A few highlights of the suggested crowdsourced actions generated during focus groups are paraphrased below to stimulate conversation and further brainstorming. The source of each idea is indicated in parentheses at the end of each suggested action. If you would like to add a suggested action to this list, please email us at nationalimpactagenda@savingplaces.org.

• Foster community empowerment and self-determination—promote the ability for people to have the authority to manage the places we directly descend from (rather than outsiders focus group). Take back authority and assert the roles of descendants as the stewards of our history and cultural practices. (Source: Pacific Islander heritage professionals focus group)
• Review existing design guidelines to ensure that preserving integrity does not result in preservation laws being used as a tool to keep out affordable housing. (Source: Main Street network focus group)
• Build up real estate arms of preservation orgs, leverage community land trusts, tools of real estate, funding for capital projects, etc. (Source: Latinos in Heritage Conservation focus group)

• The Preservation Resource Center’s Revival Grants Program is providing free home repairs to help low-income New Orleans homeowners get back into compliance with the city’s historic district code to avoid violations and fines, helping owners maintain their homes and remain in their homes and neighborhoods. This successful program, which was piloted in the Tremé historic district in November 2019, is being expanded to historic districts citywide.
• Two revolving funds managed by Columbus Landmarks in Ohio are helping to build equity in transitional neighborhoods while preserving the city's historic building fabric. The Endangered Properties Fund helps with the acquisition of at-risk historic commercial properties while the Home Preservation Loan Fund offers low-interest loans in neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment. 
• The City of Austin, Texas is developing an equity-based preservation plan to replace its 1981 preservation plan. An inclusive, community-oriented process centers on a 26-member community working group that reflects Austin’s racial and ethnic diversity and represents key stakeholder perspectives. Equity is integrated through an equity evaluation framework for draft recommendations, as well as a clear-eyed historical timeline and discussion about local injustices. A second phase of intensive community engagement will prioritize reaching groups that have been historically underrepresented in public decision-making and historic preservation activities.
• INVEST South/West is a collaborative initiative targeting commercial corridors within ten historically underserved South and West side areas of Chicago with grants, development projects, and public realm improvements to restore neighborhood vitality and provide a catalytic foundation for ongoing investment.  Historic structures were often identified by current residents as valued resources during community engagement forums and pro-formas for eight of the ten RFPs issued thus far call for adaptive re-use of historic buildings on project sites, including three long-vacant locally landmarked structures.
• The Los Angeles Conservancy’s 2020 study, Preservation Positive Los Angeles, demonstrates positive connections between local historic districts, affordable housing, and high-density development. 
• The REHABARAMA and STAR (Students Together Achieving Revitalization) programs in San Antonio, Texas utilize volunteers and volunteer contractors to arrest deterioration of historic housing stock while teaching traditional trades and skills.  Through service learning, students and volunteers assist homeowner with costly repairs.   With an average expenditure of $750 per house, they complete between $5k-15k in repairs. 
• Faculty at the University of Texas School of Law and the University of Texas at Austin’s Community and Regional Planning Program were commissioned by the City of Austin to create The Uprooted Project, a study designed to help combat displacement in neighborhoods that are gentrifying. The study was completed in 2018, and university researchers continue to provide opinions or clarifications to the City about the ideas in the study to help inform city policy.
• The National Trust released a report in 2020 entitled Preserving African American Places: Growing Preservation’s Potential as a Path for Equity. This report elevates emerging ideas, research, observations, case studies, and questions on the critically important issues of equitable development, social justice, and the practice of preservation. It explores the implications of place-based injustice and their impact on the preservation of African American cultural heritage, while identifying preservation-based strategies for equitable growth and development that respect the historical and present-day realities and conditions of African American neighborhoods.