Community Visioning

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Community Visioning

• Gerard Doyle
• Chambers of Commerce of Ireland

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What is Visioning?

• Visioning is a process by which a community
  envisions the future it wants, and plans how to
  achieve it.
• Through public involvement, communities identify
  their shared purpose, core values and vision of
  the future, and then draft a set of community
  goals and an action plan.
• Visioning emphasizes community assets rather than
  needs
• Visioning stresses early and continuous public
  involvement in the process.

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Origins

• 1970-80s USA community development
• Chattanooga, USA
• Europe Partnership Concepts 1990s
• Local Agenda 21
• Sustainable Cities and Towns
• WHO Healthy Cities Project

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Visioning is Community Strategic Planning

• Assessment of demographic, economic, social and
  fiscal trends in the area
• Develop a common view of where the community
  should be in the future Objectives, Goals
• Agree and Implement an Action plan

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Why Community Visioning?

• Civil Society is Changing Democratic structures
  are changing greater partnership power is
  shifting
• Communities want new ways to participate in
  decisions people are more aware, have more
  information, more concerned, less willing to
  trust leaders, able to say no
• Power is devolving down to the community level
  because national Governments are less able to
  cope with complexity drugs, housing,
  environment and less money available

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Why Community Visioning?

• Society is more diverse ethnic, racial,
  religious, economic greater need to build
  cohesion, new leaders

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Signs of Prosperous Communities

• Actively practice collaborative problem solving
  and consensus-based decision making. Communities
  that do not work are marked by division
• Leaders try to create win-win solutions and use
  their power to bring people together. They listen
  as often as they talk and can both win and lose
  gracefully. Leaders in communities that do not
  work are threatened by citizen involvement and
  input, try to use their power to decide for
  others, are often corrupt, and attempt to
  convince citizens to follow a predetermined
  course of action.

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Signs of Prosperous Communities

• Have developed new tools and strategies to bring
  together people, institutions, and sectors to
  plan for the future.
• Talk Less and Do More !!
• See a problem unsolved not as a failure but as
  an indicator for new action
• Successful communities decide the future is
  something they can create and engage in a process
  that helps them achieve their goals.

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Why Chambers should be involved in Communities

• To bring about change
• To achieve its objectives for business
• To influence future developments re workforce,
  environment, infrastructure
• To overcome misunderstanding
• To generate resources
• To learn
• To provide Leadership

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Models of Strategic Visioning

• Short-term - geared toward developing a broad
  community vision and action plan in a relatively
  short time period (1-2 days).
• Long-term - focuses on specific topical areas
  (e.g, land use, housing, etc.) and usually takes
  a much longer time period to complete.

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Models of Strategic Visioning

• The Oregon Model.
• a community profile ("where are we now?")
• a trend statement ("where are we going?")
• a vision statement ("where do we want to be?")
• an action plan ("how do we get there?")
• target period of at least 10 but no more than 25
  years in the future
• simplified version can be completed in 6 months
• comprehensive version can take a year or more

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Models of Strategic Visioning

• The Pennsylvania Model.
• Quality of life is the object of visioning
• "What five things would really improve the
  community? "What are the community's principal
  values?"What things in the community should be
  preserved?"
• defining the community boundaries,
• inventorying and analyzing community resources,
• writing and adopting a vision statement,
• developing an action plan, and implementation.

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Models of Strategic Visioning

• The Missouri Model.
• focus on future possibilities rather than being
  limited by present or past problems.
• "Action Planning Workshop" that takes 3 to 5
  hours and is typically held over 1 or 2 days.
• workshop is about formulating a vision and
  developing action plans community strengths and
  weaknesses and relevant trends are not
  considered.

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Models of Strategic Visioning

• The Arkansas Model.
• focuses on four basic questions Where have you
  been? Where are you now? Where do you want to go?
  How will you get there?
• Participants identify what they would like to see
  in their community in the future, and are
  prompted in specific areas such as economic
  development, education, parks and recreation,
  etc.

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When to use Visioning?

