About Us
The life and vitality of a city
relies on the engagement of people in everyday community
life. TheCenter For Neighborhoods(formerly the Louisville
Community Design Center) envisions a community driven
by an array of lively civic institutions working in partnership
with local government and one another to create sound
neighborhoods and community.
Our purpose is to empower citizens
and citizen-based institutions to have an effective
role in making their neighborhoods good, decent, and
attractive places to live. Continuing 33 years of work,
the Center For Neighborhoodspursues its mission and
fundamental purpose through leadership education, through
community planning, and by assisting neighborhood-based
development and improvement.
Learning
Goal of Learning:
Cultivate
and support effective neighborhood associations citywide
through leadership education. Build learning
networks around common concerns and approaches, drawing
together resident leaders from diverse neighborhoods,
perspectives, and experiences.
- The
Neighborhood Institute.
Begun in 1987, the Neighborhood
Institute is a comprehensive leadership program designed
to provide neighborhood leaders with the skills and
understandings necessary to lead effective neighborhood
organizations. The Institute is conducted
as a twelve-week seminar twice each year.
- NI Graduate Seminars Occasional
seminars conducted for graduates of the Neighborhood
Institute that “drill-down” into issues,
skills, and best practices introduced to leaders via
their participation in the NI.
Planning and Development
Goal of Planning and Development:
Assist neighborhoods to articulate common goals and
purposes and to envision places and functions that respond
to resident needs and aspirations.
- Neighborhood
Plans. In association
with the Metro Louisville Department of Planning
and Design Services the Design Center facilitates
neighborhood-specific planning efforts. Through
public meetings, local task force working committees
and Design Center staff efforts, we collect, document
and analyze existing conditions en route to the preparation
of a strategic plan that will guide future policy
and development. Visioning sessions
lay the groundwork for recommendations concerning
the major elements of land use/community form, mobility,
housing, economic development, parks and open space,
historic preservation and environmental resource
protection.
- Neighborhood
Assessments. With the Metro Louisville
Department of Neighborhoods, the Community Design
Center conducts neighborhood assessments throughout
metropolitan Louisville. In partnership with
neighborhood and civic organizations, small cities,
and members of Metro Council, each assessment solicits
broad input from Census 2000 data, resident quality-of-life
surveys and public resident workshops. The ultimate
product of these efforts is an agenda for action
by the neighborhood, its neighborhood-serving institutions
and Metro Louisville government.
- CHDO
Train & Sustain. Fledgling Community Housing
Development Organizations (CHDO) are given the necessary tools
forincreasing their capability,
effectiveness and sustainability through a combination
of training and technical assistance. A
series of eight classes is offered twice each year
and ongoing technical assistance is provided following
the classes.
- Brownfields
Institute. In partnership
with Metropolitan Development Authority and the University
of Louisville, CFN is conducts a series of workshops, “Rethinking
Brownfields” with the purpose of creating a
task force for the corridor bounded by Algonquin
Parkway, Broadway and 9th and 22nd Streets. Residents,
developers, real estate investors, environmentalists,
public agency representatives, neighborhood institutions,
business and property owners are convening to examine
the assets, possibilities and barriers in revitalizing
the area.
- Parks
and Open Space. Assistance
to neighborhoods in the development of plans for open
space and parks that benefit and support neighborhood
quality of life.
- UofL/UK
Urban Design Studio. The
Center For Neighborhoods is a founding partner of the
University of Louisville/University of Kentucky Urban
Design Studio, a teaching facility established in 1998
as a groundbreaking collaboration between the University
of Louisville School of Urban and Public Affairs (SUPA)
and the University of Kentucky College of Design. Typical
of CFN’s practicing relationship with the UDS,
the CFN annually conducts a graduate-level Neighborhood
Planning Studio at the UDS, focusing on a current planning
effort in metro Louisville neighborhoods.
Organizing
Goal of Organizing:
Organize, nurture and promote resident and family networks
for community improvement and results.
- Making
Connections. Working with the Annie E. Casey Foundation,
the Making Connections Network is helping engage
residents within four center city neighborhoods around
a variety of strategies for neighborhood improvement and
renewal.
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