Our society has many official, paid, credentialed experts working on the problems of the world. Instead, according to this blueprint for radical, direct, and loving action, we each need to do what we can and not wait for official solutions. By creating connections with each other - friend, stranger, neighbor, and relative - we can discover untapped resources. This book is filled with the passion of a man who lives his vision of active, loving commitment to the well-being of all souls, focusing on the needs of the physically challenged, the poor, the elderly, the mentally ill, and members of other marginalized groups. What is most important is that these helping relationships are peer relationships, where the boundaries between gift and gratitude, giver and recipient, vanish. A practical and magical book.

Patricia Wagner, The Bloomsbury Review

This timely book captures the essence of the search for living community and shared meaning, in an increasingly virtual "knowledge" world. Comparing and contrasting institutionalized and often unconscious responses to humans to a more personal and nonsystemic response, Schwartz provides a lens on community and individual opportunities. While he focuses on the disabled, he elaborates with striking metaphors to other communities circumscribed by systemic "fixes", criminal justice, health care, and neighborhoods. The book is both easy and challenging to read: easy because so much of it rings true, and is written in a personal style; challenging because the insights offered are sobering. Suggestions are real-world, possible, do-able. They are offered in a respectful and accessible way, to all of us, system insiders and community seekers alike.

Although David Schwartz's book is several years old now, it is still THE best look at the complexities of the community rebuilding process that is the aftermath of deinstitutionalization. This book is a must for all service providers, family members, friends and everyone who is interested in crossing the river to that place where everyone is welcome and everyone is included.