About Us
Front Porch Forum's mission is to help neighbors connect and foster community within the neighborhood. Common sense and a growing body of research tell us that well-connected neighborhoods are friendlier places to live, with less crime, healthier residents, higher property values, and better service from local government and public utilities.
Our service provides online forums for neighborhoods, based on a successful model six years in the making, and capitalizing on our founders' many years of community development work.
Michael and Valerie Wood-Lewis launched the Five Sisters Neighborhood Forum in the spring of 2000 in hopes of learning more about their corner of Burlington, Vermont and the people who live there. Six years later, the original forum's
incredible success led the couple to launch Front Porch Forum to help others invigorate their neighborhoods too.
Loads of wonderful stories tumble out of the many neighborhood forums hosted by Front Porch Forum. Members testify, the media reports, and we investigate several ourselves. All of this great community-building is attracting local awards and national recognition.
Members and others contribute to this effort financially, and local businesses and other entities sponsor many of our neighborhood forums.
Special Thanks
Front Porch Forum is grateful for the hard work and dedication of the people who help make it happen, including:
Web Development & Support: Justin Henry
jdhenry.com
Technical Advisor: Jan Schultz
Initial Web Design & Development
Rob Maurizi
Web Hosting & Server Administration: Corey Gilmore & John Peach
J.P.Peach & Associates
Some of the photographs used around the site
Carolyn L. Bates Photography
Those lovely little icons that appear in places throughout the site: Mark James
FamFamFam
Financial contributions from members are greatly appreciated, and we are very grateful to the
neighborhood forum sponsors (local businesses).
Thanks too to many advisors, and, especially, our great Five Sisters neighbors. And none of this could happen without the growing number of good folks who have joined their own neighborhood forum and started posting messages and building community with their neighbors. Our Neighborhood Volunteers deserve extra recognition too, for their recruitment efforts and for keeping the conversations flowing. Thanks all!