• the issues are complex
• the resources are limited
• there are a number of interests involved
• individual and community actions are required to
  address the issue effectively
• people are interested and willing to participate
  because of the importance of the issue
• no single authority has jurisdiction over the
  problem or implementation of the solutions

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Pre-Visioning Questions

• Why are we interested in community visioning?
• What do we hope to accomplish with this process?
• How can visioning improve existing community
  planning efforts?
• How can it complement other local, regional or
  Government planning efforts?

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The Visioning Process

• Preparation
• Analysis
• Vision
• Plan
• Implementation

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The Process 1 Preparation

• Form a coordinating committee
• Find local sponsors
• Identify community boundaries
• Specify the planning period
• Give the process a name
• Decide how to structure the process
• Prepare a budget and raise funds
• Identify and recruit participants
• Event to Launch the visioning process

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The Process 2 Analysis

• Environmental Scan Identify external forces,
  pressures, and trends that are impacting the
  community from the global, national, and state
  levels.
• Community Profile Data and indicators are
  collected and participants evaluate the future
  their community is likely to face if no
  significant intervention occurs. Weighing this
  scenario against the desired future helps to
  define key areas where change must be effected.

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The Process 3 Vision

• Where participants would like the community to be
  in key quality-of-life areas 10, 20, or 30 years
  into the future. The vision statement must
  reflect the commonly held values of the community
  and guide stakeholders for the remainder of the
  visioning process.

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The Process 4 Plan

• Agree Key Performance Areas (Goals)
• Develop a strategy for implementation,
  monitoring, and follow-up.
• Identify responsible parties, set timelines,
  estimate costs, and find sources of support.
• Community celebration.

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The Process 5 Implementation

• Capitalize on the momentum surrounding the
  celebration
• Active Implementation Committee
• Communications Report and Feedback to Community
• Final Report - Event

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Ingredients of Success

• People with varied interests and perspectives
  participated throughout the entire process and
  contributed to the final outcomes, lending
  credibility to the results.
• Traditional "power brokers" truly empowered
  participants and treated them as peers.
• Individual agendas and baggage were set aside, so
  the focus remained on common issues and goals.
• Strong leadership came from all sectors and
  interests.

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Ingredients of Success

• All participants took personal responsibility for
  the process and its outcomes.
• The group produced very detailed recommendations
  that specified responsible parties, timelines,
  and costs.
• Individuals broke down racial, economic, and
  sectoral barriers and developed effective working
  relationships based on trust, understanding, and
  respect.

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Ingredients of Success

• Participants remained committed during times of
  frustration.
• Projects were well timed- they were launched when
  other options to achieve the objective did not
  exist or were not working.
• The group used consensus to reach desired
  outcomes.

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Things to Watch

• Leaders cannot move forward without the community
• Those responsible for implementing the programs
  (or impacted by them) must be among the people
  who develop the ideas
• You can have too many ideas, too fast
• An annual update process, involving large numbers
  of citizens, is necessary if serious issues are
  to be moved
• The process must be independent (but connected
  to) the political and bureaucratic system

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The Power of Consensus

• a group decision (which some members may not
  feel is the best decision, but which they can all
  live with, support, and commit themselves not to
  undermine), arrived at without voting, through a
  process whereby the issues are fully aired, all
  members feel they have been adequately heard, in
  which everyone has equal power and
  responsibility, and different degrees of
  influence by virtue on individual stubbornness or
  charisma are avoided so that all are satisfied
  with the process. A World Waiting to Happen, M.
  Scott Peck

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The Power of Consensus

• takes more time, but can save time during the
  implementation phase of a visioning project,
  where blocking ordinarily occurs.
• If participants ideas and opinions are heard,
  seriously considered, and perhaps even
  incorporated into the action plan, they will be
  less inclined to resist or ignore new
  initiatives.
• Community "ownership" of a plan and willingness
  to assist in its implementation often corresponds
  directly with the public's level of participation
  in the plan's development.

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Examples of Community Visioning

• USA Chattanooga, Amherst, Tucson, West Covina,
  Orange County NC, Brandon, Canada
• Europe Genoa, Bath, Bristol, Venice, