Community Development & Growing Democracy Series, Part 1: What is community development?  By Hannah Lebovits, Assistant Professor at University of Texas, Arlington (and former Growing Democracy project manager) Community development is the process by which individuals and organizations work together to resolve community-wide issues that require collective efforts, despite varying personal interests. In the United States, community development rose to prominence in the 1960’s, the era of urban renewal. Newly diverse cities had faced decades of disinvestment- having lost massive amounts…