Innovators in Rural Community Economic Development

Agriculture

Forestry and Wood Products Sector Survey: Summary of Findings

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…


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Community Development v.45, i.5, Special Issue: Rural Wealth Creation as a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy

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…


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Community Development v.44, i.5, “Shared measures to achieve shared outcomes: lessons from Central Appalachia”

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.…


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Exploring Common Measures for Food Hubs: Documenting Impact, Sharing Stories, Connecting with Stakeholders

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…


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Food Value Chains: Creating Shared Value to Enhance Marketing Success

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…


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Case Study: Building an Agriculture Strategy

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.


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Measures that Matter

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…


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Finding Common Measures for the Nation's Food Hubs

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)…


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Branding Study for Appalachian Local Food Economies

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…


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Case Study: Outcome Funding Evaluation for NESARE

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.


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Case Study: Value-Added Agriculture Feasibility Study

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…


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3rd Rural Issues Community Leadership Conference, April 6 2011, Keynote

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.


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Your Role in Healthy Food Systems

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…


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Mansfield Agriculture Workshop Summary

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…


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Building a Regional Food System: A Case Study of Market Umbrella in the New Orleans Region

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…


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Case Study: Leadership in Community Wealth Creation

This case study profiles Yellow Wood's project management work with the Wealth Creation in Rural Communities - Building Sustainable Livelihoods (WealthWorks) initiative.


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Yellow Wood Notes, Fall 2007

Derby, New Gloucester, America's Byways, NESARE, What's New at Yellow Wood?, Fall Puzzler and Fall Reading


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Yellow Wood Notes, Summer 1998

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


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Yellow Wood Notes, Spring 2012

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©


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Yellow Wood Notes, Summer 1999

Forensic Research; Walking the Lake Champlain Basin; An Innovative Evaluation Tool; YWA Expands Training & Facilitation Services; Examining Assumptions; Direct Producer Retailer of PA Dairy Products; Mind-Bending Puzzler
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Mansfield Agriculture Strategy

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…


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