
	Finding effective ways to build community assets

Welcome to the New Directions home page!

Here are some items of note on the site.

Mar 2009	Proposed Federation of Long Island Community Land Trusts. On March 3, 2009, the Board gave the go-ahead to staff to begin building a Federation to serve the entire Nassau-Suffolk region--Federation.
Feb 2009	"Community Land Trusts: The Power of Shared Equity" shows how the community's investment in the CLT home grows over time, increasing the value of the subsidy contained in the land and making the home still more affordable--Shared Equity.
Mar 2007	"Town-Civic Partnerships" starts a dialog on how to organize the suburbs. Summary
Feb 2007	Civic Dialog offers a place for people to express their views. The first entries are a comment about the meaning of "deliverable" in the context of civic renewal and a Newsday editorial about community land trusts--Civic Dialog.
Jan 2007	"A Man on a Mission," Newsday LI Life cover story about Bob Mulvey, New Directions and promotion of community land trusts--pdf file. text-only version.

News and recent history

In April 2009, we contracted with the Long Island Progressive Coalition, under the leadership of Director Lisa Tyson, to work with Farmingdale citizens to increase citizen support and participation in the Discover Farmingdale Study Group and the Greater Farmingdale CLT, and to increase understanding of the Discover Farmingdale process among village and town government leaders.

On April 27, Paul D'Ascoli accepted a seat on the Board of Directors and was joined by an old friend of this organization and its mission, Collin Nash, a resident of Long Beach. Currently Collin is Director of Communications, Town of North Hempstead. In his previous work as a Newsday reporter, he covered New Directions projects in Central Islip and other areas.

The Board and officers gratefully acknowledge the services of Directors who have recently left the Board, namely Michelle Di Benedetto (Chair), Linda McCabe-Oristano (Vice Chair), Paul Arfin, David Flatley and Ed O'Brien.

Bob Mulvey, Executive Director of New Directions since its beginning in 1999, has stepped out of his usual role and is working at home on ideas for the improvement of the local business climate on Long Island.

Andy Collver, Research Director since 1999, has joined the Board of Directors and now serves as the Chairman. He has also taken over management of the Community Land Trust projects funded by Citi Foundation and Ford Foundation.

Paul A. D'Ascoli is the new Executive Director and member of the Board. He is an expert in real estate and residential finance. In 2008 he was responsible for setting up a capability within New Directions, called Community Realty Services, which will offer specialized real estate services for the emerging new CLT's.

Promotion of Community Land Trusts as a civic tool for provision of permanently affordable housing received big boosts in January 2008 with grants from Citi Foundation and Ford Foundation, which continue through 2009. The new Director of Community Relations for Citibank, Pat Edwards, has assured us that she will continue to support New Directions as Michelle Di Benedetto has in the past.

In Farmingdale, NYIT students in architecture, under the guidance of Prof. Michael Schwarting, continue to turn out exciting ideas for redevelopment of downtown Farmingdale Village. Meanwhile, incorporation of the Greater Farmingdale Community Land Trust is long overdue and expected "any day now." See Communities--Farmingdale.

The City of Long Beach is the latest place for seeds of the CLT to take root. The Certificate of Incorporation for Long Beach Community Land Trust was submitted in December 2009 and the inital directors are working on their Bylaws and planning for their first annual meeting. See Communities--Long Beach.

New Directions Community-Based Research Institute, Inc. attracts and assembles multi-disciplinary teams of university researchers and their students and brings them to work with civic groups which have demonstrated a willingness and a desire to become active stewards of their neighborhoods or communities.

New Directions designs and facilitates customized leadership training sessions which allow the civic groups to profitably initiate community-based research with, by and for the mutual benefit of the researchers, their students and the community.

Introduction to the Web Site

For information about the schedule of upcoming events, the institute's mission, a description of the services offered, history of New Directions, the Board of Directors, staff and supporters please see section, The Institute.

The civic groups that have worked with us, the projects they have undertaken and the neighborhoods and communities they represent are introduced in the section, Communities.

The section, Academic Associates, invites university educators and researchers to join us if they are interested in doing community-based research and placing their students in service-learning positions with civic groups.

Professional Associates is a page for professionals in the many fields that are relevant to neighborhood renewal and community development.

Community-Building Partners are indispensible to the final implementation of plans formed in response to the results of research into the needs and opportunities of local communities. Here we introduce some of the business, non-profit and local government partners and review the steps that led them to be thus engaged.

For links to further information and reading on community-based research and related topics, see the Library section.