Community Services Articles
Making the most of what's already in Winter Haven and building on its unique
qualities to create an ideal community in the next 10 to 20 years is a big
order to fill. But nearly 125 people turned out for the first stakeholders
meeting of "Our Future By Design - A Greater Winter Haven Community"
and began work ing toward creating such a vision during an all-day session
Saturday at First Presbyterian Church. Attendees included many well-known
names in the local government, civic and business community, as they began
a six-month process to agree on a plan for the city. More...
Insights From Community Services
By Derek Okubo, Vice President of NCL
In this series of columns, Okubo provides advice to communities on how they
can build their capacity for problem solving, and thus help resolve difficult
local challenges.
Okubo argues that a new model of community democracy is emerging-a model
which reinvents the traditional relationship between government and citizens.
In this new model, communities themselves assume a much greater responsibility
for solving their own problems, instead of relying primarily on federal and
state government. Moreover, local government alone no longer owns the problem
solving agenda, but shares that agenda with citizens, business, and nonprofit
organizations.
These columns explain this new model and provide guidance to help communities
move toward this model.
Each column can be reprinted with the permission of the National Civic League.
To be granted permission, contact us at 303-571-4343 or email ncl@ncl.org.
Overview: A New Approach To Community Problem
Solving
Our approaches to solving societal problems in the United States have been
evolving for over a decade. Successful communities no longer look primarily
to Washington for money or program guidance. Rather, leaders in America's
most vibrant and vital communities are blurring the boundaries between government,
business, and the nonprofit sector. These successful communities recognize
the interdependence among sectors and citizens, and they struggle to identify
common goals to meet individual and community needs and aspirations. More...
Citizen Participation: Apathetic Citizens?
Not When They Can Make A Difference
Citizen participation in political, community, and neighborhood affairs is
critical to the creation and maintenance of a strong, vibrant community. A
community without regular interaction among citizens is less a community than
a random collection of people. Without active participation, it is difficult
for a community to agree on what problems to address and how to move forward
collectively to solve them. More...
Community Leadership: Giving Up Power To
Gain Power
At one time, community power was held in several large blocks by major community
players - the mayor, the city manager, the large local employer, and the wealthy
family that had been in town for generations. These blocks could sit down
in the back room and make a decision or cut a deal. Now politically, racially,
geographically, ethnically, and economically diverse stakeholder groups are
demanding to be allowed into that "back room." More...
Government Performance: Local Government
Can't Solve Problems Alone, But Must Do Its Part Efficiently And Effectively
As discussed in the previous column, the growing number and complexity of
issues faced by localities demand that government, business, and the nonprofit
sector work closely together in setting common goals and working together
to achieve them. More...
Volunteerism And Philanthropy: Stakeholders
Give For The Betterment Of The Community
Caring about, and sharing resources to help one another and the community
as a whole is essential to community life. Moreover, in recent years, these
activities have gained even more importance in the health of a community.
Increased social needs combined with limits in government resources call for
a greater contribution of time, money, and services from individuals and community
institutions. More...
Intergroup And Intragroup Relations: The
String That Ties A Community Together
All communities are host to organized ethnic, racial or religious "solidarity"
groups (as distinct from professional and business associations, ad hoc policy-oriented
interest groups, or political parties) that may emerge to express or defend
their members' basic social interests. The degree to which different solidarity
groups co-exist in relative harmony and cooperate in resolving shared problems
is an essential measure of civic health - particularly as local populations
become more diverse. More...
Civic Education: Life-Long Learning For
Life-Long Civic Participation
Too often, civic education is narrowly defined as a course teaching the mechanisms
of representative government offered to secondary school students. Civic education
can be, and must be much more than a senior year elective course. More...
Community Information Sharing: Responsible
And Open Community Information Sharing Creates A Positive Atmosphere For Community
Problem Solving
Whether it is the media, a civic organization, a university or a school system,
communities must have mechanisms for gathering and sharing information, and
educating the public about the issues. Community information sharing is the
composite of all these mechanisms. Without comprehensive and accessible information
sharing, a community's ability to work toward solutions to the challenges
they face, make balanced judgements and head off contentious disputes is impaired.
More...
Capacity For Cooperation And Consensus
Building: Safe Spaces For Developing Shared Solutions
One of the realities of today's problem solving environment is that governments
can no longer be held solely responsible for the health and quality of life
of their communities. The issues facing America's cities, counties and sub-state
regions today are too highly complex. More...
Community Vision And Pride: Community
Vision: A Shared Sense Of A Desired Future
Communities that deal successfully with the challenges they face have developed
a clear picture of where they want to go and also have a clear sense of their
past.
As the International City/County Management Association explains, "A
growing number of places are using the term 'vision' to describe the first
step of the long-range planning process. Starting with a vision implies seeking
agreement about the desired outcome of the plan [and] visualizing and articulating
the kind of community residents want in the future, which might be defined
as five or ten or even twenty years hence." More...
Regional Cooperation: Connecting Community
Wellbeing To Regional Wellbeing
Cutbacks in federal funds and destructive economic competition among regions
are two factors driving neighboring cities, towns, and counties to look for
new avenues of cooperation. Local communities are no longer competing with
each other as much as they are competing with other regions in the national
and international marketplace. Individual communities need to cooperate with
each other in planning for their shared future and addressing regional needs.
More...
Capacity Building: An Ongoing Process
Undergoing the Civic Index community self-evaluation process does not mean
that the community will immediately, or in fact ever, become problem free.
The purpose of the process is not perfection, but to identify local challenges
and then establish community structures to offer better, more complete solutions
to these problems. More...
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