VAD Academy

Background | What You Can Expect | Who Should Attend

Vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties plague communities of all sizes across the United States. Whether spurred by historic, inequitable policies, industry loss, or natural disasters, these properties create compound challenges for residents and local governments. When working to comprehensively address and transform VAD properties, communities can find it difficult to know where to start. 

Center for Community Progress’ VAD Academy was created to help public, private, nonprofit, and resident leaders craft equitable, effective approaches to addressing these property challenges. From breaking down complex systems, to sharing smart strategies for resident engagement and fostering compliance, the VAD Academy aims to equip leaders to help return properties to purposeful use. 

During the VAD Academy, community development experts will guide you through critical topics related to property revitalization. These topic areas include:

• Impact of VAD Properties: Explore the root causes and impacts VAD properties have on communities and why utilizing a systemic approach can be an effective strategy for addressing vacancy and abandonment head on.
• Property Revitalization Framework: Learn smart strategies for a coordinated approach to tackling vacancy and abandonment.
• Land Banks and Land Banking: Examine how to use this tool effectively to eliminate properties’ liabilities and return them to productive use.
• Strategic Code Enforcement: Learn how to develop code enforcement programs that respond to the varying needs and priorities of different neighborhoods. 
• Property Tax  Management: Reforming property tax enforcement systems so that they contribute equitably to neighborhood stabilization.
• Equitable Revitalization: Take the tools learned at the VAD Academy and build a plan towards equitable revitalization in your community.

The VAD Academy is designed for government, nonprofit, and private sector professionals and community partners, who aim to equitably address problem properties. If you work primarily in one issue area (such as code enforcement) and want to better understand how your day-to-day intersects with other areas of work, VAD is a great opportunity for you. Participants include urban planners, city attorneys, elected officials, CDC staff, land bank leaders, academics, code enforcement officials, neighborhood association leaders, developers, lending institutions, and more. Whether you work with urban, suburban, or rural communities, the VAD Academy curriculum will help you combat widespread abandonment and neighborhood decline.