Article - Four Resolutions All Cities Should Make

Whether you are broadly setting the direction for your community, informing a land-use plan, creating a more effective and relevant (EDA) Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS), mobilizing a HUD-funded Regional Plan for Sustainable Development or any other community-based planning pursuit, the Building Communities process can be the catalyst for positive action ahead.

Our brand of community and economic development strategic planning is different than any other process. We know because we invented it.

Decades ago, a generic strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis was the common approach. More recently, the SWOT process evolved into what has became known as Asset-based Community Development (ABCD).

Building Communities is the third generation of strategic planning for communities. We take the strengths of both older approaches to create a very fast-paced process that is immensely engaging for community leaders and volunteers.

Empowering Community and Regional Planning with Strong, Local Roots

Regional planning is important, but can become meaningless if it is not rooted in local engagement, decisions and action. Building Communities integrates regional planning with local processes in order to maintain local priorities and actions while preserving and enhancing the benefits of regional planning.

82 Plans from Coast to Coast

The Building Communities economic development strategic planning methodology has helped communities and regions from coast-to-coast in the United States since 2009. Today, over 80 communities have utilized this process to envision and enact their desired future.

Beginning with HUD-funded Regional Plans for Sustainable Development

Shortly after the establishment of Building Communities, President Barack Obama established a new approach that he called Regional Plans for Sustainable Development. Led by US Housing and Urban Development (HUD), three additional federal agencies including the US DOT, US EPA, and USDA Rural Development funded 74 regions for such planning. Building Communities provided the grant writing and strategic planning for three of these regions. It was through this intense effort to complete 21 plans in North Dakota, 21 plans in Arkansas, and 12 plans in Arizona that Building Communities to perfected its approach.

Focus on Native American Tribes

When company founder Brian Cole discovered the appalling living conditions of the Navajo and Hopi people impacted by the Bennett Freeze in Northern Arizona, he could not believe that he was still in America. Since that fateful discovery in 2011, Brian has focused his planning methodology and initiative for the betterment of the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and other Native American Tribes. This effort today is known as the Navajo Thaw and Hopi Resilience.

Since the company’s founding, Brian has had a vision of evangelizing the world with his economic development strategic planning methodology. Over $280 billion is invested by the United Nations, Bilateral and Multilateral organizations, and major foundations to improve the living conditions and generate hope for Indigenous communities. Brian believes that the Building Communities methodology can create community and region-plans to better inform worldwide development and philanthropic efforts.