Finding the Training You Need

Next Steps You Can Take to Identify the Right Courses for You... 1. Read more about the thought behind these training themes, and consider both the work you currently do, and how much experience you have. 2. Explore upcoming in-class training events via our comprehensive training calendar at www.nw.org/trainingcalendar. Look at both subject matter and course level. 3. Check out related online learning options offered by NeighborWorks at www.nw.org/onlinelearning. 4. Look for additional themes in the coming months that will include: CDFIs and Community Lending Organizational Stability and Growth Introcution/Overview of the Communty Development Field 5. We are here to help guide you! If you have questions about which offerings are most appropriate for your work and your level of experience, or if there is training you need that isn't currently offered, please email us at nti@nw.org.

 

The important work you do can be so complex – serving community needs and enhancing the quality of life in your community requires knowledge and skills that cross traditional boundaries or training "tracks."

In an effort to better equip you with the latest tools you need to make a real impact, and to help you decide which courses will be most meaninful to your work, we’re highlighting new theme-based content for your continued professional development. We’ve looked at topics that are of importance to the field, and have devised offerings at all levels to meet these needs and to elevate the bar for excellence in community development. These themes will encourage continuous education and facilitate an exchange of ideas about cutting-edge issues and practices.

• Theme #1: Resilient Communities
• Theme #2: Asset Building

Theme #1: I need to bolster the resiliency of my community from a housing, economic development and/or engagement perspective.

The recent foreclosure crisis and economic recession has had damaging effects on families and communities.  Places that are weathering the storm demonstrate some level of resiliency in the face of these forces. 

Resilient communities are built on the healthy assets and social capital internal to the community.  As a result, they are better equipped with the systems and infrastructure needed to bounce back from adversity.   Pathways to resilience include a focus on sustainable development, strong social networks and working comprehensively to build a healthy community.

Are you looking to not only stabilize your community but create pathways to resilience?  Are you working to improve the quality of life and vibrancy of your community?  Is your goal to build on local resources to increase resident wealth and assets in your community and develop sustainable, resilient communities? 

NeighborWorks Training Institute delivers a suite of courses that addresses the multitude of approaches that contribute to resilient communities.  These courses deliver the training to develop communities that are more environmentally healthy, resource conserving, economically flexible and durable, and provide a sense of social well-being.  Courses that complement a Resilient Communities theme are listed below, in order of course level (100-level courses are fundamental, 200-level courses are intermediate, and 300-level courses are advanced).

Economically resilient, healthy and safe communities

• NR104 Getting Things Done in Neighborhoods through Strategic Collaborations
• NR115 Leveraging Market Forces to Attract Investment for Neighborhood Revitalization
• NR124 Reading a Neighborhood: What a Walk Around the Block Can Tell You
• ED125 Mixed-Use Development
• ED127 Transit-Oriented Development
• CB140 Strong Coalitions: Building on Common Interests
• ED145 Energize Your Local Economy with a Public Market
• ED150 Commercial District Revitalization
• ED151 The Main Street Approach to Revitalization
• ED160 Financing Community Development
• CB215 Organizing for Neighborhood Safety
• ED220 Learning Lab: Strategies for Addressing Food Deserts
• CB225 Pathways to Self-Reliant Communities – Building on Our Assets
• ML226 Generate Revenue for Your Nonprofit’s Long-Term Sustainability
• ML227 Building a Sustainable, Market-Driven Organization
• CB240 Community Building through Urban Gardening
• NR261 Strategies for More Livable Neighborhoods
• NR270 Walkability and Bikeability for Healthy, Vibrant Neighborhoods

Maintaining affordability

• AH222 Expanding Homeownership Opportunities: The Lease-Purchase Approach
• AH252 Community Land Trusts: Creating Permanently Affordable Housing
• AH253 The Power of Place: Community Land Trusts and Community Change
• AH254 The City-CLT Partnership: Municipal Support for Community Land Trusts
• AH255 Community Land Trusts: Financing Owner-Occupied Homes

Supporting environmental sustainability

• NR117 Environmental Sustainability in Neighborhood Revitalization
• AH232 Green Building Fundamentals for Affordable Housing
• AH245 Integrating Green Fundamentals into Multifamily Housing
• CB245 Taking Green Action in Your Community

Response to market pressures - foreclosures and stabilization

• NR231 Stabilizing Neighborhoods in a Post-Foreclosure Environment
• NR275 Marketing Strategies to Support Your Neighborhood Stabilization Work
• AH291 REO Solutions: Property Assessment, Acquisition and Financing
• AH294 Successful Models of Foreclosure Programs
• AH297 Marketing Your Foreclosure Program to Potential Residents

Related courses to add context

• CB100 Breaking with Isolation: The Power of Neighbors
• NR101 The Essential Tools of Successful Neighborhood Revitalization
• NR118 Working with Tenants and Small Landlords to Revitalize the Neighborhood
• CB210 Campaign-Organizing for Action and Results

Theme #2: I need to help residents in my community build their individual financial assets and collective community wealth.

To strengthen community development efforts, and to ensure such efforts are sustainable, it is not enough to improve the physical aspects of the area. Residents need a strong financial base. Our philosophy is captured in a recent Shelterforce article:

”Individual and collective asset-building has increasingly become a central goal in the community development field.  As a result, asset-building approaches have proliferated. The most common is the individual development account (IDA), which builds the financial assets of low-income individuals through matched-savings plans offered by community development groups. But the IDA is only one example of a growing number of strategies aimed at increasing both individual wealth and the collective assets of a community.  Many asset-building strategies combine individual and community wealth-building.  "Community wealth" arises when an institution uses the wealth or assets it owns to benefit the community at large.  Community development corporations (CDCs) are major players in asset-based strategies.  They have traditionally anchored capital locally by promoting homeownership and developing community-owned and -controlled businesses.”
(Extracted from:  Asset-Building Comes of Age by Gar Alperovitz, Steve Dubb and Ted Howard in the National Housing Institute Shelterforce Online, Issue #149.)

Are you a community wealth and asset builder? Courses that prepare you to work in asset-building and community wealth are listed below in order of course level. Highlighted courses are being offered in New Orleans; others will be offered at future institutes or in a local/regional place-based setting.

• NR116 Building Community and Promoting Equity through Revitalization
• NA141 Creating a Path to Self-Sufficiency through Native Integrated Asset Building Strategies
• ED171 Asset Development Toolkit
• CB190 Youth Financial Literacy
• HO209rq Delivering Effective Financial Education for Today’s Consumer
• HO211 Credit Counseling for Maximum Results
• ML226 Generate Revenue for Your Nonprofit’s Long-Term Sustainability
• ML227 Building a Sustainable, Market-Driven Organization
• HO247 Post-Purchase Education Methods
• CP254 Generating Unrestricted Income – For-Profit Solutions to Nonprofit Finance
• AM258 Resident Services: Financial Literacy
• HO310 Financial Coaching: Helping Clients Reach Their Goals

 

Questions or comments? Please email us at nti@nw.org.