We know too much about what's not working in our community. There's too much crime. There are too few good jobs. Schools are struggling. Our leaders no longer inspire us. Generations talk and work at cross-purposes. Many prefer the order and isolation of the digital world to the disorder and conflict of the real one. Heck, we can't even seem to attract a decent concert.

When confronted by such problems, you can't help but wonder: Does anything work anymore?



The answer, we believe, is yes.

Today, we at Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard embark on a yearlong effort to explore what works in our communities. With your help and participation, we aim to identify the people and the projects making headway against problems and predicaments big and small, urban and rural, serious and fun, in high places and low.



For as much as we look for solutions from community institutions and leaders, they are more likely found in smaller places: in kitchens and in classrooms, at fishing holes and playing fields, on street corners and online, in individual efforts and small collectives. We want to find the ideas that are turning the world on its ear. That goes beyond the good-deed-doing that gets you a ticket to heaven.



What works? You know, just from moving around in your circles of family, neighborhood, church and community. We're asking you to tell us: Who is making a real difference?



Tell us through user comments. (Find us at www.syracuse.com/what-works.) Tell us by email (whatworks@syracuse.com). Tell us through Twitter (@syracusedotcom) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/syracusecom). Tell us by mail (What Works, Syracuse Media Group, 220 S. Warren St., Syracuse, NY 13202). Tell us by phone (315-470-2265).

Armed with your ideas, we will use all the storytelling tools and platforms at our fingertips to explore what's working, and why. If we do it right, the work will do more than make you feel good. It will inspire you to act. It will show you how to replicate successes in other places and on different scales. It will make you believe that a sense of community still exists, and that hard problems like creating jobs and soft problems like creating art can be solved if confronted with energy and ingenuity.

What sets this effort apart from anything we've done before as a media company is a commitment to share our bully pulpit with you -- to initiate and propel a community dialogue on topics that really matter to you. And a dialogue - a two-way conversation -- is what we want it to be.



Stories and editorials are only the beginning. We want calls to action. We want to take action ourselves. We want volunteerism to increase. We want to influence lawmakers and policymakers. We want to monitor and measure progress. We want to host events with game-changers and big thinkers. We want to be the fulcrum of new efforts, blending idea with idea.



Together, we want to uncover what the truest agenda in the city, county and community should be -- and then motivate, inspire and empower each of us to make it happen.