Community, Economic and Social Development

Community, economic and social development usually requires partnerships. These projects and programs exhibit the benefits and possibilities of community and regional collaboration. They display outcomes that avoid service duplications, provide resources, offer service enhancements, generate business opportunities and enrich the quality of life for all.

Twice a week for ten-weeks the West Alabama Regional Commission conducted Conversational Spanish for West Alabama Regional Staff classes. Classes focused on traditional greetings and introductions, numbers, days of the week, months of the year and words and phrases specific to the commission’s programs and services. Instructors used verbal instructions and printed materials as the primary teaching media. The attending staffers learned basic Spanish words and phrases.

A New London Development Corp’s redevelopment site in Connecticut that has spurred a Social Justice Initiative.

The Yavapai Resource Network was founded in 2000 by the Northern Arizona Council of Governments to provide Yavapai County’s (8,125 square miles) social service agencies the option to combine program resources and reduce community service duplications. The network provides agencies with co-case management and expansion of job search, housing, food and clothing services and access. There are now over 20 youth, adult and elderly service organizations participating.

In 2001 the New London Development Corporation’s Social Justice Initiative, in Connecticut, began working on economic self-sufficiency programs to target development issues, such as job creation and housing. Community collaborations ensued to assist the development corporation with minority population representation in these areas. Some of the initiative’s outcomes are the administration of employment training for 200 residents, property acquisitions for affordable housing, homeless shelter, enhanced after school programs, micro-entrepreneurship and applications for over $3,000,000 in community resources.

The Four Corners Public Services Study conducted by the East Central and Central Florida Regional Planning Councils and funded by the four member counties, provides a comprehensive inventory of public services for this four-county unincorporated area (pop. 27,500), enabling growth projections and determining public service consolidations, e.g., a single inter-county school and library. The area’s citizens groups are using the study to establish shared parks and the counties are using it to develop an inter-county road grid.

The Southeastern Illinois Regional Planning and Development Commission has taken a lead role in promoting the state’s coal infrastructure program and the Revitalization of the Coal Industry in Southeastern Illinois. The commission helped acquire financing for mining incentives, start-ups, expansions, access road improvements, loading facility upgrades and water system improvements essential to coal producers. Over 1,771 jobs have been created/retained and $52.2 million in public and private investments have been acquired.

As a matter of enhancing land use planning, smart growth implementation, economic planning and targeting brownfields redevelopment, the Northwest Regional Development Commission, in Minnesota, is on track with a Vacant Building Survey project. The survey is compiling a list of all vacant, abandoned or underused buildings, from gas stations to churches, in the seven-county region. The building list will be posted on the commission’s website. Project funding was acquired from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission succeeded in simultaneously providing educational opportunities and community development plans with the Landscape as Strategy for Development of Bradford, Pennsylvania project. The project enlisted a partnership between Cornell University and Bradford community leaders, allowing students to study Bradford’s economic and cultural potentials and recommend land use enhancements, such as increasing downtown accessibility. Bradford benefited in receiving cost-free innovative development plans, and students earned university credits and experience.

South Dakota’s Northeast Council of Governments and community partners have implemented the U.S. Department of Justice Weed and Seed Project in Brown County. The goal is to “weed out” criminals involved in violent crime and drug abuse and “seed in” human services directed at crime prevention, intervention, treatment and neighborhood revitalization. The project activities include maintaining four Safe Haven facilities, promoting home maintenance and community cleanup services, increasing law enforcement surveillance and enhancing crime mapping.

The Upper Cumberland Development District, in Tennessee, designed the Booze It and Lose It Program to reduce the 14-county region’s number of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) injuries and fatalities and prevent the associated public/private economic losses. The region has a high per capita number of DUI offenses. Voluntarily, 15 law enforcement agencies have undertaken interventions to target impaired drivers due to drinking. Funding was acquired from the Governor’s highway safety office.

The “Living Towns” project focuses on the heritage of 15 municipalities in the Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission’s region. The project advocates a heritage identity and balanced-growth, complimentary to the commission’s rural transportation program. The Shenandoah Valley Civil War Battlefields Historic District, in Virginia, serves as the unifying heritage story, with towns and cities acting as tourism hubs. Ensuring quality amenities offered by the 15 municipalities is central to creating visitor satisfaction and integral to the project’s tourism-side.

Award Winners West Alabama Regional Commission, Conversational Spanish for West Alabama Regional Commission Staff. Contact: Robert B. Lake, 4200 Highway 69 North, Suite 1, Northport, AL 35473-2048; 205/333-2990; fax 205/333-2713; email blake@adss.state.al.us; web www.wapdc.org Northern Arizona Council of Governments, Yavapai Resource Network. Contact: Kenneth Sweet or Teri Drew, 221 North Marina St., Suite 201, Prescott, AZ 86301; 928/778-1422; fax 928/778-1756; email tdrew@cableone.net; web www.nacog.org New London Development Corporation, Social Justice Initiative. Contact: Laura Berry, 165 State St., Suite 313, New London, CT 06426; 860/447-8011 ext. 18; fax 860/447-3833; email lberry@nldc.org; web www.nldc.org East Central Florida Regional Planning Council and Central Florida Regional Planning Council, Four Corners Public Services Study. Contact: Sandra Glenn or Greg Golgowski, East Central Florida RPC, 631 N. Wymore Rd., Maitland, FL 32751; 407/623-1075; fax 407/623-1084; email greg@ecfrpc.org; web www.ecfrpc.org/FourCorners.htm Southeastern Illinois Regional Planning and Development Commission, Revitalization of the Coal Industry in Southeastern Illinois. Contact: Kimberly Watson, P.O. Box 606, Harrisburg, IL 62946; 618/252-7463; fax 618/252-7464; email sirpdc@midamer.net; web www.sirpdc.org

Northwest Regional Development Commission, Vacant Building Survey. Contact: Leon Heath or Kay Hegge, 115 S. Main, Warren, MN 56762; 218/745-6733; fax 218/745-6438; email khegge@nwrdc.org; web www.nwrdc.org North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission, Landscape as Strategy for Development of Bradford, PA. Contact: Ronald Kuleck or Erin Dixon, 651 Montmorenci Ave., Ridgway, PA 15853; 814/773-3162; fax 814/772-7045; email edixon@ncentral.com; web www.ncentral.com/~ncrprpdc Northeast Council of Governments, Brown County Weed and Seed Project. Contact: Faye Kann, P.O. Box, Aberdeen, SD 57402; 605/626-2595; fax 605/626-2975; email faye.necog@midconetwork.com; web home.midco.net/~necog/ Upper Cumberland Development District, Booze It and Lose It: DUI Injury, Fatality and Economic Loss Prevention. Contact: Wendy Askins or Patty Jones, 1225 S. Willow Ave., Cookeville, TN 38506; 931/432-4111; fax 931/432-6010; email pjones@ucdd.org; web www.ucdd.org Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission, Living Towns of Northern Shenandoah Valley. Contact: Tom Christoffel or Stephen Kerr, 103 E. Sixth St., Front Royal, VA 22630; 540/636-8800; fax 540/635-4147; email nsvrc@shentel.net; web www.lfpdc7.state.va.us

September Index | Previous Page | Next Page