The webinar was co-hosted by the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) and the Economic Development Administration (EDA).  It is part of a series that will occur in 2013. Future webinars will address other EDA-funded data tools, including Stats America, Triple Bottom Line, Regional Innovation Accelerator Network (RIAN), and more. The NADO Research Foundation is coordinating the webinars as part of its Know Your Region program which is funded through an agreement with the U.S. Economic Development Administration (#99-06-07548).

Please contact NADO Deputy Executive Director Laurie Thompson at lthompson@nado.org if you have any questions about this webinar, or the series in general.

Click here to download the Powerpoint slides from the webinar 

This year’s winning projects help meet their regions’ needs  through various program areas, including: bicycle and pedestrian planning, air quality, equity, project implementation, public involvement, safety, and transit. Contact information for each award-winning organization is also provided.

The Excellence in Regional Transportation Award is a program of the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Research Foundation and its program affiliate RPO America. RPO America serves as the network for the nation’s rural and small metropolitan transportation planners and other professionals.
This awards program is partially funded under a cooperative agreement with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

View the 2013 award winners (PDF)

Looking for award winning projects from prior years?  See the awards reports below:

• 2012 awards (PDF)
• 2011 awards (PDF)
• 2010 awards (PDF)
• 2009 awards (PDF)
• 2008 awards (PDF)
• 2007 awards (PDF)

For more information on the Excellence in Regional Transportation Awards program, visit www.RuralTransportation.org.

To view PDF files, get free Adobe Reader.

Featured speakers include:

• Ferd Hoefner, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
• Bahia Nightengale, Heartland Local Food, with Supervisor Melvyn Houser, Pottawattamie County, Iowa
• Elanor Starmer, USDA

Register for the webinar here.

This webinar is offered as a service to grantees of the federal government’s Sustainable Communities Initiative, NADO members, NACo members, and the broad community of individuals and organizations interested in regional food systems as a strategy for rural economic development.

For more information, contact Stephanie Osborn, sosborn@naco.org or 202.942.4235.

Wayne Leftwich, community planner with the City of Greenville, discusses the city’s neighborhoods during a tour of A.J. Whittenburg Elementary School.

On April 23-24, 2013 in Greenville, South Carolina, NADO hosted a Southeast Region Peer Exchange for HUD Sustainable Communities Regional Planning and Community Challenge Grantees working in rural or small metropolitan regions to develop plans and partnerships to bolster their communities’ economic competitiveness by engaging place-based strategies.

Through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the NADO Research Foundation is one of eight teams providing capacity building and technical assistance to HUD and EPA sustainable communities award recipients.  The capacity building teams are forming networks among the grantees to exchange ideas on successful strategies, lessons learned, and emerging tools for community and economic development.

Below are links to the peer exchange materials, including presentations, worksheets, and grantee background information.  If you have any questions about this peer exchange, these materials, or NADO’s work as a capacity building team, please contact Brett Schwartz.

Workshop Materials / Grantee Information 

Growing Economic Competitiveness with Place-Based Strategies
Mary Douglas Hirsch, Downtown Development Manager, City of Greenville, SC

5×5 Presentations:  Sharing What’s Working
Participant presentations

Building Local Leaders and Experts for Long-term Community Change
Linda Giltz, Senior Planner, Land-of-Sky Regional Council

Prospering as an Entrepreneurial Community
Don Macke, Director, Center for Rural Entrepreneurship

Collaborating with New Partners to Implement Community and Economic Development Plans
Participant discussion

In this session, participants discussed innovative partnerships with state agencies, philanthropic organizations, and private-sector partners. Small group discussions covered opportunities to access new partners to implement plans and projects.

Click here to download the session worksheet (PDF)

In this presentation held in conjunction with the Economic Development Finance Conference, Don Macke, Director of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, discussed an approach to economic development designed to help communities and regions grow more effective, efficient, and impactful systems of support for entrepreneurs as a way to strengthen local economies. Through hands-on exercises, participants identified and mapped out the components of their community’s current entrepreneurial development system, and strategized techniques for layering entrepreneurial support systems into community and economic development strategies.

Click here to download the Powerpoint presentation (PDF)
Click here to download the “Entrepreneurial Development Opportunities” worksheet (PDF)
Click here to download the “Entrepreneurial Development Systems” worksheet (PDF)
Click here to download the “Entrepreneur Exercise” worksheet (PDF)

Linda Giltz, Senior Planner at Land-of-Sky Regional Council discussed the North Carolina Small Towns Economic Prosperity Program (NC STEP), a state effort to help small towns reinvigorate their economies through a combination of coaching, training, technical assistance, and grants. Small group discussions covered coaching and training local partners to maintain momentum and implement projects over the long-term.

Click here to download the Powerpoint presentation (PDF)
Click here to download session worksheet (PDF)

In this session, attendees had five minutes and five Powerpoint slides to describe key succeess with their project in this fast-paced series of short presentations.

