Innovators in Rural Community Economic Development

Community Economic Development

Final Report: Formulating a Sustainable Economic Development Process for Rural America

This report documents outcomes by sector of WealthWorks implementation on the ground in Central Appalachia, the South, and the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  It also includes lessons learned over the last year and a half of the eight year Wealth Creation…


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Yellow Wood Notes, Summer 2015

Yellow Wood in Transition; Update on Our Work; WealthWorks; Presentations; Measurement; Staffing News; Reading & Watching


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Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center Learning Journey Details

Through the support of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, the Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center facilitated a trip to Western North Carolina to study the arts economy and creative placemaking in the region. This report provides a summary…


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Community Based Tourism (CBT) Wealth Creation Project: Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families (SURREF) visits Country Style Community Tourism Network (CCTN)

This report is a summary of a learning journey by Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families (SURREF) and six individuals representing stakeholders and partners who traveled to Jamaica from December 11 to December 16, 2011. These stakeholders…


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Opportunities for Sustainable Natural Resource-Based Development in the Dragon Run Watershed

This final report documents a study conducted by Yellow Wood to identify potential opportunities for sustainable natural resource-based economic development in the Dragon Run watershed. The Special Area Management Plan recognizes that one of the keys…


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You Get What You Measure®: A Process to Determine and Measure Progress in Community Development

This CD Practice article describes You Get What You Measure®, a process that integrates participatory planning and systems thinking into the development of strategic measures so that communities can monitor progress toward community development goals.…


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Formalizing Your Business: A WealthWorks Guide for Coordinators and Coaches

This guide is one of two pieces written to assist WealthWorks value chain coordinators or coaches in working with businesses and demand partners that are part of WealthWorks value chains. This guide is designed to walk readers through one of the most…


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WealthWorks Value Chain Business Law Guide: A WealthWorks Guide for Coordinators and Coaches

This guide is one of two pieces written to assist WealthWorks value chain coordinators or coaches in working with businesses and demand partners that are part of WealthWorks value chains. This guide is written to assist WealthWorks coordinators, coaches,…


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WealthWorks for Building Rural Economies

WealthWorks is an approach bridging community and economic development to build multiple forms of community wealth, resilience, and local ownership. This webinar provides a short overview for newcomers to the approach, followed by a focus on issues…


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WealthWorks for Your Region: An Introduction. Module 3: Construct a WealthWorks Value Chain

This module profiles the elements and design objectives of a WealthWorks value chain—and how to use them to build wealth that lasts.


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WealthWorks for Your Region: An Introduction. Module 2: Identify a Market Opportunity

This module offers a series of useful screens for spotting a market opportunity that has good potential to generate wealth-building results for a region.


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WealthWorks for Your Region: An Introduction. Module 1: Explore Regional Wealth Building

This module defines wealth building as a goal that reaches beyond standard community and economic development objectives, and why that difference is critical to advancing and sustaining regional economies.


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Community Development v.45, i.5, Special Issue: Rural Wealth Creation as a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy

Many rural areas in the United States find themselves struggling to build local assets and create wealth. They often struggle to hold on to the wealth that is created within their boundaries. Conventional approaches to community and economic development…


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Community Development v.44, i.5, “Shared measures to achieve shared outcomes: lessons from Central Appalachia”

This paper introduces a wealth creation approach to development, and describes how the Central Appalachian Network has used an outcome-based measurement process to define and measure progress toward shared goals for seven forms of community wealth.…


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Rural Wealth Creation

This textbook investigates the role of wealth in achieving sustainable rural economic development. Published by Routledge and edited by John L. Pender, Bruce A. Weber, Thomas G. Johnson, and J. Matthew Fannin.


