Innovators in Rural Community Economic Development

Washington

Yellow Wood brings a special combination of content and process expertise to our work.

We invite you to explore our work.  Recent projects and presentations are listed below.  You can explore additional work using the various tags in the right hand column.

Land Trust Alliance, Assistance with Metrics for Community Conservation

The Land Trust Alliance (Alliance) is a national conservation organization that works to save the places people love. Most recently, the Alliance has begun to focus on Community Conservation, listening to and engaging people from all walks of life…

2014 NCRC Annual Conference - A Just Economy: Ideas, Action, Impact

Shanna Ratner was a panelist on the panel "Innovative Strategies that Support Rural Communities." This panel featured organizations that build local value chains in sectors such as food and agriculture, green affordable housing, energy efficiency,…

WealthWorks Training, April 2014 - February 2015

Participants in the second WealthWorks training, which began in April 2014 and runs through February 2015, come from organizations and states across the country, including Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group…

WealthWorks Training, December 2013 - September 2014

The WealthWorks Training provides coaches and coordinators from nonprofit, for profit, and government agencies with an introduction to the Wealth Works approach and framework and a guided six to nine month Wealth Works…

Knowledge and Learning Transfer and Training for the Wealth Creation Approach to Rural and Regional Development Project, The Aspen Institute

Yellow Wood collaborated with the Aspen Institute’s Community Strategies Group to develop a knowledge transfer platform for development practitioners who want to use the wealth creation approach developed through the Ford Foundation’s Wealth Creation…

National Cooperative Business Association, Conference Planning

Yellow Wood was invited to collaborate with the National Cooperative Business Association to develop the introductory workshop and framework for subsequent workshops in a conference track for community economic development practitioners. The initial…

National Cooperative Business Association Wealth Creation Pilot Project

Yellow Wood worked with the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) to conduct a pilot study on the unique contribution cooperatives make to the creation and retention of wealth in the communities and regions in which they operate. We worked…

Measurement Workshop, Washington DC, March 2010

Melissa Levy presented a full-day public workshop on the You Get What You Measure® process in Washington, DC. Attendees came from NOAA, the US Forest Service, the US Department of Agriculture, and the US EPA.

Wealth Creation in Rural Communities, Phases 1 and 2: Triple Bottom Line Framework for Rural America

Yellow Wood assisted Wayne Fawbush of the Ford Foundation in developing an innovative approach to rural development based on an application of triple bottom line principles to create and maintain community wealth. Wealth was defined by categories of…

Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Outcome Funding Evaluation

Yellow Wood evaluated the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and its work helping advance farming systems that are profitable, environmentally sound and good for communities through a nationwide research and education…

Survey to Determine Economic Cost to Employers of Mobilized RC Members

Yellow Wood partnered with another firm, Camp and Associates, on a project with the Department of Defense to study the economic impacts on businesses of mobilized reservist employees. As part of this project, Yellow Wood planned and facilitated a number…

Rural Brownfields Research

On behalf of the National Association of Development Organizations, Yellow Wood conducted research on EPA brownfields grants awarded to regional development organizations. As part of this research, Yellow Wood developed an online questionnaire and…

Northwest Area Foundation, Introduction to Strategy Development, Central South King County, Washington

Yellow Wood Associates provided an introduction to strategy development using You Get What You Measure® to a multi-lingual group of residents, immigrants, and refugees in Central South King County, Washington on behalf of the Northwest Area Foundation.…

Cooperative Forestry Performance Measures Accountability System

Cooperative Forestry, a unit of the US Forest Service, contracted with Yellow Wood Associates to assist program leaders from around the country in developing measures of progress toward Cooperative Forestry’s goals using our trademarked process, You Get…

Analysis of Community-Based Forestry Initiative, Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group

The Aspen Institute’s Community Strategies Group, which is administering the Ford Foundation’s Community-Based Forestry Initiative in the United States, invited Shanna Ratner of Yellow Wood Associates to review and analyze the monitoring plans of nine…

Rural Community Capacity Building Learning Cluster

Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. surveyed members of the Learning Cluster to determine the variety of approaches being used to build rural community capacity, resulting in a report entitled Community Capacity Building, What Is It? for the Aspen Institute.…

Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program Outcome Funding

Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. worked with NESARE in piloting an outcome-funding approach to grantmaking. The work included two year’s participation in the design process, proposal reviews, interviews with potential grantees, committee work to select…

USDA Rural Development Best Practices Net Meeting Facilitation

Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. facilitated nine net meetings with USDA State Rural Development staff to share stories about projects/activities that have contributed to community capacity building, leveraging, and partnerships, and that represent a new…

USDA Rural Development Office of Policy and Planning

Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. co-delivered a training with Daryl Hobbs of the University of Missouri Office for Social and Economic Data Analysis using Yellow Wood Associates, Inc.’s measurement process to over 120 USDA Rural Development staff from…

See The Forest

Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. worked with conservation commissions in Starksboro and Huntington, Vermont to develop a community-based education program designed to help communities appreciate forests as economic, environmental and social assets. The…

Fund for Rural America Forest Project Planning Grant

Yellow Wood Associates, Inc., in collaboration with the Forest Trust of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the National Network of Forest Practitioners, received a Planning Grant from the Fund for Rural America to develop a national center to create and support…

Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE)

Served a three-year term on the Administrative Council of the Northeast Region’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

Learning Communities

Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. prepared a paper on the concept of learning communities for the Appalachian Regional Commission. The paper focused on how to identify traits common to learning communities and how to foster the development of these community…

US Forest Service Rural Community Assistance Program

Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. worked with Cornelia Butler Flora of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development and the Heartland Center for Leadership Development to develop and test a training program for measuring progress toward community…

Preliminary Survey of State Programs Supporting Rural Community Development

Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. worked with the Aspen Institute to survey eleven states supporting rural community development. The purpose of the work was to identify the role of state government in supporting communities after they have completed some…

World Bank Workshop

Invited by the World Bank to participate in an international workshop on “Indicators and Methods to Measure Participation, Demand Orientation, and Local Organizational Capacity in Community Driven Projects.” Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. represented…

Forest Trust Conference

“Regional Economic Development based on the Wood Products Industry” was presented to a conference of The Forest Trust in Washington, DC