This website is a virtual companion to a book and CD ROM entitled Your Field Guide to Community Building by the Heartland Center for Leadership Development.

By community building we are talking about building the capacity of local citizens to take collective action for community improvement. Your job is to help others get things done! Not an easy assignment. You're the one behind the scenes, on the sidelines...the coach and the cheerleader. And usually, if the project succeeds, someone else gets the credit, and if it fails, you take the blame.

Your Field Guide is here to help you navigate through what may sometimes seem like a minefield of interpersonal and political relationships! It will help you stay oriented...with your own values, and toward your ultimate destination: a better, stronger community.

Click on Field Stories for video clips from seasoned practitioners working in rural communities across the country. Go to our Learning Tool for interactive coaching, insights and troubleshooting techniques from more than 40 community builders.

Then Order your own copy of our 100-page publication and accompanying CD ROM that combines all these materials, plus practical ways to put it all together by the Heartland Center's own Vicki Luther and Mary Emery.