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Local Economy Journal v.29, n.4-5, “Linking rural assets to market demand: Wealth creation value chains in rural America”

Rural regions across the United States have struggled to implement economic development strategies that build local assets and create wealth that contributes to sustained prosperity. This article describes a systems framework that enables rural areas…


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Hinesburg Economic Development Plan Workshop Summary

This document summarizes a community workshop coordinated by the Hinesburg Economic Development Commission. The community workshop brought together community members to identify strategic leverage points to build the foundation of the Economic Development…


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Citizen-Led Sustainable Change - Case Study: Rural Action, Ohio

In connection with the 2013 forum on Citizen-Led Sustainable Change held on the St. Francis Xavier University campus, Alison Mathie produced a case study on Rural Action, titled “From the fringe to the mainstream: Rural Action’s pursuit of a sustainable…


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Citizen-Led Sustainable Change - Case Study: The Deep South Wealth Creation Network, Mississippi and Alabama

In connection with the 2013 forum on Citizen-Led Sustainable Change held on the St. Francis Xavier University campus, Phil Davison produced a case study on the Deep South Wealth Creation Network, titled “The Deep South Wealth Creation Network,Mississippi…


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Want to Know How Wealth Works? A Training for Coaches and Coordinators

This webinar offered participants a preview of the WealthWorks Training for Coaches and Coordinators.  Training facilitators shared the approach to the training and the expected outcomes. Participants were able to ask questions and explore how this…


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Private Sector Engagement Toolkit

The Private Sector Engagement Toolkit helps users think about how they will connect with the demand side of the markets they are in. The Toolkit is designed to help WealthWorks value chain coordinators as well as individual businesses within a value…


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Building Rural Wealth Through Inclusive Business: a Primer on Private Sector Engagement for Community Impact

The final report from the Red Mantra Group on Building Wealth Through Inclusive Business is now available. Inclusive Business is an approach to economic development in which one or more large corporations are the primary demand partners. For corporations…


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Strategic Planning, Measurement and Evaluation Using “You Get What You Measure®”

This presentation, from the workshop titled Strategic Planning, Measurement and Evaluation Using “You Get What You Measure®,” was presented by Melissa Levy at the 2014 Connecticut Land Conservation Conference.


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Emerging Issues for Learning Communities

This paper explores the concept of learning communities and the shifts in concept and practice required to bring them about based on emerging ideas in the physical sciences, leadership training, learning theory, rural development, public work, organizational…


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Exploring Common Measures for Food Hubs: Documenting Impact, Sharing Stories, Connecting with Stakeholders

This draft report is a product of a study supported by the Wallace Center and the National Good Food Network. The study explored how a set of common measures might assist food hubs and the food hub community in telling their stories and improving their…


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Enterprise Financing for WealthWorks Value Chains: Overview and Guide

As part of WealthWorks, the Accelerating Impact project is aimed at articulating the role of finance in supporting WealthWorks value chains in rural areas.Over two years, this project of the Tellus Institute has worked with ten projects on the ground…


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Innovative Strategies that Support Rural Communities

This presentation on WealthWorks and WealthWorks value chains was made as part of a panel at the National Reinvestment Coalition 2014 Annual Conference.


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Measures that Matter

Attendees learned how food hubs have used You Get What You Measure®, a systems-based analysis to identify their priority measures that will tell them if they are making progress towards their goals.  The first part of the session shared examples of…


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Finding Common Measures for the Nation's Food Hubs

In an effort to develop a  common set of metrics for food hubs to track the contributions they are making at the community level, the Wallace Center partnered with Yellow Wood Associates to research four potential common measures: 1) food access; 2)…


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Rural Research Report v.24 i.1: Connecting Community Assets with Market Demand for Lasting Livelihoods

This paper, featured in the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs’ Rural Research Report (Spring 2014, Volume 24, Issue 1), provides an overview of the WealthWorks approach and its tools, including the WealthWorks value chain construct and the wealth…


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Enhancing the Local Impact of Community Banks

The Wealth Creation Clinic partnered with Presidio Bank, a progressive regional bank in San Francisco, to examine a key question for community banking: In a competitive environment, how can small banks be a more positive force for local community development,…


