Our History: The Making of Building Communities, Inc.

See the Building Communities timeline.

The community and economic development theories, tools and practices currently being utilized by Building Communities are a product of over 25 years of work in the field of community and economic development. The Four Stages of Civic Condition Model was developed in 1995. The Community Organizer Assessment was first developed in 1998. The 25 Strategies were first inspired in 2005. We conducted our first Plan Week in 2011.

Today, Building Communities is:

A new way for communities to envision and enact their future
More comprehensive, objective and expeditious than other approaches to planning
A methodology, Plan Week, for community professionals and volunteers to plan their future
Based upon original thinking, the Four Stages of Civic Condition, that frames the approach
Working with highly motivated people in over 50 communities to define their future
A series of conference messages designed to challenge and inspire community development
16 people working from six states building a company and regularly reinventing a service

We are motivated by the idea that we have invented economic development strategic planning. Sure, it has been done before, but never has a community-based set of tools, theories and practices been developed from scratch only thinking about the possibilities for communities. We hope to become a valuable part of your community's history.

Below is our company timeline. Use the scrollbar along the bottom edge to view the entire timeline.