Community Building

The Innovation Center partners with organizations to support community leaders and youth workers in community building, rural development, and sustainability efforts. Our Building Community model, which forms the basis for much of our work, is an adaptable approach to community building in which youth and adults work as partners to examine community resources, develop a community vision, and take action to create meaningful change.

With our partners, we have extended the Building Community model to develop tools and strategies for engaging youth and adults as partners in creating positive community change. Our community development work is grounded in several core principles:

• Building equal partnerships between youth and adults
• Examining assets, not deficits, of communities, groups, and individuals
• Exploring the full diversity of local resources
• Focusing on the root causes of community issues