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This issue focuses on the Alliance for National Renewal (ANR), the ambitious effort launched in 1994 to build a network of representatives from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors with the goal of creating a national dialogue on community renewal. It reflects on the accomplishments and challenges ANR has faced since its inception, and demonstrates how ANR successfully created a safe civic space that allows citizens to engage in collaborative problem solving. With an introductory essay from esteemed scholar and Common Cause founder John W. Gardner, articles address the phases of ANR???s development, including its goal to foster improved relationships across service sectors, its role in integrating young people in community-based work for social change and its potential in helping nonprofit advocacy groups, university administrators, and government officials to combine efforts and resources in ways that foster habits of lifelong civic participation in young adults. Examples of ANR efforts to connect grassroots organizations are detailed with case studies of successful programs implemented in a community building program in San Antonio Texas, a K-12 school reform effort in Washington D.C., and the Rebuild L.A. program.