NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW, vol. 88, no. 3, Fall 1999 © Jossey-Bass Publishers 165 ARTICLES Building an Infrastructure of Community Collaboration William R. Potapchuk When the Program for Community Problem Solving was envisioned by a cohort of facilitative leaders in 1987, many wanted to be collaborative, but few wanted to be collaborators. Echoes of World War II laced the rhetoric of col- laboration with an uncertainty about whether the act of working with some- one whose interests differed from your own was public-spirited or traitorous. Patriarchal, hierarchical, rigid bureaucratic political structures dominated the American community landscape. Downtown areas and neighborhoods were continuing decadelong downward trends. In South Africa, the horrors of apartheid and the intransigence of the then ruling Nationalist Party were attracting the wrath of the rest of the world while Yugoslavia was being hailed as a model of ethnic harmony. Few could fathom that before the century came to a close, Nelson Man- dela would become president of South Africa, collaborative teamwork would be taught by the Marines, and community collaboration would become the dominant framework for virtually all federal programs supporting community betterment. The success of collaboration can be seen in places like Boston, where neighborhood leaders in the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative have re-created a vibrant town center in the midst of urban decay. Successful efforts to address community issues through collaboration are found in every part of the country, in communities of all sizes, and even occa- sionally in settings rent by deep-rooted conflict. Communities where loggers and environmentalists, pro-life and pro-choice activists, or white and black Americans once fought each other with passion discovered common ground through deliberation. These images, haunting and heartening, help us understand the many milestones we have passed in building more inclusive, more collaborative, and ultimately more democratic communities. We can celebrate the success and cumulative impact of literally tens of thousands of community visioning ini- tiatives, collaborative planning processes, service integration efforts, commu- nity collaboratives, study circles, civic journalism projects, community disputes resolved through mediation, and multisectoral partnerships. These efforts have produced lasting change in communities around the country.