHometown, a volunteer organization stretching from Ogden in the north to Santaquin in the south, operates 17 Community Resource Centers out of repurposed church buildings. Anyone from the community can walk in and access English language learning, budgeting classes, job skills, art programs — whatever it takes to build hope and self-sufficiency. The results are tangible: in one of their first cities, hard data showed crime reduction, stabilized neighborhoods, and residents choosing to stay rather than leave.

NoMas provides free legal help to people who need it most — immigration documents, filings, and the kind of navigation that can change the entire arc of a family’s life in America.

The Good Samaritan Foundation, based in Rose Park, offers temporary housing and resettlement support to people new to the country — helping them find stability, find work, and find their footing.

FranklinCovey’s Leader in Me is transforming schools across the Wasatch Front. Last year alone, CSF’s work touched roughly 3,000 students in schools that have adopted the Leader in Me model — a whole-school approach that shifts educators from “deliverers of knowledge” to “facilitators of learning,” and invests every student with the belief that they are already a leader. And with support from the State legislature, this will be massively expanding this coming year! 

What It Looks Like on the Ground

Nicole Cottle, CSF Board Member and former General Counsel, Assistant City Manager, and Economic Development Director for West Valley City, has spent years working on what she calls “inter-generational poverty” — one of the hardest problems in community development, precisely because it resists simple solutions.

She describes a turning point: a meeting with city officials, local churches, and community members where residents said something that changed everything. Not “solve our problem.” But: “We want you to understand that we have a problem. This is what it looks like. But we want to do this together.” That meeting became myHometown.

“Political boundaries, political parties, whatever divides us — service unites us,” Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski says in the film. “And that’s the antidote that I think every city and community across our country needs, especially now.”

Building Leaders Through Schools

At Wasatch Elementary, Principal Raven Rylander describes what Leader in Me has made possible in her building. “What is great about Leader in Me is it gives us these foundational terms that we can tie everything back to,” she says. “We are removing ourselves as deliverers of knowledge and becoming more facilitators of learning — and lifting that leadership in all of our students.”

That shift — from authority to empowerment, from compliance to ownership — is exactly what CSF’s neighborhood-based model is trying to do at every level. In schools. In Resource Centers. On Days of Service.

The Numbers Behind the Story

Last year, Cities Strong Foundation mobilized roughly 20,000 volunteers who contributed approximately 250,000 hours of service across 800 community projects. Three thousand students are now attending schools that have adopted Leader in Me. Seventeen Community Resource Centers are open and serving communities across the Wasatch Front corridor.

These are not small numbers. But the film reminds you that behind every number is a person — a family, a backyard, a child who now knows she’s a leader.

A Word from Elder Becerra

Elder Jorge T. Becerra of the Utah Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints closes the film with a line that captures the whole thing:

“The Church wants to be a good partner and a good friend to local communities. But we can’t do that by ourselves. And hence, we need Cities Strong to be part of the equation in building communities.”

That’s what a real partnership sounds like. Not charity. Not dependency. Mutual commitment, clearly stated.

You Can Be Part of This

“Some organizations talk about it,” Mayor Nadolski says near the end of the film. “This one actually does it.”

If you want to have a real, definable, demonstrable impact on communities in this state — at the ground level — here’s how:

• Donate at citiesstrong.org
• Volunteer on a Day of Service
• Partner with us through your business, organization, or congregation

Every great community is built by neighbors who decide to act like it.

Cities Strong Foundation is an Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to neighborhood revitalization and upward economic mobility across seven Wasatch Front communities. Learn more at citiesstrong.org.