De’Amon Harges: A Roving Listener

This week’s Bottom-Up Revolution podcast guest is De’Amon Harges. Based in Indianapolis, Harges’ work focuses on deep listening and asset-based community development. He’s the executive director of a nonprofit called The Learning Tree, a board member of the Grassroots Grantmakers Association, recent recipient of Wesleyan Investive’s Tom Locke Innovative Leader Award, and a member of the Parish Collective. Perhaps the best way to describe him, though, is by his title, “the roving listener.”

Harges is dedicated to listening to his neighbors, hearing their stories and drawing out their gifts and talents. His work is rooted in the belief that everyone has something to offer their community, and the most meaningful transformation will happen when we focus on those assets and abundance—not on what a person or a neighborhood lacks.  

In this conversation, we talk about the power of listening to help build strong towns and make our communities more resilient.