Skills and education

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 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.

Source:The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design™ The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design™ has assembled a list of planning and design terms to help community members understand the terms used in design charrettes by architects, planners, and designers. This glossary is helpful not only for participants at a workshop or charrette, but also forunderstanding the vocabulary used by the design field.

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.

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.

Build community and share a love for learning by starting a local Little Free Library in your neighborhood. Learn more about the Little Free Libraries / Los Libres program and how to get started with this guidebook by bcWORKSHOP.