Local identity and character

This CIRD-created document tracks potential funding opportunities and resources for various rural-related community design challenges. It will be updated periodically as new resources are identified.

Source: National Governor's Association and National Endowment for the Arts. By leveraging the creative industries, states can deploy proven strategies that help all rural communities to thrive. This action guide is part of a collaborative project between NGA, the National Endowment for the Arts and National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.

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: Placemaking Chicago Authors: Project for Public Spaces, Metropolitan Planning Council Chicago Summary: This guidebook is written for anyone who has a stake in the improvement of neighborhoods.

Source: Center for Rural Design University of Minnesota Author: Dewey Thorbeck Summary: Rural areas in North America are undergoing profound demographic, economic, cultural, and environmental change, creating considerable challenges and stress for their residents and on the ecosystems upon which they depend for their livelihoods and quality of life.

Source: The Economic Development Journal Author: N. David Milder, (DANTH, Inc.) and Andrew Dane (Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc.) Studies and best practice about the revitalization of downtowns tends to focus on larger cities. However, there are many challenges which are unique to small towns, and often aren’t recognized or addressed.

Full Resource: The Resource Guide for Rural Planning and Design Source: The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design™ The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design™'s Resource Guide for Rural Planning and Design is a list of organizations in the fields of planning, housing, land use and natural resources, design, historic preservation, rural development, and funding that provide resources to communities for projects addressing development, design, and planning.

Tourism provides communities with numerous benefits including, new jobs, an expanded tax base, improved facilities, and a new market for local products. However, tourism can also exacerbate crowding, traffic congestion, and haphazard development if not planned for correctly. This resource article provides tactics needed to maximize the benefits of tourism, while minimizing the burdens.

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 toolkit highlights successful examples of how arts and culture were utilized in multiple sectors in equity initiatives. Examples from communities both far and near provide a resource for how Dubuque could engage the community through arts and culture to make a more welcoming, inclusive community.

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.

The stories of local leaders and residents are what keeps the history of a community alive! Use this guide from bcWORKSHOP to learn how to capture the experiences of community residents and turn those into a testimony of your town's culture and growth.

Sometimes all your need for community togetherness is tape and some wood! Better Block has compiled a few low-cost, high-impact "recipes" for public space activation from temporary bike lanes and parklets to a garden plaza.