Environment

This innovative and useful toolbox contains numerous techniques for public participation that communities can use to get organized, to turn their vision into a reality, and to work together to improve their parks, rivers, open spaces and special places.

This toolkit helps communities put an economic value to amenities such as rivers, trails and greenway corridors.

Trails and greenways have economic, as well as recreational and health benefits. Both stimulate tourism and recreation-related spending, and have positive impacts on quality of life. This report identifies the numerous economic benefits of trails and greenways in the US.

A web-based resource to assist local government officials in their efforts to protect the environment and public health. A collection of tools are designed to help users perform operations and calculations necessary to fulfill environmental reporting requirements or guide the development of a helpful environmental program.

Smart Growth America is a nationwide coalition promoting a better way to grow: one that protects open space, revitalizes neighborhoods, keeps housing affordable, and provides more transportation choices.

The CPTED Page was created as a means to perennially provide access to information relating to crime prevention through environmental design.

This site provides a variety of information and tools including the federal "Weed and Seed" program as well as a variety of other technical assistance and funding resources.

This page provides case studies of successful, community-based crime prevention partnerships.

A nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization, the Local Government Commission (LGC) is composed of forward-thinking elected officials, city and county staff, and other interested individuals. Commission members are committed to developing and implementing local solutions to problems of state and national significance. The LGC provides a forum and technical assistance to enhance the ability of local governments to create and sustain healthy environments, healthy economies, and social equity.

This program has been successfully used across the United States to engage youth and adults in community development and change. The process begins with youth trained to collect data that help to provide a comprehensive look at existing community resources. The resulting CYM database highlights resource availability and gaps in a community and serves as a basis for organizing community change. Community Youth Mapping is a youth development strategy instituted by the AED Center for Youth Development and Policy Research. It is ideally coordinated by a local public/private/nonprofit partnership and led by a local community-based institution.