Today, we are proud to announce the selection of 21 local elected officials to join the inaugural class of the Active People, Healthy Nation℠ Champions Institute. Over the course of six months, these leaders will receive comprehensive training to help them become champions in their communities to promote activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations.
A Complete Streets policy is just part of what makes it possible for a community to create safer streets, but political leadership is key. To help prepare more of our elected officials to effectively advocate for and support Complete Streets, Smart Growth America has launched the Champions Institute. We are accepting applications from local officials through September 10, 2020.
Smart Growth America (SGA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity are now accepting applications for the Champions Institute, a new initiative for elected officials focused on safe streets and healthy communities. The Champions Institute will serve to prepare mayors, city council people, tribal representatives, and other local elected-officials to act as champions supporting plans, policies, and funding that promote activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations.
Fort Scott, Kansas has an incredible network of brick streets to rival any city in the country—an under recognized asset. At a recent workshop, Smart Growth America and local experts looked to build atop this and other assets to make Fort Scott more attractive to current and future residents.
LOCUS & Smart Growth America recently launched the National Opportunity Zones Marketplace, an online resource to help facilitate equitable development and information sharing. It’s the latest evolution of our work to ensure that new investment in Opportunity Zones benefit existing residents the community at-large instead of displacing the people the tax incentive was intended to help. Watch the recorded webinar about how to use the Marketplace.
On Tuesday, February 18, LOCUS and Smart Growth America are launching the National Opportunity Zones Marketplace to facilitate and spur equitable smart growth development across the country, with a focus on Opportunity Zones.
The towns of Barnstable and Yarmouth on Cape Cod worked with SGA’s Form-Based Codes Institute during the first-ever Massachusetts Opportunity Zones Academy to gain insight on how to take advantage of their designated Opportunity Zones to create a better sense of place within the two towns.
Smart growth—building places that are healthy, resilient, and prosperous—requires tackling an almost impossibly long list of complicated issues. But Smart Growth America has the diverse experience required to move the needle.
Last week, we hosted “Lessons learned in small-scale manufacturing,” a webinar that revisited communities we’ve helped with small-scale manufacturing and place-based economic development over the past three years. Speakers shared lessons and ongoing successes in Knoxville, TN; Columbia, MO; and Lafayette, LA. A recording of the webinar is now available and you can read a short recap below.
With the creation of a new national academy for Opportunity Zones, Smart Growth America and our LOCUS coalition of responsible real estate investors continue to be on the forefront of helping communities use this tax incentive as a force for equitable growth that’s mutually beneficial for both investors and most importantly the people who live and do business in them.