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, 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)

Through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the NADO Research Foundation and Envision Utah are two 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 workshop materials, including presentations, worksheets, and grantee background information.  If you have any questions about this workshop, these materials, or NADO’s work as a capacity building team, please contact Brett Schwartz.

Workshop Background Materials

Opening Plenary:  Regional Visioning Based on Shared Values
Robert Grow, President/Chief Executive Officer, Envision Utah 

Finding and Leveraging Competitive Advantage 
Nora Johnson, Policy Fellow, US EPA Office of Sustainable Communities
Kathy Nothstine, Associate Director, NADO 

Scenarios Planning 101 and Part 2
Christie Oostema, Planning Director, Envision Utah
Jay Baker, Countywide Planner, Cache County, Utah
Lori Haddock, Economic development professional, Bear Lake County, Idaho
Mitch Poulsen, Executive Director, Bear Lake Regional Commission

Rural Poverty and Equitable Development 
Danielle Bergstrom, Program Associate, PolicyLink
Bill Vanderwall, Capacity Building Manager, Minnesota Housing Partnership

Keynote Address:  Progress and Challenges in Place-Based Rural Policies
Chuck Fluharty, President/CEO, Rural Policy Research Institute 

Best Practices in Creating Strong Regional Economic Development Strategies
Brian Kelsey, Director of Economic Development, NADO 

Implementing a Regional Plan as an Over-arching Economic Development Strategy: Focus on Implementation Strategies and Toolkit
Christie Oostema, Planning Director, Envision Utah
Dave Conine, USDA Rural Development

Additional Materials/Links 
Sonoran Institute’s About Town research and report 
California Financial Opportunities Roundtable (CalFOR) Guidebook