Now More Than Ever, America Needs Help!

America’s downtown organizations, Business Improvement Districts, Main Street programs and Community Development Corporations, are faced a myriad of problems, many attributable to the COVID-19 crisis. Businesses are closing or threatening to close, customers are staying home, meetings have been cancelled or postponed. Each day presents a new challenge.

As professional community developers, we face huge challenges – how to lead our communities through the process of recovery to a post-pandemic period of prosperity. Right now, in conjunction with a student team from the University of Minnesota, we are surveying business district organizations to find the most creative and effective solutions.

We ask that each of you who visit this website to send a suggestion or recommendation for action to civitas.dave@me.com. I will share these with our collaborators and colleagues and will be blogging with the ideas you submit.

Few can be solved with local resources. Some may require a major study, often costing six figures. Let us hear from you.

But sometimes, what you need is focused, limited, expert advice and guidance. Civitas Collaborative has just the solution for you. And it won’t cost six figures.

Civitas Collaborative is a collection of some of the best experts in the field of downtown and business district management and development. Chances are, if you have a problem, we have an expert who has faced the same problem – and solved it. 

Many downtowns are currently experimenting with innovative programs to help businesses stay alive. Let us find the ones that will work in your town.

What kinds of problems might you encounter that we can help solve?

• Merchants are complaining about the need for interim financial help. But before you seek funding for an SBA lan, consult one of our experts. 
• You’re finding a growing number of ethnic-owned businesses in your district. How can you involve them harmoniously in your promotion and recovery efforts?
• An historic church in downtown is closing because the congregation has many unemployed members and can’t afford operating costs. What can be done to repurpose this historic structure?
• My clean and safe team are not trained as safety experts. What can I do to make them more effective in an expanded role?
• I have an important real estate project that only works with creative financing. Can I still approach a local foundation to participate?
• I’m having difficulty with my board wanting to micro manage my staff. What can I do about that?
• We can’t decide on a vision or recovery plan for our downtown or our organization. How can I craft a shared vision?

Our experts have been there, and have faced most of the problems you will encounter.

These are just a few of the kinds of problems Civitas Collaborative can help you with. 

Downtown is the stage on which we celebrate our community – and every day is a new production.

David Feehan