Benefits for Participating Communities
Each community selected for participation will receive the following
benefits totaling more than $15,000 per participating community:
- Five days of core community revitalization training led by
highly regarded professional trainers, including materials,
meals and lodging.
- A one-day housing capacity and technical training workshop.
- A community profile – a
demographic and planning report that includes key indicators
and trends.
- A matching mini-grant for technical assistance, project implementation
and/or predevelopment needs after successful involvement in
Blueprint Communities.
- Funding opportunities and strengthened relationships and
communication between local leaders and funding source representatives.
Community Revitalization Training
Blueprint
Communities training will be undertaken by two highly regarded
organizations – The
Heartland Center for Leadership Development and Brushy Fork
Institute of Berea College. Training will begin with a kickoff
and orientation, to be held in March 2007, in Charleston.
Six days of training during three two-day sessions will follow,
with community teams involved in intensive workshops at a West
Virginia retreat location in spring and fall of 2007. Sessions
are designed for community results with topics including:
- identifying & developing
community resources
- growing local leadership
- team building & cohesiveness
- asset mapping
- encouraging civic engagement
- understanding community development models
- creating housing capacity
- visioning & planning
- marketing & communication
- keeping connected
- promoting best practices
Teams that complete Blueprint Communities training will gain
a thorough understanding of how to create sustainable communities
and the elements necessary for success. Communities will have
developed a:
- vision
- draft community plan
- clear action strategy (including a funding strategy)
- process to measure outcomes
- list of next steps/timeline to move the process forward
The Heartland Center for Leadership Development,
a nationally recognized authority on leadership and community
development, will jointly conduct the Core Community Revitalization
Training with Brushy Fork Institute. The Heartland Center led
the Blueprint Communities training effort in Pennsylvania in
2005 for more than 120 people from 22 communities – with
very favorable results. For more information on the Heartland
Center for Leadership Development: www.heartlandcenter.info.
Brushy Fork Institute has worked to develop
strong leadership in Appalachian communities throughout Kentucky,
Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia since 1988. An outreach
program of Berea College, the institute offers leadership training,
organizational development workshops and technical assistance
to communities working for a better tomorrow. For more information
of Brushy Fork Institute, visit: www.berea.edu/brushyforkinstitute/default.asp.
Blueprint Communities Promotes Team Training
Each team will comprise eight community representatives, including
at least one from an FHLBank member financial institution, a
development organization, the local governing entity and a community-based
organization, as well as other key stakeholders. Everyone involved
in helping to make communities better should have a stake in
the Blueprint Communities initiative:
- community planners & developers
- service providers
- member bankers
- leaders in local government
- religious & civic
leaders
- community-based organizations
- housing providers
- community & economic
development practitioners
These key individuals must collaborate in committed partnerships,
taking into account all aspects of the community, for revitalization
to be successful.
Community Eligibility
Selected communities
are classified as “emerging”
– those that have not completed a detailed community plan,
but that do have a strong foundation of local leadership and
possess some development capacity.
To be eligible, communities are required to:
- Have a population between 1,000 - 30,000, which may be a
neighborhood within a municipality, one municipality, multiple
municipalities (contiguous) or even an entire county.
- Have not completed a neighborhood or community vision and
a holistic, comprehensive strategy within the last two years.
- Demonstrate local leadership, have basic development capacity
and possess opportunity for development and collaboration.
- Be able to put together a diverse team of leaders committed
to attending applicable training sessions and advancing the
welfare of the community.
2007 Community Selection & Training Schedule
FHLBank,
aided by program partners, used a Request
for Proposal process to select ten communities for participation. One
of the first steps in the selection process for the community revitalization
training is the analysis of the community and the preparedness of
the stakeholders. The community must be at a point where it would
derive benefit from the training and have an opportunity to sustain
a comprehensive development approach.
The names of the ten West Virginia communities were announced at "West Virginia Rising," a special event celebrating a new day for community development in West Virginia, in mid-May. Training for
West Virginia communities will be hald at the Tamarack Conference Center
in Beckley in April, May and September 2007:
First Session: April 3 and 4, 2007
Focus: Community development strategies, civic engagement, community assessment
Second Session: May 15 and 16, 2007
Focus: Visioning and strategic planning, planning for housing
Third Session: September 27 and 28, 2007
Focus: Community results, challenges, best practices and resources
FHLBank Pittsburgh, aided by program partners and an advisory group, selected ten West Virginia communities to participate in the initiative. These communities are already conducting neighborhood meetings to gather input that will help their revitalization teams formulate a vision and strategic plan by the end of 2007.
Questions
For
more information on Blueprint Communities, contact Laura Kemp-Rye
at 304-291-5485 or via e-mail to blueprint@fhlb-pgh.com.
You
may also
call FHLBank's Community Investment Department at 1-800-288-3400.
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