The Benwood Foundation supports innovative community efforts that help make Chattanooga great. We believe that collective action is a crucial driver of civic change. Building a great city is everyone’s challenge, everyone’s opportunity, everyone’s work.

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Community Voices

Fifteen Chattanoogans share their voices and their visions for our city. Help them spark a conversation by reading on.

  1. Ann Coulter
  2. Christian Rushing
  3. Daniel Ryan
  4. David Cook
  5. Donna Williams
  6. Edna Varner
  7. Fynn Glover
  8. Harry Austin
  9. Justin Hoenke
  10. Monica Kinsey
  11. Robert Fisher
  12. Ruth Kerr
  13. Shayne Woods
  14. Sheldon Grizzle
  15. Tricia King

Our Contributors


  1. To better ensure the success of kids, tweens, and teens living in our city, I say we begin to have these difficult decisions.

    Honest Conversations

    Justin Hoenke on Youth

  2. Now, more than ever, a healthy region is dependant upon a healthy urban core.

    A Good Start

    Christian Rushing on Urbanist/Design

  3. Our fine city has more gyms than Starbucks along with some of the best outdoor resources nationally. However, we can have all of these great resources and subject matter experts and still not move the needle health-wise in our city.

    Chattanooga: A New Standard of Wellness

    Shayne Woods on Health

  4. Chattanooga at its best has had people generating at lot of ideas, original ones or from other places, and people coming together to take action on those ideas.

    Civic Innovation Starts with Ideas

    Ann Coulter on Civic Innovation

  5. What really would cause a food desert to change, take root, and grow?

    Addressing Food Deserts from the Inside Out

    Ruth Kerr on Local Food

  6. Individual contributors will come and go on these projects, but it is my hope that we can establish a community of citizens to pick up those batons and run with them.

    Putting the Marathon Back Into Hackathon

    Daniel Ryan on Civic Innovation,Technology

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