Making Sense of Place Film Series A documentary film and educational outreach project launched by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Making Sense of Place – Phoenix: The Urban Desert

Community Building/Housing/Grassroots Initiatives

Inspired by Dream Street and Garfield? Looking to start re-building a neighborhood or community? Primarily interested in researching and starting a campaign for affordable housing? Check out these sites:

Community Building/Grassroots Initiatives
Civic Practices Network
  www.cpn.org
Civic Practices Network (CPN) is a collaborative and nonpartisan project bringing together a diverse array of organizations and perspectives within the new citizenship movement, with a goal of bringing practical methods for public problem solving into community and institutional settings. Website provides a public forum for the exchange of tools and experiences, offering case studies, online discussions, best practices guides, and essays on civic innovation.
Civic Strategies
  www.civic-strategies.com
A resource for community leaders, particularly those hoping to create change in their cities and regions. Website enables viewers to explore metropolitan issues and trends either by theme or metropolitan area, and includes an array of on-line articles and information about cities, regions, and civic leadership.
Community Tool Box
  ctb.lsi.ukans.edu
Provides "how-to" tools that explain components of community development. Sections include leadership, strategic planning, community assessment, advocacy, grant writing, and evaluations. In addition, the site contains a troubleshooting guide, community grant application, and links to other websites and listservs.
Empowerment Institute/Global Action Plan
  www.globalactionplan.org
The Empowerment Institute's (formerly Global Action Plan) mission is to empower the human dimension of community and environmental change. It is a nonprofit organization that works with citizen activists to promote sustainable lifestyles and create livable neighborhoods in communities around the United States through service contracts with local, state and federal government agencies. Provides research and reports from completed work.
Alliance for National Renewal
  www.ncl.org/anr
The Alliance for National Renewal (ANR) brings together a network of people and organizations that want to better their communities.
Center for Community Change
  www.communitychange.org
Helps low-income people build powerful, effective organizations through which they can change their communities and public policies for the better.

Housing
The Enterprise Foundation
  enterprisefoundation.org
The Enterprise Foundation is a national, nonprofit housing and community development organization working to see that all low-income people in America have the opportunity for fit and affordable housing, safer streets, and access to jobs and childcare. Working with a network of nonprofit organizations, public housing authorities and Native American Tribes, the Foundation provides financial support and technical assistance to local neighborhood revitalization efforts nationwide.
Knowledgeplex
  www.knowledgeplex.org
Knowledgeplex is a comprehensive, interactive web resource designed to link practitioners, scholars, and policy-makers in the fields of affordable housing and community development. Searchable website offers an extensive on-line library of articles and case studies, news updates and reports on innovative programs and ideas, and links to related organizations.
Institute for Community Economics (ICE)
  www.iceclt.org
Helps low-income communities address fundamental problems related to lack of control over land, housing, and capital.