Community Development
The Building Strong Communities program offers training and education for citizens about local government, how it works, and how citizens can make their voices heard in decision-making. For those citizens interested in becoming local elected officials, the program teaches them how to run for local office and provides support through their tenures as local officials with training that focuses on local governance. Starting with a basic civics lesson on Pennsylvania local government, the program addresses broader issues such as engaging citizens in discussions of policy and understanding community and regional trends.
A tool that local citizens can use to build consensus for planning their community's future. The program brings community leaders and interested citizens together who are willing to commit time and energy toward discovering their vision and a plan of action to achieve it.
Becoming entrepreneurially-friendly means a community is able to identify a collective vision for the community; assess long-term opportunities and threats to that vision; mobilize assets to address those opportunities and threats, and to carry out a successful implementation strategy. The resources provide here are intended to help you learn more about, and address these issues effectively in your community.
View PA maps related to income, education, and families. These maps use data from the 2000 U.S. Census of the Population county and school district level files.
The purpose of this site is to provide professionals with resources and materials about family and youth resiliency, and to promote thriving relationships. Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of families, youth, and communities to be partners in building strong families, fostering positive youth development, and creating caring, safe, and productive communities.
Our mission is to inform ag entrepreneurs about business marketing, economics, and news regarding emerging issues in the industry. By helping to provide them with resources to tackle these issues, ag entrepreneurs can be more proactive in assessing the effects of issues on their business.
'First Impressions' is a community development program which enhances the future vision of a community, main street, travel corridor, or fairs and festivals. Using a structured but anonymous visit by 'outsiders,' the program gives local citizens a lay person's first impression of the issue, allowing them to better identifies issues of concern.
This brief guide provides you with an introduction to the grant process, a look at the philanthropic community, (both nation-wide and in Pennsylvania), an outline of an effective research strategy, and a guide to effective proposal writing. References, a glossary of terms, further reading suggestions, Internet resources, and a list of Foundation Center publications and services are also provided.
The "Learning Today, Leading Tomorrow" leadership curriculum was developed to help individuals develop and strengthen their personal leadership skills so they can play active and constructive leadership roles in their community. It focuses on developing and strengthening personal and interpersonal leadership skills, group and organizational leadership skills, and community leadership skills.
More than 10,000 Pennsylvanians serve on 1,700 municipal and county planning commissions. Another 6,000-7,000 serve on zoning hearing boards or are involved in the day-to-day administration of some 1,600 municipal zoning ordinances. These dedicated volunteers are the foundation of planning in the Commonwealth, but there are very few places where they can learn the planning skills and knowledge necessary for them to avoid potentially costly mistakes in their his role. Education is a key in preparing them to be leaders capable of effectively carrying out planning and land use regulations in their communities.
The Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health was established at Penn State in 1991. It is a joint effort of the Colleges of Health and Human Development and Penn State Outreach and Penn State Cooperative Extension and is administratively located in the Department of Health Policy and Administration.
This site contains information related to Service-Learning. Our goal is to help blend service and learning so that the service reinforces, improves, and strengthens the learning, and the learning reinforces, improves, and strengthens the service. To learn more about Service-Learning, contact Nicole Webster.
Is your local organization not performing as productively as you’d hope or expect? Is membership falling? Do you struggle to find or manage resources? Do members complain that meetings are boring? Does the group feel like it is going in too many directions, or no direction at all?
The program encourages and supports leadership development for all segments of Pennsylvania.
We provide youth and adults with the ability to bridge the gaps in knowledge, skills, and attitudes to successfully make the transition from school to work, from welfare to work, and from work to work. These educational programs support individuals and communities in becoming self-sufficient and economically mobile in a changing workplace.
