• Initiate community involvement: Engage the public carefully and meaningfully in dialogue about the future of their community and their neighborhood.

• Inform decision-makers: Provide a means for community leaders and professionals to learn about the specifics of green neighborhoods, for example through a lecture series.

• Create community partnerships: Partner with community organizations, non-profits and state and federal agencies to sponsor educational events for the public, staff, and developers.

• Create education partnerships: Partner with schools to teach students about green neighborhoods and Smart Growth.

• Liaise with elected officials: Educate elected officials about benefits of green neighborhoods, and identify and work through issues.

• Provide training: Plan and deliver internal training to address technical issues, such as relationships between street designs and response times for emergency services.

• Highlight successes: Highlight successful early projects in the media, emphasising benefits to the community as a whole.

• Enter to win: Enter to win national and state awards for Smart Growth and green neighborhood development.

• Research successes: Find out about successes in other markets and communicate them to lenders.

Capacity building initiatives:

• California: Compass Blueprint is a regional growth plan for Southern California. Built on extensive public participation coupled with technical analysis, the plan is being implemented through neighborhood-scale planning initiatives.

• New York: Hell’s Kitchen South in New York City was the focus of a series of public planning events and technical efforts, including dialogues between residents, experts, developers and others to create a shared vision for redevelopment of the neighborhood and deal with implementation issues.  The efforts led to a comprehensive redevelopment strategy.