The Foundation will select project concepts that align with the core elements of Heart & Soul Community Planning (section 4.1), and will support project teams that demonstrate the capacity for effective leadership, project management, and communications (section 4.2). Detailed project design and methods will be developed in partnership with the communities after final selection.
Projects must incorporate, but are not limited to, the five core elements of Heart & Soul planning: (A) broad community engagement; (B) identifying shared community values; (C) using values to drive decision making; (D) realization of the vision that includes but is not limited to the update of plans, policies and bylaws; and (E) a plan to continue the work beyond the Foundation’s involvement. The following section summarizes each element.
Projects must demonstrate a commitment to broad, meaningful community engagement with opportunities for people of varying social and economic backgrounds to come to together with the goal of enhancing the community values and aspirations that they have defined as important.
It is essential to know who is in your community in order to learn how to engage them in project activities and to have enough diversity of voices for representative and credible results. Towns must be eager to work with community stakeholders and committed to achieving broad citizen engagement by connecting with and listening to a collection of townspeople who represent the demographics of the community. This includes those who are often under-represented or do not otherwise participate in traditional planning processes, whether business owners or young families, recent immigrants or realtors.
As part of this RFP, the Foundation is asking applicants to complete a community network analysis exercise (Application Package A4, p.21) to help identify who to engage in the community and how best to connect them with the project.
All projects require the participation of youth and a local partnership with schools, youth organizations and/or youth leaders to carry out proposed activities. For purposes of this RFP, youth are defined as ages 19 and under. Youth should be invited to serve on the Project’s Community Advisory Team (described below) and must have a role in identifying community values and issues, as well as participate in decisions around priorities for action.
Youth engagement may include:
~ Specific activities or curriculum that engage students around community issues. Examples are developing community scorecards or measuring the health of community assets.
~ Specific activities that identify and present youth perspectives on community issues that are integrated with broader public outreach. Examples are youth storytelling projects, essay contests, surveys, student focus groups, etc.
~ Specific outreach to foster youth participation in project activities. Examples are youth internships, social media projects, youth facilitators, youth organizing, or youth-identified tangible projects like building benches or bike racks.
Resource:
http://www.orton.org/resources/hs_handbook/engaging_youth
Heart & Soul Community Planning requires that a community fully explore and identify what people value about where they live and what makes that community a special place. The characteristics identified may be tangible or intangible and may include unique built, economic, natural, social and cultural attributes and traditions. Each town also needs to explore how it has changed over time and where current trends, opportunities and challenges are likely to take it in the future.
Storytelling activities are a powerful way to engage and listen to community members, revealing fresh insights on community challenges and perspectives, and fostering shared understanding and ownership for a community’s future. Sharing stories also builds relationships and trust among citizens and decision makers in a way other planning methods do not. The stories then seed further community dialogue to explore the values and themes that emerge and that form the basis of an actionable vision for the future. Each community is required to include a story-sharing element in its Heart & Soul project.
The Foundation has experienced a variety of story sharing and community dialogue methods and tools for towns to consider in their planning efforts. Community interviews, digital stories, story circles, facilitated neighborhood conversations and forums are just some of the methods used in Heart & Soul Community Planning.
Resources:
http://www.orton.org/resources/hs_handbook/storytelling
http://www.planningtoolexchange.org/browse/results/storytelling
Participating communities will explore ways in which their values guide decision-making for the future. Some towns develop values-based indicators as they consider alternative scenarios and visualizations of the future. Others use community values as a set of specific principles to guide policy change or municipal investment decisions.
Whether a community is considering growth scenarios for a town-wide plan or choosing strategies to revitalize its downtown, it will need a process that uses community values to evaluate potential actions and policies. The Foundation has developed tools that help communities with this work, and that will be explored more fully in project trainings with selected Partner Communities.
The community will put recommended actions into practice to preserve and enhance the town’s heart and soul. These recommendations will be documented in an implementation plan and must include specific actions related to land use and community development. Anticipated outcomes must include but are not limited to actions that will shape future development, including revision or creation of regulatory plans, policies, ordinances, public investment plans, or community development activities.
The implementation plan should answer questions such as: How will governing regulations, financial incentives, design guidelines, and/or budgeting need to be changed to reflect the community’s heart and soul values? Who will take responsibility for each of the recommended actions, including public, private and nonprofit sectors? When are the actions anticipated? What resources are required?
Implementation activities are expected to occur over several years, but projects should achieve noticeable progress within the project’s second and third year, particularly where land-use policies and town plans are to be revised. Results and progress toward implementation must be regularly communicated to the public.
To ensure continued implementation of its heart and soul values over the long term, a community must cultivate new leadership, continue to engage the public and hold itself accountable for decisions. Projects must include a plan or set of practices to promote this continued work, and monitor community decisions over time. In plans to steward heart and soul, the community must address questions such as: Who will be responsible for ensuring adherence to identified values when policies are altered, decisions are made and other implementation steps are taken? Who will monitor change and ensure that actions align with emerging opportunities and challenges?
Project applicants should demonstrate the capacity to provide the following key resources to conduct a successful project: (A) effective and representative leadership; (B) project management and coordination; and (C) communications abilities. The following section describes the Foundation’s expectations about these supports.
The project partners must either have in place or be prepared to establish a Community Advisory Team. Think of your Community Advisory Team as a doorway to your community. Its members build a successful project by connecting to key people and organizations that will be essential to ensuring representative participation and ultimately broad ownership for the project outcomes. Members should also bring valuable skills that will help with the design and implementation of projects.
Resource:
http://www.orton.org/resources/hs_handbook/advisory_team
The Advisory Team must include a Project Coordinator dedicating at least 24 hours a week to the project. The Coordinator should be familiar with the community without a particular agenda for the project’s outcome. The Coordinator’s role generally includes: supporting the Community Advisory Team, assisting with the design and implementation of project activities, coordinating project communications and engagement strategies, assisting with public outreach, managing the project work plan and budget, communicating regularly with lead project partners and assisting with project evaluation.
Project Coordinators may be hired by the project partners or may be designated from existing staff as long as the hours are dedicated exclusively to the project. The Foundation will consider co-coordinators if the applicant can demonstrate that this approach would be more effective.
Resource:
http://www.orton.org/resources/hs_handbook/project_coordinator
We have found that communities often spend insufficient time shaping a project’s message or using traditional and non-traditional communication channels to help spread awareness. The Foundation emphasizes communication efforts because they are essential to increasing public awareness, attracting new people and voices and demonstrating transparency. Messages carefully framed to reach diverse audiences can make a surprising difference in how residents react to the project. Effective outreach invites new discussions, relationships and discoveries.
Selected towns will be required to develop and implement a Communications Plan and a project website. Meaningful dollars must be allocated in the Project Budget to invest in communications efforts. Projects will need to assign communications responsibilities to a team that will develop and implement this strategy, testing, evaluating and sustaining efforts throughout the two years. The importance of regular communication with and reporting to the community during the course of the project cannot be over-emphasized. The Foundation will provide additional communications training and resources to selected partner communities.
Resource:
http://www.orton.org/resources/hs_handbook/outreach_communications