부산대학교 도서관

New Hampshire is a place of both traditions and contradictions. Though historically New Hampshire's demographics have been primarily white, the state is becoming increasingly diverse with respect to racial and ethnic identities. There are communities with significant wealth adjacent to towns with widespread poverty and devastating rates of addiction. There are increasingly "two New Hampshires," one made up of rural communities with scarce public infrastructure, aging populations and shrinking employment opportunities, and one comprising more densely populated areas characterized as more diverse, metropolitan, economically vibrant and attractive to millennials and their young families. These distinctions and contradictions have provided fertile ground for New Hampshire Listens, which the authors founded in 2009 in response to the growing polarization of political and civic discourse, the severe economic challenges of the Great Recession that were causing disruption and strife in many communities across the state, and a growing consensus among community leaders and activists that new approaches to community problem-solving were sorely needed. Inspired by the success of Portsmouth Listens, the predecessor and prototype established in 1998, the mission of NH Listens is to help people talk and act together to create communities that work for everyone.