Equity Through Capacity Building: USDOT Thriving Communities Program

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Certification Maintenance


CM | 0.75

Course Details

This session will describe how the Thriving Communities Program grows the capacity of under-resourced communities by empowering them through guided assessment, learning, and execution. The program provides no-cost intensive technical assistance to under-resourced and disadvantaged communities to help identify, develop, and deliver transportation projects that strengthen communities.

The Thriving Communities Program will grow the pipeline of communities that can successfully compete for federal funding. The program prioritized the selection of disadvantaged communities that are working to advance projects to improve health outcomes, reduce housing and transportation cost burdens and improve housing conditions, preserve or expand jobs, and increase reliable mobility options for disadvantaged communities and households to better access health care, food, education, and other essential destinations. The presentation will include a traditional moderated panel discussion.

Panelists include USDOT Thriving Communities Program leadership; a representative from a national advocacy and organizing group that identifies solutions to economic insecurity in communities due to disinvestment; a local agency representative working with the community to establish priorities and grow its capacity to resource those priorities; and a national planning leader to outline the community process and resources needed to have the capacity to successfully compete for federal discretionary funds.

Learning Outcomes

  • Identify opportunity gaps in disadvantaged communities and assess the capacity of a community to compete for federal funding resources to fill those gaps.
  • Understand how community partnerships support establishing priorities that are then used to guide an action plan to apply for federal discretionary funding.
  • Grow the capacity of an organization so it is empowered to successfully compete for resources and successfully deploy those resources for its community.