Although there is an abundance of guidance on livability, smart growth, Placemaking, and sustainability, the complex and interdependent issues involved can make it unclear where your community should start. This can lead to delays in taking action, or to investing precious public dollars in solutions ill-adapted to your particular needs. We coordinate and consolidate many of the most well-known resources on these topics, offering critical assistance quickly and inexpensively to agencies, nonprofits, and community leaders.
Our tools can be deployed individually or in combination via workshops and other onsite assistance led by members of our our coalition. We also offer online tools that can be used independently or in conjunction with on-site trainings. In addition, we can provide mentoring webinars, conference calls, small group coaching, and team building sessions.
Our Capacity Building Program helps state and local agencies as well as community organizations to align their missions and cultures with new federal, state, and local initiatives surrounding livability, smart growth, and sustainability. For further information on livability principles, please refer to the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. State DOTs, transit agencies, MPOs, and many other local and regional agencies need to be prepared to respond to and successfully implement this new set of cross-cutting goals and outcomes being set by federal agencies.
We do this by:
- Helping agencies understand their mission in broader terms, e.g. creating livable places and sustainable communities;
- Changing internal culture;
- Working with agency stakeholders/customers to enhance their ability to engage DOTs, transit agencies and MPOs.
- Formulating new policy changes;
- Retooling capital programming and planning; and
- Revamping project development processes to include partnering with communities in decision-making and project goal setting.
How do I work with Livability Solutions?
Please contact us at livabilitysolutions@pps.org if you are interested in bringing any of our partners or livability tools to your community!
You can also apply for free technical assistance from Livability Solutions partners, available thanks to a 5-year grant to PPS from the US EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities under its Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.
What makes my community a good candidate?
There are some important elements that characterize communities we feel can be aided in reaching their tipping point:
- A commitment to creating lively town centers and neighborhoods: Lively places enhance pride of place and promote local economic development, in ways that improve local quality of life as well as quality of the environment.
- A commitment to public engagement: Including all members of the community in planning or development processes helps ensure that the objectives set meet community goals, and that the strategies to reach them are tailored to your community.
- Involvement of multiple agencies, organizations and leadership: Achieving these goals and objectives will require the commitment and participation of community leaders, multiple agencies, and stakeholders. A willingness to work across agencies or departments is critical to improving capacity for livability, smart growth, and sustainability.
