Communities Have New Toolbox

Just as carpenters have hammers, nails, and saws to construct new homes, now community leaders have new tools to construct their communities.

How do community leaders select strategies to advance their economies and quality of life? How do community leaders organize their cities and counties to prepare for economic development? How do community leaders sustain economic development practices in recessionary and turbulent times?

These challenging questions are answered in an upcoming book by economic development specialist Brian Cole—Building Communities: 25 Strategies to Advance America.

Building Communities offers three new tools to mayors, city councilors, county commissioners, economic development practitioners, chamber executives, port managers, and others. By utilizing these tools, communities select the right strategies, build the right teams, and sustain healthy economies.

The three tools are called the Strategy Selector, Community Organizer, and Alliance Builder.

The Strategy Selector tool allows community leaders to comprehensively analyze the comparative advantages and disadvantages of their communities in order to select economic development strategies that stand the greatest likelihood of success.

The Community Organizer tool is an in-depth analysis of the people, budgets, and organizations within the community to determine if economic development activity is being conducted efficiently and effectively.

Finally, the Alliance Builder tool is a high-level agreement by all of the key leaders and organizations within a community to sustain economic development activities in good times and bad times.

With Building Communities, community leaders now have a new economic development toolbox. The Building Communities book will explain when and how each of the tools should be used to develop, implement, and sustain an economic development strategic plan.
“These tools provide a very objective approach for community leaders to envision and enact their desired future,” said Cole. “These tools take a lot of the subjectivity and the unknowns out of economic development.”