Available courses
CRE isn't rocket science—it’s practical, inclusive, and powerful. This course empowers residents, community managers, and professionals to implement meaningful, outcome-driven engagement across contexts (homeowners, tenants, HOAs, multi-family communities). Learn frameworks (ABCD, participation levels), inclusive tools, and strategies—from crime prevention to beautification—and attract both human and financial investment to your neighborhood.
- Teacher: Mark Brown
- Teacher: John Lehner
Residents often see potential that others miss. This course teaches residents how to lead development and redevelopment by working with builders, investors, and government—turning local knowledge into practical plans, partnerships, and positive, sustainable projects. Using real-world examples, templates, and practice exercises, learners will plan, pitch, and manage resident-led projects that protect community priorities and deliver local benefit.
- Teacher: Mark Brown
- Teacher: John Lehner
Learn how micro-enterprises power local economies and how social enterprises balance mission and revenue. Understand the mechanics of these ventures, explore how to invest in or start them, and learn to create value that is both financial and social.
- Teacher: Mark Brown
Neighborhoods change over time, not overnight. This course helps learners understand how and when change happens, how to influence it responsibly, and how communities can stabilize and thrive. Using case examples from across the nation, students will learn to identify early signs of positive and negative neighborhood destabilization, proactively manage change, stimulate resident engagement, leverage human/financial/in-kind resources, and create/maintain a diverse community of choice. Practical assignments and a capstone project help learners apply concepts to a real block or neighborhood.
- Teacher: Mark Brown
Marketing, promoting, advertising, selling, and public relations are related but distinct. This course helps learners understand those differences and implement integrated marketing efforts: audience research, messaging, channels, simple budgeting, measurement, and campaigns that move people to act. Practical templates, sample campaigns, and a capstone project get learners ready to run a real campaign for a neighborhood project or small nonprofit.
- Teacher: Mark Brown
Develop true collaborative — mutually beneficial — agreements that work, even with past competitors. This course explores benefits, challenges, and the work required to build durable collaborations. Through real-world case studies (successes and failures), templates, and practice exercises you’ll learn how open-mindedness, thoughtful planning, patience, and focused effort create positive outcomes for all partners.
- Teacher: Mark Brown
Competition for limited resources is never easy. This course helps you focus your funding research and write succinct, compelling grant requests that funders want to support. Learn to identify the right funders, interpret guidelines, craft persuasive narratives, build realistic budgets and logic models, and report so you encourage repeated funding. Practical templates and a capstone grant application prepare you to submit a real request.
- Teacher: Mark Brown
Effectively work with investors to stabilize and add value to your neighborhood while improving investor returns — a double win. Make it a triple success by helping renters save money, become property owners, and build asset wealth while contributing positively to the community. This course shares replicable strategies, real-world case studies, and practical templates to align investor goals with resident stability and neighborhood health.
- Teacher: Mark Brown