Whether you're looking to tackle a certain issue, gain new skills, or build capacity to do work in your community, this collection of guides and instructions covers a wide range of topics from different organizations, all with the aim of making positive changes in communities. 

 
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Brownfields to Greenfields: A Field Guide to Photoremediation
Brownfields to Greenfields: A Field Guide to Photoremediation

Produced by youarethecity, an urban design practice run by Kaja Kühl in NYC, the guide is aimed at individuals and community groups wanting to remediate toxic soil on vacant lots in their neighborhood.  

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A User’s Guide to (Demanding) the Impossible
A User’s Guide to (Demanding) the Impossible

A User's Guide to Demanding the Impossible argues that art is more than expression—it is a tool for transformation. Through creativity, collective action, and imagination, ordinary people can challenge existing systems, reshape public spaces, and turn bold ideas into meaningful social change by acting in the present.

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"Active Design: Guide for Community Groups"
"Active Design: Guide for Community Groups"

Active Design: Guide for Community Groups shows how thoughtful design can create healthier, safer, and more connected neighborhoods by improving public spaces and empowering residents to advocate for community-driven change.

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"Living Alleys Toolkit"
"Living Alleys Toolkit"

The Market Octavia Living Alleys Toolkit demonstrates how underutilized alleys can be transformed into vibrant public spaces that prioritize people over traffic. Through community-led design, these shared streets become safer, greener, and more connected, supporting walking, cycling, gathering, and neighborhood identity.

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"A Mayor's Guide to Public Life"

The Mayor’s Guide to Public Life is an inspiration and how-to guide for city leaders throughout the globe.  Based upon a series of interviews with mayors and designers, the guide proposes 5 strategies: Measure, Invite, Do, Evolve and Formalize.  With these strategies in-hand, municipalities will have the inspiration and framework needed to build more accessible and inclusive public spaces.

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"Walk Boston: Pedestrian Infrastructure, Strategies for Improving Pedestrian Safety Through Low-Cost Traffic Calming"

In 2015 the WalkBoston published a report on low cost pedestrian improvements entitled Pedestrian Infrastructure: Strategies for Improving Pedestrian Safety Through Low-Cost Traffic Calming.  The report focuses on traffic calming strategies that can be implemented quickly and at a low cost by an individual, organization or municipality.

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"A Consensus Handbook: Co-operative decision-making for activists, co-ops and communities"
"A Consensus Handbook: Co-operative decision-making for activists, co-ops and communities"

A Consensus Handbook is a manual created by the UK Social Justice and Environmental Activism Worker Co-op, Seeds for Change, that provides tools and techniques for cooperative decision making processes.

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"THE CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO URBAN DESIGN"

The Citizen’s Guide to Urban Design is a four section resource guide, commissioned by the Foundation of Louisiana in 2012, intended to guide the general public on how to play an active role in the design of their neighborhoods, communities, and cities. 

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Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

A collection of projects, organizations, and ideas to get you inspired and moving!

Posts
Ghana Think Tank: The American Riad
Ghana Think Tank: The American Riad

The Ghana Think Tank's most recent project, American Riad, is a 3 year project that will transform formerly abandoned homes in Detroit’s North End into 8 homes with a shared courtyard.  The project concept came from a Moroccan Think Tank working to develop solutions to what they described as the United States’s “problem of social isolation”.  Ghana Think Tank co-founder, John Ewing, recalled the feedback from the Moroccan group “They said to us you need to stop this obsession with the single family homes...instead you need housing more like ours: That's communal housing around a common courtyard with a single entrance, then you will have community.“

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Daffodil Project
Daffodil Project

ne of New York City’s largest volunteer projects has been working for over a decade to make the city brighter one daffodil bulb at a time.  Since 2001 New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) has been planting daffodils every fall and watching them grow in the spring.  As of 2017 the project has distributed more than a half a million bulbs citywide and partnered with the NYC Housing Authority and city schools to engage more than 100,000 students and volunteers.  

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Jane’s Walk

The global initiative of Jane's Walk is inspired by activist and urban studies scholar, Jane Jacobs. In her practice Jacobs emphasized that cities should be shaped by the residents that occupy them and Jane’s Walks provide opportunities for people to tell the stories of the spaces where they live, work and play while also building new relationships within their communities.

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Candy Chang and Vendor Power
Candy Chang and Vendor Power

Trained as an Urban Planner, designer and visual artist Candy Chang has been making art in the public sphere since 2006.  In 2009 she collaborated with the Center for Urban Pedagogy and the Street Vendor Project to make a poster pamphlet that explained the complex regulatory system for street vendors in New York City.  The project includes a history of street vending in New York, interviews with street vendors and policy reform recommendations.

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Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

bulidingcommunityWORKSHOP, the community design center that maintains this site, has produced a large body of research and documentation of its neighborhood based work. This collection contains all publications [bc] has put out over the last seven years in the 3 regions it works in - Dallas, Houston, and the Rio Grande Valley. In addition to being informative about the regions [bc] works in, these publications also provide further inspiration for community based work that can be undertaken anywhere in the world. 

Posts
Rapido ADU
Rapido ADU

We have developed a series of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) that utilize the RAPIDO CORE as a base building and explore different outdoor design layouts that allow for adaptation and flexibility of placement in multiple lot configurations.

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Disaster Recovery Leadership Development Modules
Disaster Recovery Leadership Development Modules

[bc] has worked with the Texas Organizing Project (TOP) to create resources for individuals to learn about specific issues including flooding, the disaster recovery process, housing and gentrification. We hope that these "Modules" will help people provide informed feedback at community meetings, support community organizing efforts, and empower them to have engaged conversations with local officials and experts. 

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Rapid Disaster Recovery Housing Program
Rapid Disaster Recovery Housing Program

In 2008, Hurricane Dolly made landfall in Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley causing widespread flooding and sustained winds of over 120mph. The Texas Natural Disaster Housing Reconstruction Committee assembled a plan to design a statewide rapidly deployable replacement housing system for victims of federally declared natural disasters. RAPIDO is [bc]'s response to the state’s initiative, addressing issues of social equity, rapid deployment, and constructability.

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AVANCE-Dallas
AVANCE-Dallas

A Data Driven Decision-Making (D3) report completed by [bc] for AVANCE-Dallas. To help AVANCE-Dallas expand their early childhood operation, [bc] provided a set of recommendations to guide future growth in areas of need. This report draws from a number of national, state, and local data to identify and contextualize issues affecting AVANCE-Dallas’ strategic decision-making.

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