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According to a 2010 AARP survey, nearly 90 percent of people over the age of 65 want to stay in their residence for as long as possible and 80 percent believe their residence is where they will always live. These Baby Boomers "will swell the ranks of those aged 65-plus from 34.8 million in 2000 to a projected 70.3 million in 2030, ultimately representing 20 percent of the U.S. population."
Recent research looking at high and low entrepreneurial communities and exploring the Startup Community activity across the country provide great insights into where to start and what it takes to sustain the effort. Fortunately improving a community’s small business ecosystem doesn’t require a great deal of funding. The resources needed are already in the community.
Hometown ambassadors can help create a positive community fabric which encourages new businesses and residents to join the community.
What is storm water runoff and why should we be concerned with it? Stormwater runoff is the rain and melting snow that flows off streets, rooftops, lawns, parking lots, open fields, and any other exposed area.
That's what one community non-profit said about Penn State Extension's Six Steps to a Highly Effective Organization.
I love getting credit for my great ideas. So when I see someone else using them, my 10-year-old alter ego is likely to stomp her feet and yell ‘copycat’. But temper tantrums aside, what’s wrong with using someone else’s great ideas? In the right context, there’s no problem at all. In fact we call these ‘best practices’ and encourage each other to share them widely.
Most people serve their community because they want to make the place they love a better place for the future. Hello? Is anybody out there who is willing to serve?
How many times have you said to yourself, "What this place needs is..." Maybe it's time to do something about it.
Whoever said ‘silence is golden’ was not working on a committee or serving on a board. Silence isn’t golden when a community group is at work. In fact it can be toxic.
"Those best fitted by their intelligence, business experience, capacity and moral character usually do not hold local office" quote from John Forrest Dillon, Federal Judge on the Eight Circuit Court in Iowa in 1872 who shared his feelings for local government officials.
Workshop helps citizens get involved in local government.
If there were no volunteers, how would our communities function? Who would sit on the municipal planning board or the recreation board? Who would serve on the school board or the board of the public library? If your community has already lost some emergency services due to lack of volunteers, who has picked up the slack?
"As land use planning changes, ‘zoning’ is no longer appropriate," stated a recent Washington Post article that has been re-published in the planning trade journal Planetizen. In his blog entry this month, Extension educator John Turack reflects on that statement: How might it apply to the urban/suburban/rural communities of Southwest Pennsylvania, and elsewhere?
It won’t keep the doctor away, but you’re almost guaranteed to get a daily dose of conflict if you’re involved in a community organization. How you handle that conflict can make a difference in your organization’s health. And an apple a day probably wouldn’t hurt, either.
"A hundred years after we are gone and forgotten those who never heard of us will be living with the results of our action" - Oliver Wendell Holmes, former US Supreme Court Justice
Building startup communities is a strategy being used by entrepreneurial leaders to increase the number and success of innovative startup enterprises in their cities and regions. Read on for an overview of building a startup community based on Brad Feld’s “Boulder Thesis.”
This, an odd-numbered year, is when officials such as township supervisor or commissioner, boro council, and school board directors are elected. The Community and Economic Development Team is delivering this program in a few short weeks in many counties. The program in Berks County drew more than three dozen potential local candidates.
Every group has to make them, but too often we put off those pesky decisions. We talk in circles, get bogged down in details, repeat ourselves – all to avoid the moment of truth when we finally decide what to do.
Small business start-ups play an important role in economic development. Leaders in non-metro communities interested in growing the small business sector would be wise to understand the various factors that motivate businesses to start up in this type of community before jumping into projects they think will make their community more attractive to these enterprises.
Every group can benefit by evaluating their meetings. What are we doing well? What can we improve on?
