This is part of a series of posts on the topic of leadership as applied to community and economic development, authored by UNC School of Government faculty member Willow Jacobson.

We find ourselves in many situations in which we need to make a convincing argument — sometimes as part of a public presentation to a large group and other times to just a few people.  For example, you might find yourself talking to a group about the possibility of using a Community Development Block Grant for revitalization efforts or the potential benefits of building a minor league baseball stadium. I was recently talking with a professor of Communications at UNC-CH and he shared that when preparing for any of these situations that one needs to keep in mind that they will need to make some key strategic choices.  They need to think through: “who you are and what you represent”.  First, one must recognize that people will first start to listen based on assumptions and expectations about the speaker.  As the speaker you need to think through these and recognize if you need to address any of these issues upfront.  Next, it is critical to “define why the audience should listen to you by invoking an emotional tie” and finally, consider “how you make a point”. Read More…

The UNC Environmental Finance Center (EFC) typically focuses on the role of local governments in directly providing and funding basic community environmental services such as water, wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste management. For example, the EFC recently released a set of resources related to local government stormwater fees that local programs use to fund their stormwater services. These types of resources help local governments raise funds for critical environmental protection activities but there are other ways that local governments can play a role in supporting environmental finance. Recent news out of Brunswick County, North Carolina highlights the Read More…