Local government and public policy

Features

Community Decision Support

Using a variety of tools, Community Decision Support enhances local capacity to make sound policy choices. Tools include economic models, demographic analysis, Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping, and fiscal impact tools.

Data tools to support community decisions:

• CARES — Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems
• CIM — Community Issues Management
• CPAC — Community Policy Analysis Center
• OSEDA — Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis
• PPRC — Public Policy Research Center

Community Planning

Groups, organizations and communities develop a vision, identify priorities, develop an action agenda, and successfully develop and implement programs and projects. Find a specialist in your area who can help.

Vision to Action: Take Charge Too (PDF) — Resource guide for facilitating participatory community and organizational planning.

MY LoGo — Missouri Youth Engaged in Local Government

Middle school students learn with local government officials about local government. They make recommendations on local issues and take action on local issues facing communities.

Missouri Poll Worker Training

A comprehensive state-wide training program for Missouri poll workers provides materials that can be mixed and matched to fit differing training timelines needed by local election officials.

Missouri Communities Deliberate

The deliberative process helps to mitigate conflict, polarization and stalemates that commonly result over issues where there are no optimal solutions and that require public input.

About the Community Development Program

MU Extension helps people create communities of the future. Community development education helps citizens tap into local strengths and university resources. Read about impacts the program has had on Missouri communities.

News

• MU Extension program director honored with justice award
  Monday, April 29, 2013
  ST. LOUIS, Mo.– Nina Balsam, St. Louis County program director for University of Missouri Extension, received the Citizenship Award April 25 at Missouri Lawyers Weekly’s 15th annual Women’s Justice Awards ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown St. Louis.
  
  Media available: photo
• Lexington chosen for MU Extension Community Arts Pilot Project
  Tuesday, January 29, 2013
  LEXINGTON, Mo. – The historic community of Lexington will be the site of a University of Missouri Extension Community Arts Pilot Project designed to provide an economic boost through community development.
  
  Media available: photos; video
• Teenage artist helps lead community arts pilot project
  Tuesday, January 29, 2013
  LEXINGTON, Mo. – Seth Ritter’s studio is tucked away in a rehabbed 1850s-style grocery store building in historic Lexington. Bare light bulbs hang austerely from the ceiling, casting a dim light over a wooden workbench scrawled with an artist’s random sketches.
  
  Media available: photos; video

Websites

Browse these University of Missouri websites:

• Affordable Housing Through Community Partnership
• Alianzas
  The Alianzas partnership enhances the ability of communities to collaborate with the growing immigrant Hispanic population.
• Cambio Center
  Provides education and enhances the welfare of all Missouri residents in the context of dramatic demographic changes.
• CIM - Community Issues Management
• Community Decision Support
  Enhances local capacity to make sound policy choices.
• Community Deliberation Program
  Through face-to-face meetings, people learn more about each other's viewpoints and discover they have things in common.
• Community Development Academy
  Provides high-quality, relevant community development education through a series of three courses.
• Community Preparedness
  Program designed to help communities increase their learning and ownership in building a safe and prosperous future for themselves and fellow Missourians.
• Community Revitalization and Sustainability
  Extension specialists work with the community to enable residents to take charge and make decisions about their own communities.
• Law Enforcement Training Institute
  Provides basic and advanced law enforcement training programs as well as animal cruelty investigation programs.
• Local Government Partnership
• Missouri Legislative Academy
  Provides information to legislators about issues and specialized research.
• Missouri Poll Worker Training
• MU Labor Education Program
• OSEDA - Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis
• Poverty at Issue
  Provides information and resources to individuals and agencies that deal with poverty.
• PPRC - Public Policy Research Center
• Youth-Adult Partnerships
  Engages youth and adults in decision making and governance.

You may be interested in these external websites:

• Missouri Fairs and Festivals

Publications

• DM4000, Ballard Local Government Series
• DM4001, Rules for Missouri Townships
• DM4002, Rules for Missouri Fire Protection Districts
• DM4003, Rules for Missouri Fourth-Class Cities
• DM4010, Missouri’s Third Class County Budget Trend Analysis: Workbook User’s Manual
• DM4011, Missouri's Third Class County Budget Trend Analysis
• DM7612, Basic Procedures in Administration of Zoning Regulations: Making Applications
• DM7613, Basic Procedures in Administration of Zoning Regulations: Appeals
• DM7614, Basic Procedures in Administration of Zoning Regulations: Roles of Enforcement Officer and Board of
• MP489, Planning Agencies and the Community
• MP506, How to Organize Neighborhoods
• MP742, Missouri State and Local Spending: A Fifty-State Comparison for 2002
• MP743, Missouri State and Local Taxes and Revenue: A Fifty-State Comparison for 2002

You may be interested in these related publications:

• DM461, Defusing Public Decision
• DM463, Decision-Making Techniques for Community Groups
• DM464, Town Meetings That Work
• DM490, Working With Resource People
• DM491, Considering Professional Consultation
• DM1905, Planning a Central Sewer System for Rural Areas
• DM1955, Rural Water Districts Costs and Funding
• DM3101, Missouri County Sales Tax Act
• DM5361, Preparing an Election Petition in Missouri
• DM7005, The Planning Process and People
• DM7110, Regional Planning in Missouri: The Legal Authorization
• DM7618, Important Missouri Laws: A Guide for New Residents
• G890, Missouri Litter Laws
• MP100, A Case Study in a Community Development Technique: the Hannibal Community Survey
• UED46, Handbook for Planning Commissioners in Missouri