Re: CDC and resident capacity building program

[Catalina Garzón <garzcat@igc.org>]

The Urban Habitat Program, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, has
developed a training curriculum for its Leadership Institute for
Sustainable Communities entitled "Taking on the Region: Land, Race, and
Communities," which looks at land use development patterns in the
context of institutionalized discrimination and proactive,
community-based strategies to urban revitalization. UHP's Community
Revitalization & Land Restoration Project (formerly known as the
Brownfields Project) has taken the lead in shaping the brownfields
redevelopment content of many of the sessions, which are taught through
participatory & interactive learning techniques. This year's
participants in the training are a diverse group of community
developers, leaders, organizers, and environmental justice activists
representing a broad range of ages, ethnicities, & community groups
(including CDCs, social service provider nonprofits, & direct action
organizing-oriented groups) throughout the Bay Area region. 
	UHP has also developed a more brownfields-specific, abbreviated 6-week
training series geared towards young professionals through its Bay Area
Communities Initiative (BACI) summer internship program. BACI places
diverse college-age youth & recent graduates in full-time internships
with community-based organizations & nonprofits conducting brownfields
redevelopment work in the Bay Area. This training series is meant to be
an introductory training to many brownfields- & land-use related
concepts, whereas the Leadership Institute training curriculum is
tailored to more advanced & experienced participants in the field. 
	To accompany the trainings, UHP has recently published a 100-pg
"Community Guide to Brownfields Redevelopment in the Bay Area," an
introductory handbook that introduces community readers to brownfields
stakeholders, the stages of the development process, and an
environmental justice, community-oriented framework & analysis to the
underlying forces that contribute to the creation & persistence of
brownfields in urban communities. The guide is available from UHP for
$20 + $3 shipping & handling.
	To order the Guide or for further info about the BACI brownfields
community leadership training curriculum, please contact Catalina
Garzón, Community Revitalization & Land Restoration Project Associate,
at (415) 561-3328, or email garzcat@igc.org
	For more info on the Leadership Institute for Sustainable Communities,
contact Julie Quiroz, Education Director, at (415) 561-3331, or email
quiroz@igc.org
	For more information about UHP's brownfields-related technical
assistance, policy advocacy, & capacity-building work, contact Torri
Estrada, Community Revitalization & Land Restoration Project
Coordinator, at (415) 561-3336, or email tje@igc.org.