Aging water infrastructure, extreme weather, and pressure from residents for green space and community resilience are bringing about changes to the way cities around the country are thinking about stormwater management. In times past, preferred practices funneled water into pipes underground,...

Streator is a forward thinking city. During the spring of 2019 the city contracted with Illinois Business Consulting, the University of Illinois EDA University Center and the University of Illinois Extension to provide a...

Our partnerships with U of I College of Medicine - Peoria are cross-disciplinary and mutually beneficial. Even though we are both part of the University of Illinois System our partnership is relatively new. Once it started, more and more mutually beneficial opportunities became...

When two more grocery stores closed in 2018 in Southside and East Bluff Peoria neighborhoods, University of Illinois Extension staff joined the team of policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, and activists working to eliminate disparities in equitable access to healthy food. The process to...

There are tremendous opportunities in small town’s historic downtowns. This past fall University of Illinois Extension partnered with a Bradley University marketing class to implement a market analysis that will help Delavan, IL identify business opportunities in their community. Through the...

School of Architecture students worked with City of Peoria’s Innovation Team to begin small changes that will lead to big impacts in one Peoria neighborhood. Improving the livability of our towns and cities commonly starts at the street, block, or building scale. While larger...

During this past summer UIUC School of Architecture graduate student Saloni Sheth, worked with Peoria PlayHouse Childrent’s Museum and University of Illinois Extension to consider redesign opportunities for the museum. Seloni’s engagement with Peoria her hometown, came about has as a carryover...

STEAM experts and leaders join forces to better serve our local educators and citizens. In March, University of Illinois Extension, in collaboration with Illinois Informatics Institute and Champaign-Urbana Fab Lab convened a half-day workshop at the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s...

University of Illinois Extension, Fulton-Mason-Peoria-Tazewell Unit staff worked to facilitate University of Illinois Urbana Champaign School of Architecture’s engagement with City of Peoria and community leaders during two separate semester-long courses. During the Spring 2017 semester, graduate...

Assessing Downtown Canton report represents a collaborative effort between Canton Main...

When first-year Master of Urban Planning student Marcia Klopf began her search for a master's capstone project, she was looking for a project which would combine her interests in historic preservation and urban design. Through Kathie Brown, a University of Illinois Extension Educator for Community...

In July, City of Peoria was selected as a finalist in the Play Everywhere Challenge, a $1 million national competition that will award outside-the-box ideas to make play easy, available, and fun for kids and families in cities across the U.S. The Challenge is hosted by KaBOOM!, a national non-...

During the annual Discover Manufacturing Expo, over 800 students from 29 area schools are introduced to manufacturing career pathways. This is the second year University of Illinois Extension has engaged with the Greater Peoria EDC's Strategic Manufacturing Group in linking area manufacturers with...

Creating a local Historic Commercial district is the focus of a UIUC Department of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone project. Marcia Klop, Graduate Student in Department of Urban and Regional Planning at UIUC is working with University of Illinois Extension, City of Washington Economic Developer...

Strengthening Local Food Systems Although conversations are held nationally, many solutions are sought locally. Large urban centers garner most of the media attention in this sector, but small and mid-size cities play an important role in the United States' local food systems. Local residents,...

Local Food Resource Guide The food we eat has profound impacts on public health, environmental quality, economic development, and land use. Increasingly, activists, analysts, public health practitioners, farmers, consumer advocates, and policy makers agree that finding new...

Prepared by Nancy Smebak, University of Illinois Extension Research Assistant, April 2015 This project documents and describes the food system in Peoria County and the surrounding region through participatory and analytic mapping and key informant interviews and videos....

Taking stock of the community's resources to support entrepreneurship growth and development is a critical element to creating a proactive environment for business development. Local Economic Development Organizations can take proactive approach to assisting existing and prospective business owners...

August, 2014 North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois Extension, University of Wisconsin Extension, Iowa State Extension. Maintaining and revitalizing a downtown plays a critical role in overall...

Throughout the Midwest, there are examples of thriving central business districts. University of Illinois Extension in partnership with the University of Illinois Department of Urban and Regional Planning conducted a literature review to identify common strategies and attributes of successful...