Governance and regulation

Source: Orton Family Foundation. This guide helps to identify the people and organizations which can either support or be influenced by community projects. It provides a framework for doing a stakeholder analysis, describing how to tap into different demographics in your community, and for making use of the connections among different community groups.

Source: National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation Author: Sandy Heierbacher. This guidebook offers easy to understand explanations of key concepts, descriptions of resources and tools, as well as the helpful NCDD Engagement Streams Framework which helps people decide which types of approaches are the best fit for their circumstances.

Source: Rural Assistance Center Author: Georgia State University, Georgia Health Policy Center. It’s important for communities to situate their projects within a bigger picture when planning around grants and funding. Some foresight and strategy can help to leverage additional funds, and secure long-term viability, rather than recurring dependency.

Source: NET - Nebraska’s PBS and NPR stations Author: New News and Harvest Public Media This panel discussion surveys the key challenges and opportunities facing rural America. Guests present their views about a range of topics, such as the need to diversify rural economies beyond agriculture, how to cope with a declining population, useful strategies for improving local community leadership, and the importance of collaborating with neighboring communities.

Source: The Orton Family Foundation This quick guide takes users through strategies for developing viable partnerships for community planning projects. A strong, healthy partnership between organizations or individuals can bolster resources, talent and energy, although a weak or dysfunctional partnership can just as easily be detrimental to a project.

Economically resilient towns, cities, and regions adapt to changing conditions and even reinvent their economic bases if necessary. This resource features case studies from seven distinct communities and the strategies they employed to re-energize their economies.

This document produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2012 provides policy options that can help rural communities strengthen their economies while preserving rural character. These policies can help rural communities ensure that their development is fiscally sound, environmentally responsible, and socially equitable.

This resource is intended to help those who want to re-invigorate and strengthen neighborhood centers of economy, culture, and history through a smart growth approach to development.

This guide by Jackson Hole Public Art outlines the nine steps required to set up a successful public art project.

The Coorinator's Manual was created by the Citizens' Institute on Rural Design™ to guide the coordinator of a CIRD workshop through all components of workshop preparation, but it can also be used for producing other community workshops. The manual walks the reader through planning a workshop, and includes exercises for setting goals, and creating plans for design, communications, and implementation.

The knowledge and experiences of community members are valuable resources for your local design projects! Learn how to identify priorities, collect community data to support your case, and create materials that advocate for your project using this guidebook by bcWORKSHOP.