Community Development

Signature Programs

This program is geared towards current and future farm managers/owners, agribusinesses and small business owners who are looking to improve their human resource management (HRM) skills. The program includes hands-on activities to engage managers to increase management awareness and ability.

Interactive sessions aim to build skills in a wide variety of human resource management topics important to farm businesses and small businesses. Learn from other farmers and managers to take home effective and practical approaches to human resource management.

Purdue Extension Community Development’s Digital Ready initiative advances the capacity of small businesses to strengthen their knowledge and application of broadband strategies. Through interactive workshops and online courses led by a statewide team of Purdue trainers, participants learn about the importance of the digital economy, how to incorporate digital strategies into the workplace and build technical knowledge.

Signature Programs

In Indiana, community leaders make decisions about public spaces such as parks, trails, farmers markets, schools, and Main Streets every day that affect the health and wellness of the community. Using Purdue Extension’s Enhancing the Value of Public Spaces: Creating Healthy Communities program, facilitators coach communities through the development of a high-quality action plan for their public spaces. The plan can guide decisions and better position communities to take advantage of opportunities to promote healthy eating and active living.

Collaborative Projects

Taking Action to Address Substance Use in Communities has been developed by a team of health professionals and Extension professionals from Purdue University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and The Ohio State University to provide a theoretical framework for Extension professionals as they work with communities to create a collaborative approach to addressing substance use disorder. The waning and irregular access to treatment providers in rural areas, combined with a need to increase efforts to help individuals with SUD enter recovery, call for community-based approaches which increase collaboration among community organizations and individuals involved with substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery support.

Signature Programs

American Citizen Planner – Indiana provides training to Indiana citizen planners who currently serve or plan to serve on area or advisory plan commissions. The program features 31 topics detailing core planning theories, practices, and processes. A comprehensive assessment and four virtual training events reinforce the content learned in the units. The program is hosted by a local Purdue Extension educator for either a county or a region.

The Digital Ready Community program empowers communities to increase civic engagement, trust, and local government responsiveness by leveraging digital platforms. A team of Purdue specialists and educators guides the community in forming a digital asset group (DAG), inventory digital assets, and draft a community-wide digital engagement plan. Deliverables include the formation of the DAG, DAG’s operational agreement and a community-wide digital engagement plan. The program lasts 6-9 months.

From improving access to fruits and vegetables to educating people on how food is grown, community gardens offer many benefits to the place you call home. Grass to Garden is a Purdue Extension Signature Program co-led by members from both the Agriculture and Natural Resources and Community Development Educator teams to bring Indiana residents together and teach tactics on how to start a community-based garden. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the Purdue Extension Grass to Garden Signature Program aims to provide information focused on more than just growing plants by strengthening agricultural and community development efforts, resulting in healthier communities with improved access to local food.

Collaborative Projects

Communities face several challenges and complex decisions related to natural hazards, which are increasingly exacerbated by climate change. Furthermore, the increased frequency of extreme weather events creates a widespread challenge for managing stormwater, flooding, and extreme heat. Integrating mitigation and resilience strategies into multiple community plans and policies is essential if communities are to adapt to these climate challenges successfully.

Rainscaping is a combination of sustainable landscape design and management practices that prevents polluted runoff from reaching water bodies — directing stormwater to be absorbed by plants and soils.

The Purdue Rainscaping Education Program provides training and resources on rainscaping practices that can be installed in residential settings or small-scale public spaces projects.

Great Lakes communities experience frequent severe storms, flooding, and degraded water quality from expanding urbanization. Marginalizes communities of low income, communities of color, and those lacking access to safe and stable neighborhoods are most impacted yet often have the fewest means to adapt to water quality and quantity concerns. Three Sea Grant programs (Illinois-Indiana, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania) and key collaborators and community partners addressed the impacts of flooding and extreme weather events through paired projects in four communities, focusing on local project coordination at the scale of a city block. 

Purdue Extension Community Development is the Indiana partner for the Great Lakes Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center (TCTAC). The TCTAC’s mission is to support community organizations in successfully navigating funding opportunities to access the resources they need to lead in the transition to clean energy, pollution clean-up, and green workforce development. The TCTAC provides services to communities in the Great Lakes region–Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the 35 federally recognized Tribal nations. We seek to help communities leverage unprecedented state and federal funds to transform their communities for generations to come.

SIGNATURE PROGRAMS