Local Foods, Local Places

This toolkit lays the groundwork for using local foods to help meet a broad range of community goals.

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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created the Local Foods, Local Places Toolkit , which compiles best practices and lessons learned from the Local Foods, Local Places program. Practitioners on the ground can use this toolkit to help their community clearly identify its goals, engage stakeholders, and prioritize achievable actions to enact the plan. read more

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Building American Cities Toolkit™

A living resource on how to improve a city’s built environment and bring about equitable revitalization. 

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The Center for Community Progress, with the support of Enterprise Community Partners, produced a toolkit to help local practitioners think through strategies and utilize specific tools to carry out those strategies. The toolkit is divided into four elements: read more

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National Equity Atlas

Having good data on the diverse groups of people making up a community is key to creating revitalization strategies that will benefit all of them.

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The National Equity Atlas is a tool for understanding the demographic and socio-economic makeup of communities. Produced by PolicyLink and The USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE), the tool provides data on “equitable growth indicators.” read more

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The Place Database

In order to make informed decisions on where public resources should be directed, leaders must make use of all available data.

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One advantage of living in the modern-era is the sheer amount of data available to individuals making decisions. Data can be used by leaders to make informed decisions on how best to distribute resources to projects.  read more

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National Community Land Trust Network: Tools and Resources

The community land trust model is effective and innovative, but can be hard to implement.

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This toolkit, produced by the National Community Land Trust Network, is a one-stop shop for creating and implementing a community land trust. The toolkit contains valuable information on planning, organizational structure, financing strategies, and more. read more

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How to Start a Business Improvement District

A Business Improvement District (BID) is a partnership in which property and business owners elect to make a collective contribution to the maintenance, development and promotion of their commercial district. 

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Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and similarly, Special Improvement Districts (SIDs), can be a valuable tool in revitalizing a city’s central commercial district. These districts operate in a clearly delineated area within which property owners are subject to a fee to fund maintenance and public improvements. They operate as nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations, public-private partnerships, or city agencies.  read more

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Community Engagement Toolkit

Leading Inside Out and the Collective Impact Forum created a toolkit to help guide community engagement efforts, with a particular eye on equity and inclusion.

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The toolkit aims to take engagement beyond simply “checking the box” of public participation and instead authentically incorporating the perspective of the people that will be most impacted by changes. read more

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Data-Driven Approaches to Strengthening Neighborhoods

The abundance of data now available allows cities to make strategic decisions on how best to deploy resources to stabilize and revitalize their neighborhoods.

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Addressing the challenge of distressed neighborhoods can be daunting – and many cities may not know where to start. Since resources are limited, cities and their partners must work together to methodically implement their strategic plans.  read more

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Creating a Smart Growth Economic Development Strategy

Smart growth economic development strategies have emerged as a successful way for postindustrial cities to anticipate and overcome challenges.

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Historically, many smaller legacy cities were heavily dependent on one or two industries and lacked a diversified economy. As a result, when those industries left or went out of business, the cities that depended on them so heavily fell into hard times. read more

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