Innovators in Rural Community Economic Development
Vermont’s Working Lands Enterprise Board (WLEB) is engaged in a project to provide a systems analysis of the forestry and wood products industry in Vermont. Yellow Wood Associates is working with the Forestry Subcommittee (composed of both WLEB and…
Many rural areas in the United States find themselves struggling to build local assets and create wealth. They often struggle to hold on to the wealth that is created within their boundaries. Conventional approaches to community and economic development…
This paper introduces a wealth creation approach to development, and describes how the Central Appalachian Network has used an outcome-based measurement process to define and measure progress toward shared goals for seven forms of community wealth.…
This draft report is a product of a study supported by the Wallace Center and the National Good Food Network. The study explored how a set of common measures might assist food hubs and the food hub community in telling their stories and improving their…
The report describes how food value chains work, how to structure them for optimal performance, and what challenges they face. The report is designed to help individuals and organizations interested in exploring food value chains as a distribution…
This case study profiles Yellow Wood's work with Goody Clancy and the Town of Mansfield to develop an agricultural strategy for the Town of Mansfield as part of their updated Plan of Conservation and Development.
Attendees learned how food hubs have used You Get What You Measure®, a systems-based analysis to identify their priority measures that will tell them if they are making progress towards their goals. The first part of the session shared examples of…
In an effort to develop a common set of metrics for food hubs to track the contributions they are making at the community level, the Wallace Center partnered with Yellow Wood Associates to research four potential common measures: 1) food access; 2)…
This report, produced for the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) in partnership with the MIT “Keeping Wealth Local” Clinic, explores examples of place-based food brands and offers recommendations for CAN and other Central Appalachian organizations interested…
This case study profiles Yellow Wood's work with the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NESARE) to assess the impact of an outcome funding framework on principal investigators and beneficiaries of projects funded by NESARE.
This case study profiles Yellow Wood's work with Suri Paco LLC to assess the feasibility of an alpaca fiber mid-tier value chain to aggregate and process alpaca fiber into a range of value-added products that make use of all grades of fiber produced…
Shanna Ratner's keynote presentation to the 3rd RURAL ISSUES: Community Leadership Conference on April 6, 2011 focused on why agriculture matters to regional economies and what municipal and public officials can do to grow the agricultural sector.
Shanna Ratner's plenary presentation at the Growing Health 2012 conference in New York addressed the benefits of a fully-realized food system, discussed food systems in context of a wealth creation approach, and engaged participants in exercises around…
This report summarizes an interactive workshop hosted by the Town of Mansfield on the Town’s Agriculture Strategy as part of their Mansfield Tomorrow initiative. Yellow Wood Associates facilitated the workshop in their role as the consultant responsible…
This case study looks at the role of Market Umbrella in helping to develop a regional food system around New Orleans. Interviews throughout the case study highlight the importance of building multiple forms of wealth to create community resilience…
This case study profiles Yellow Wood's project management work with the Wealth Creation in Rural Communities - Building Sustainable Livelihoods (WealthWorks) initiative.
Derby, New Gloucester, America's Byways, NESARE, What's New at Yellow Wood?, Fall Puzzler and Fall Reading
YWA Receives Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Options for Agriculture; Community Learning Teams; Participatory Tools for Information Gathering; Options for a Vermont Telecommunications Center; Right Brain Work-Out; Tom Says Goodbye
Update on Our Work: Value-Added Producer Grant Feasibility Studies, Wealth Creation in Rural Communities, Measurement News, Connecting Rural Communities to Wealth, Creation Concepts, Green Community Technologies©
This agriculture strategy report was created for Mansfield Tomorrow, a Town-wide project designed to provide the vision, strategies and tools for Mansfield to become the 21st century community Mansfield wants to be. This project included a community…
