This is an article from the NY Times yesterday, it's mostly about Etsy, but it raises some good points about the indie craft community.

One of the subject breaks is titled: STEP 1: Weave Do-It-Yourself Spirit Into a Community. That's something I'd like to see my little craft-group do. For most intents and purposes, we tried to do that with the show we put on Saturday. And I think it showed. We raised almost $200 for the food pantry for the church we held the show in, and the turn out was great.
I wish more people believed in that philosophy. It is as simple as not littering in your neighborhood. If you think about your community and its space and its people, you're more likely to take care of it.
I think too, this is maybe part of the answer to a question posed by a friend of mine a few weeks ago. Why in certain neighborhoods public art projects tend to be "community involvement" instead of finding one, great artist that represents the neighborhood.
I couldn't answer it at the time, but I've been thinking about it, and I think perhaps it's that some neighborhoods have been neglected by their cities and their services so the residents feel a little neglected and they inturn neglect their own neighborhood with trash, letting abandoned cars sit, not reporting (or contributing to) graffitti-tags. Sometimes it takes a community effort to involve people and make them wake up to the place they live, and once residents feel like they've made (even a small piece of) change, attiudes begin to change and citizens can reclaim their neighborhood and effort and pride are exerted in their communities.
Anyway, read the article. Be inspired by something. Make stuff.