By Ronald J. Hustedde, Ron Shaffer, and Glen C. Pulver This manual addresses three key questions at the local level: 1) What are the current economic conditions in the community? 2) What components of the community have been growing or what components have been declining? 3). What are the community’s…

One of the most important things an organization can do is encourage its employees (or volunteers). Mentoring is a show of faith and an investment in people. But formal mentoring programs can be challenging. This nonformal mentoring approach is grounded in adult learning theory and nonformal teaching practice. It lets…

Great questions can powerfully move people to act, to get unstuck, and to see potential. They help us shift perspective — a critical component for solution-finding, meaningful communication, and daily living. This 1-page outline provides 20 anytime mentoring questions that supplement the 40 conversation-starter questions found in The Encouraging Mentor,…

One Block at Time addresses flooding through green infrastructure projects at the city block scale that center on equitable, community-driven engagement and planning. The toolkit is organized based on project phases of background assessment, community visioning, and implementation. The online resources include process agendas, education and visualization resources, outcomes, lessons…

The Economic Opportunity Mapping (EOM) Tool provides interactive online maps that allow users to visualize potential county-level economic opportunities for businesses in different industries across the United States. In addition to county summary statistics, the EOM tool provides a visual representation of results of a model producing expected industrial predicted…

As the old saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” For first time visitors, the way a community presents itself is of equal importance. The look and feel of the community experienced by a visitor will most likely influence how long they stay, if…