Described as “the Pied Piper for the Seattle neighborhood movement”, Jim Diers was appointed the first director of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods in 1988. He served under three mayors over the next 14 years as the department grew to become a national model for planning and development powered by neighbours – and has written the book Neighbor Power: Building Community the Seattle Way based on these experiences. Audio recording of the event Slideshow. This event heralded the next phase of the Young Foundation’s Building Local Activism programme and formed part of their 2011 Lunchtime Seminar series on how we can do more with less.