Tools and Techniques: Planning, Research, and Advocacy

Centre for Community Enterprise

DOING THE PLANNING, RESEARCH, & ADVOCACY

From a community economic development (CED) perspective, the vitality of a town, neighbourhood, or region hinges on its capacity to perform certain tasks: the creation or expansion of businesses, producing affordable housing, promoting access to credit, organizing employment services, etc. However, to do these essential tasks well, a whole substructure of tools is necessary: strategic planning, creating partnerships, organizing the lead group (the community economic development organization, or CEDO), gathering local economic data, fostering citizen leadership, and the like. They are the subject of attention here.

From this page you can download 13 tools and techniques for CED Planning, Research, and Advocacy. Case studies pertinent to the practical application of many entries are also available from the CED Digital Bookshop.

If you are familiar with PDF, and have Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.X (or higher) on your computer system, please proceed directly to the Contents. If PDF is new to you, please first read the Instructions.

CONTENTS

Introduction: Doing the Planning, Research, & Advocacy

Organizational Development

Evolving a CEDO
Community-Wide Visioning
Strategic CED Planning (& Plan Updating)
Government Liaison
Networking/Partnerships with Local Organizations
National & Regional Alliances
Finding & Managing Good Consultants

Inventory & Mapping of Community/Regional Assets

Inventory of Businesses
Inventory of Organizations
Inventory of Skills
Mapping Consumer Expenditures

Developing Leadership

Building Citizen Participation
Designing Leadership Development Programs

Have we omitted something? To send a comment or suggestion to the general editor of Tools and Techniques, click here.

To download a complete print copy of the book Tools & Techniques in portable document format (PDF) click here. Note its layout differs from that of the files above, to permit the printing of a book of continuous, 2-sided pages. Print copies of Tools & Techniques (unbound, 3-hole punched) are available at cost. E-mail us your name, address, and phone number or phone (toll-free) 1-888-255-6779 to place your order.

INSTRUCTIONS

To read and print PDF materials on your own computer, you require Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® 4.X or higher. To download it free of charge, click on the button below and follow the instructions at the Adobe website. Once Reader has downloaded, install it by clicking on the new Acrobat Reader icon on your desktop.

Next, return to this page and go to Contents to choose the documents which you wish to store on your computer's hard drive.

To download the document directly to your hard drive, use your RIGHT mouse button to click the "download" option. A dialogue box will then appear for you to complete. Each download may take from 1-5 minutes depending on your hardware, phone system, and time of day. Once a download is complete, you may other selections from this page. Finally, launch Reader and open your new documents at your leisure.

To view the selected document in Reader prior to download, use your LEFT mouse button to click the "download" option. Then use the Acrobat Reader taskbar (with a red symbol at one end) - not your browser's taskbar - to print or save the document to a location of your choice. When one download is complete, use your browser's BACK button to return to this page and make another selection. If you save the files to your hard drive, you may open them again later in Reader.

If this procedure does not appear to work for you, or the screen or printed copies of the documents are not satisfactory, please e-mail the Centre for Community Enterprise.

Copyright © 2003 Centre for Community Enterprise. All rights reserved. Permission to reproduce any of these materials in whole or in part, in print or electronically, must first be obtained from the copyright holder.