Integrated Revitalization Regions Project

Integrated Revitalization Coalition (of business, academic, government, & non-profit/citizen stakeholders)
Gives you the ability to design and implement an IR Vision and Strategy that minimizes delays and maximizes resources (funding, workforce, etc.). If you already have such a coalition, it will be enhanced by this program.
Integrated Revitalization Vision & Strategy
Inspires confidence (internal & external) in your future that attracts investment (public & private), employers, & residents, and provides the vitally necessary foundation for creating (or updating) a long-term master plan. If you already have a vision and strategy, they will be enhanced by this program.
Integrated Revitalization Policies

Creates a socioeconomic and political environment that maximizes restorative development and minimizes destructive development, and helps lock the vision and strategy in place for the long term. Note: In some cases, communities and regions will choose to work on their policies first: these deliverables do not have to be addressed in the order listed here.

The IR Regions Project is an integral part of the IR Tools Program. Here's how the two initiatives work together:

Our Integrated Revitalization Tools Program (IR Tools) is creating those desperately-needed new tools, and is aggregating the resources that are already available. Our Revitalization Resource Finder (see bottom of page) is one such tool: Through a single user interface, it will enable communities and regions to quickly locate the technical, financial, and educational resources available to their specific geographic area, and it will address all 12 sectors of restorative development. [Details on the IR Tools Program will be found below the IR Regions Project.]
Our Integrated Revitalization Regions Project (IR Regions) is how we are implementing the IR Tools Program, while simultaneously advancing the socioeconomic and environmental renewal of specific communities and regions. It is described immediately below.

What this program is and is not: The IR Regions Project is an educational program designed to accelerate and improve your revitalization and redevelopment. It imbues your process with new resources, new connections, and leading-edge tools. It is not a planning process. It does not add another layer of planning to complicate your current efforts, nor does it create new organizations, new teams, or new timetables (unless that is what you decide is needed). While there is a regional scope to this program (in order to address critical issues, e.g. watersheds, infrastructure, etc.) most efforts will be community-focused.

The IR Tools Program is a long-term effort on the part of Revitalization Institute: it's unlikely we'll ever reach a point at which we no longer need more or better revitalization tools. But, these efforts must be immediately useful in the "real world", since so many communities and protected areas are already in dire need of socioeconomic and environmental revitalization. Therefore, involvement in the program has been designed to produce both short-term and long-term benefits for you.

We have therefore combined the development of IR Tools with on-the-ground integrated revitalization programs, so tool development and economic development are accomplished simultaneously We are recruiting 40 Integrated Revitalization Regions (IR Regions) in North America, and your metropolitan or rural area in Canada, Mexico, or the USA can apply to be one of them.

These IR Regions will advance their own revitalization while developing and testing the IR Tools. The IR Regions Project will be spearheaded by four IR Region Pilots in North America (one in Canada, one in Mexico, and two in the USA). These Pilots will collaborate with Revitalization Institute on the design of the IR Tools Program, and specific organizations--academic, non-profit, government, and business--will take the lead on coordinating the development of specific tools.

Once the IR Tools Program is designed, funded, and underway, the four IR Region Pilots will be joined by 36 IR Region Leaders: English and Spanish-speaking communities and regions throughout the Americas. Future phases will recruit additional IR Regions worldwide, focusing first on those speaking English or Spanish, in order to leverage the tools already created in the Americas.