Community Development

What is Community Development?

Community development is working in communities using a ground-up, participatory approach to identify & prioritize needs that results in connecting people with the resources needed to improve quality of life for all living and working there. Commission staff accomplish this by providing training and technical assistance at all stages of project development—from research and needs identification, visioning and strategic planning, consensus building, leveraging public and private resources, developing project funding scenarios, or grant administration. Most importantly, we seek to creatively leverage the existing wealth of knowledge and experience in Tug Hill communities to identify common concerns and work across jurisdictional boundaries.

Keeping Tug Hill’s towns and villages, and hamlets healthy is key to retaining the region’s character and economy. Working with economic development organizations of the North Country, the commission provides technical assistance to the business community to encourage “home grown” job retention. In trying to remain good places to live and work, Tug Hill’s sparsely populated communities are challenged to find funding for “Main Street” revitalization, library restoration, parks, and other community facilities. The commission helps find grants, loans, and other local resources to make these projects possible.

What are Community Development activities?<

→ Working with Local Groups: non-profits formation; fundraising; strategic planning; marketing

→ Strategic Planning: facilitate community brainstorming; surveys; reports; project prioritization

→ Project Development: consensus building; research; grant writing; assist with project management

→ Economic Development: downtown revitalization; adaptive building reuse; historic preservation & streetscape beautification

→ Park & facility development: municipal offices; records storage; playgrounds; parks & trails

→ Infrastructure: sewer; water; storm water; energy; communications

→ Recreation & Tourism: Black River Blueway & Scenic Byway development and promotion