Strategic Thinking and Planning (May 17-18, 2007)
A Community Organizer must be able to help groups develop effective strategies and plans for achieving their goals. Likewise, as you plan your work, you must have an effective and workable strategy before you can move forward; as groups move forward, goals and strategies shift and change. Learn how to develop short-term and long-term goals, learn to analyze all of the factors that effect your strategic plan, such as environment, resources and potential obstacles. Learn how to use visioning to enhance your strategy development. Practice developing effective plans and strategies in a group setting.

Reading a Neighborhood: What a Block Walk Can Tell You (June 22, 2007)
Learn how to quickly analyze what’s going on in a neighborhood during a block walk. What can the housing stock and businesses tell you? The people on the street and the streetscape itself? Hone your observation skills and take home a system to analyze what you see and how your assumptions can color your observations. This course includes a site visit where participants take part in a block walk, perform an analysis and discuss their findings in terms of neighborhood revitalization. Participants will come away with a practical how-to guide for conducting a block walk in their own communities.

Strategies and Implementation Techniques for Creating Neighborhoods of Choice through Revitalization, Part Two (July 12-14, 2007)
This course will move beyond diagnosing underlying issues and developing an approach to revitalization tailored to each neighborhood. Participants will begin with a return visit to the local case study neighborhood for a more in-depth analysis of what’s working. Based on that analysis, we will identify outcomes in the areas of neighborhood image, real estate market, physical conditions, and residents' management of neighborhood issues. Participant teams will design strategies and a resource development game plan to manage practical issues, such as staff skills and building on organizational culture necessary for successful revitalization. Participants will also learn how to deal with common pitfalls and challenges that can derail even the best revitalization plan. You’ll take home many useful tools and resources, including worksheets for target market analysis, strategy development and organizational self-assessment.

Creating a Compelling Revitalization Presentation      (September 14-15)
Once you’ve created your revitalization plan, how do you get others involved in making it happen? In today’s highly competitive community development field, the organization that can make the most professionally crafted, succinct and powerful case will get the attention of funders, potential community partners and neighborhood stakeholders. Learn how to organize and present your ideas and data clearly and persuasively. Review techniques for presentations, including hardcopy reports, graphics, computer generated images, and three dimensional models. This highly interactive course will show you where to find a range of tools—on the Internet and locally—and how to use them to inspire others to support your revitalization strategies. Sponsored by the Making Connections Network.

For more information, or to register for training contact Gwen Lauer