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Branding Study for Appalachian Local Food Economies

This report, produced for the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) in partnership with the MIT “Keeping Wealth Local” Clinic, explores examples of place-based food brands and offers recommendations for CAN and other Central Appalachian organizations interested…


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Assessing Impacts of Value Chain Development on Poverty: A Case-Study Companion to the 5Capitals Tool

These case studies supplement the 5Capitals tool developed by CATIE.  Five case studies were selected, with a geographical spread and a focus on different, crops, target markets and beneficiaries: Nicaragua - certified coffee; Colombia - fresh fruits…


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5Capitals: A Tool for Assessing the Poverty Impacts of Value Chain Development

5Capitals is tool for understanding critical development issues, designed for users including funding agencies, NGOs, consultants, government agencies, businesses, and certification bodies.  The tool is built on the belief that greater access to livelihood…


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Financing the Evolving Role of the Value Chain Coordinator: Guiding Questions, Participant Insights

This report explores what we have learned about the roles value chain coordinators play in WealthWorks, how those roles may evolve, and various options for financing the coordinator role which is so essential to exploring and constructing WealthWorks…


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Guide to Crowdfunding for WealthWorks Value Chains: Understanding Options, Getting Started

This report was produced as part of a project to explore financing options for WealthWorks value chains. It describes crowdfunding and how it works, gives examples of different platforms and successful campaigns, and provides a step by step guide to…


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Case Study: Assessing Impacts of Liquefied Natural Gas Terminals

This case study profiles Yellow Wood's work for Save Passamaquoddy Bay on an economic and fiscal impact analysis of proposed liquefied natural gas terminals.  Save Passamaquoddy Bay (www.savepassamaquoddybay.org)…


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3rd Rural Issues Community Leadership Conference, April 6 2011, Keynote

Shanna Ratner's keynote presentation to the 3rd RURAL ISSUES: Community Leadership Conference on April 6, 2011 focused on why agriculture matters to regional economies and what municipal and public officials can do to grow the agricultural sector.


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Parks and Beaches: Common Cents for the Common Wealth

Parks and Beaches: Common Cents for the Common Wealth quantifies the value of the park system as an engine of Massachusetts economic development. This value includes recreational tourism spending, recreational equipment spending, the timber industry,…


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Third Interim Report: Formulating a Sustainable Economic Development Process for Rural America

A balanced approach to development takes account of the triple bottom line, benefiting the economy, the environment, and social inclusion simultaneously, while considering the impacts on seven forms of wealth (individual, social, intellectual, natural,…


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Second Interim Report: Formulating a Sustainable Economic Development Process for Rural America

A balanced approach to development takes account of the triple bottom line, benefiting the economy, the environment, and social inclusion simultaneously, while considering the impacts on seven forms of wealth (individual, social, intellectual, natural,…


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Fourth Interim Report: Formulating a Sustainable Economic Development Process for Rural America

A balanced approach to development takes account of the triple bottom line, benefiting the economy, the environment, and social inclusion simultaneously, while considering the impacts on seven forms of wealth (individual, social, intellectual, natural,…


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Interim Report: Formulating a Sustainable Economic Development Process for Rural America

A balanced approach to development takes account of the triple bottom line, benefiting the economy, the environment, and social inclusion simultaneously. This Interim Report on the progress of the project assesses lessons learned so far.


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Vermont’s Environmental Sector: Identifying Green Workforce Training Needs and Opportunities

This report is the product of a study undertaken by the Vermont Environmental Consortium, funded by grants from the Vermont Community Foundation and the Redducs Foundation, to survey Vermont’s Environmental Business Sector.  The survey established…


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Yellow Wood Notes, Spring 2015

Update on Our Work; Measurement News; Tool: Value Propositions as a Collaboration Tool; WealthWorks; Staffing News; Reading & Watching


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