Community and economic development has increasingly required participation from community members to be effective. Ensuring high levels of engagement throughout the design process is crucial to producing a product that serves the needs of the community. A creative approach to problem solving might b … Read more

Last October a CED post highlighted the importance of understanding the capacity of nonprofits who work with local governments to provide needed social services. The focus at the time was on the program participation tipping point, where community partners disengaged from participating in a program … Read more

Not Normal CED professionals rely on nonprofits, large and small, for a huge array of services – or work for nonprofits directly. Small businesses value community connections and are frequent supporters in times of community need. After a typical disaster, nonprofits work next to first responders an … Read more

What started as community push-back on Durham’s proposed rails-to-trails development has turned into a model for standardizing equitable and inclusive engagement. Here’s how community concern about the Durham Belt Line resulted in a shift in culture development and the creation of Durham’s Equitable … Read more

The students at community college today represent the workforce available tomorrow.  If they are in trouble, it is a major red flag for CED professionals.  CED professionals need to understand the world of community college students if they are to help them develop into the workforce in the next ten … Read more

This is part of a series of posts on the topic of leadership and management as applied to community and economic development, authored by UNC School of Government faculty member Willow Jacobson. Community and economic development (CED) professionals are often responsible for managing and coordinatin … Read more

  Last month, a major three-volume book, Investing in America’s Workforce: Improving Outcomes for Workers and Employers, was launched at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York[1].  This blog focuses on just one of the 90 chapters, The Rural Dimensions of Workforce Development[2]. The chapter make … Read more

Recently, the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution released a comprehensive report on the state of the workforce related to water in the United States—jobs tied to drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, green infrastructure, private wells, septic systems, plumbing, and other fie … Read more

A key conceptual cousin to community economic development is the idea of “civic infrastructure.” A recent article by University of San Diego professor Keith Pezzoli defines civic infrastructure as “formal and informal institutional as well as sociocultural means of connectivity used in knowledge–act … Read more

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 pre … Read more