Help Idaho Smart Growth bring the pieces together!
At Idaho Smart Growth, we believe in the power of place. When you arrive at a place, you feel it. You want to linger. You feel safe. You feel connected. Like a puzzle piece, you fit. And, just like any good puzzle, building communities that are healthy, safe and resilient doesn’t happen in one sitting. It takes many pieces coming together.
Since 2000, Idaho Smart Growth has collaborated with partners around the state to do just that, bring the pieces together to create great places to live. We are a progressive, comprehensive resource center working toward a more sustainable pattern of growth, connecting people to place.
Our work is generally long term, and it isn’t always big, sexy wins. But that big picture goal is always crystal clear in the work that we do, and we couldn’t do our work without you. Click to join us and become a member today.
Just a few of the many pieces we focus on include:
Citizen Engagement
Do you want to learn more about what it takes to make a great place? Attend one of our monthly Citizen Planning Academy (CPA) series. The CPA program was designed to help citizens become more effective participants in their community’s growth.
Safe Routes
Safety is something we can all agree is key to creating great places. Idaho Smart Growth works with Safe Routes to School coordinators around the state, connecting statewide efforts. Our work also goes beyond safe routes to school; we are working at the root of safety, pushing for policies that create safer, more complete streets.
Recognizing Excellence
The Grow Smart Awards program is a celebration of excellent examples of smart growth principles in action throughout Idaho. The purpose of the program is to educate Idahoans about smart growth by showcasing examples from around the state. The award recipients illustrate an array of smart growth across development, transportation, planning and collaboration. These awards celebrate efforts that implement smart growth principles in large and small cities, counties and even regions.
Activating Spaces
Idaho Smart Growth works with stakeholders to create neighborhood or community-scale visioning to help make places where people want to be. Often following the lighter, quicker, cheaper approach, these activations are about re-imagining space. Some examples of our past work activating spaces include: park(ing) day, adopt a bus stop, and pop-up events.
Transportation Advocacy
Our staff sit on several committees and boards and regularly attend city, county and organizational meetings to stay engaged and active in policy change. Idaho Smart Growth is a registered lobbying organization at the Idaho statehouse, which is only possible with support from individual donations. We also facilitate a network of groups and individuals interested in promoting the freedom of mobility for all Idahoans.
Community Assistance
Often small communities in Idaho don’t have the means or staff capacity to work on issues related to smart growth. With individual donor support, Idaho Smart Growth is able to contract with communities to assist in their smart growth efforts by coordinating public outreach, providing training, consulting and other services.
We want to hear from YOU. What is your piece? Why is smart growth important to you? Do your reasons match up with a way to support Idaho Smart Growth?