Click here to download the Powerpoint presentations (PDF)

In this presentation, Mary Douglas Hirsch, Downtown Development Manager for the City of Greenville, discussed the city’s place-based investments that have established the downtown as a major economic force in the region.  Greenville has been investing in its central business district since the 1970s and today is recognized as a model for downtown redevelopment planning. Through public-private partnerships with developers, community and faith groups, and other organizations, the City has made strategic place-based investments that have allowed the downtown to become a vibrant center home to restaurants, shops, businesses, and residential housing. These investments have benefitted the city as a whole by improving neighborhoods, making streetscape improvements, providing more retail and office space, and creating opportunities for larger economic development.

Click to download the Powerpoint presentation:  Part 1 / Part 2 (PDF)

Biddeford’s youth, including Victoria Eon pictured here at the city’s mills, have been an instrumental part of the city’s community development planning efforts. (Photo credit: Victoria Eon)

Biddeford, Maine’s 2011 Downtown Master Plan includes the words “youth” or “students” 157 times over its 217 pages.  This was not an accident, but rather a demonstration of this New England mill town’s strong commitment to including young people and students in its visioning and community development efforts.  Students were a driving force in the master plan development process, launched through a partnership of the City of Biddeford, its main street organization Heart of Biddeford, and the Orton Family Foundation, an organization that works with small towns and cities to support local community planning.  The result of this initiative has not only been the publication of the Downtown Master Plan, but also the blossoming of strong community relationships, an appreciation of the city’s shared history and values, and a boost to local economic development.

Biddeford, a city of 20,000 residents located 20 miles south of Portland on the Saco River, has a rich and vibrant history as a textile mill manufacturing center.  At the turn of the twentieth century, it had become one of Maine’s largest cities and was home to a diverse population of residents, including French Canadians, Germans, Dutch, Albanians, and Greeks, many of whom were drawn to Biddeford in search of jobs in the mills.  Decades of prosperity began to come to an end in the years following World War II when many manufacturers sought cheaper labor and supplies in the Southern states.  Population began to decrease and Biddeford’s downtown area, formerly a thriving gathering space for the community, began a steady decline as malls and shopping centers sprung up in the outer suburbs.  The downtown area also suffered a major blow with the installation of a trash incinerator nearby, firmly establishing it as a “no go” area for many residents.

For years it looked as if Biddeford would go the way of many former industrial towns into a state of permanent decline until the 1980s, when efforts were made to fund downtown infrastructure and streetscape improvements.  During this time, the Downtown Development Commission (DDC) was also established to support downtown revitalization and community development efforts.  In 2008 in conjunction with the Orton Family Foundation, the city began what was known as the Heartworks planning process, which included community storytelling, neighborhood meetings, and the development and publication of the Downtown Master Plan.  In all three of these stages, Biddeford’s youth played an important role.  “Youth are a crucial group to engage,” says the Orton Family Foundation’s Ariana McBride.  “They bring a unique perspective to the table.”  Local high school students were active participants in community meetings, interviewed relatives and community members about their lives and recollections of Biddeford, and organized historical and cultural tours of the city’s mills.

Biddeford’s mills, which for so many years provided jobs, security, and a sense of identity, are once again a focal point in this new chapter of Biddeford’s story. (Photo credit: Maine: An Encyclopedia, maineanencyclopedia.com)

The visioning and storytelling process has instilled a new sense of pride in local residents, particularly among Biddeford’s youth who for years saw no hope in the future of their town. “I’m ashamed to admit it now, but for many years I didn’t like my hometown,” says Tom Laverriere, a senior at Biddeford High School.  “Up until I was about 15 I thought it was boring, had no real opportunities, and was inferior to neighboring communities.  It wasn’t until I got involved that I realized how great it is.”

“I have seen changes in the way the teenagers look at themselves and their town,” observes Carolyn Gosselin, a Biddeford High School English teacher.  Gosselin’s Senior English Perspectives in Literature course teaches students about the oral storytelling tradition by having them interview family members and local residents about their lives and experiences in Biddeford.

Victoria Eon, a freshman at McGill University and graduate of Biddeford High, notes how the storytelling process and student-led tours of the mills have created a new connection to her town and fellow students.  “Engaging in these conversations has brought me closer to my peers.  I’m excited that they are excited, and proud that they – at long last – feel proud of their humble roots without being asked why.”

The mills, which for so many years provided jobs, security, and a sense of identity, are once again a focal point in this new chapter in Biddeford’s story.  “These buildings of brick are my history,” says Victoria.  The progress being made in Biddeford “speaks to the resilience of the people these buildings inspire,” she says.  It is the resilience of this town – both in its built history and social fabric – that is moving Biddeford forward, led by young people who want to see a stronger future for their community.

Click the links below to learn more about student involvement in Biddeford, lessons learned from the experience, and student interviews:

This case study is part of NADO’s “Youth with a Voice” case studies series, which highlights small towns and rural communities that are effectively engaging young people in planning and community development projects.  By recognizing and valuing the tremendous energy and optimism students bring to local development efforts, these communities are building stronger and more lasting bonds between young people and their hometowns.  For more information, contact Brett Schwartz at bschwartz@nado.org.

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The work that provided the basis for this publication was supported by funding under an award with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The substance and findings of the work are dedicated to the public. The author and publisher are solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations contained in this publication. Such interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government.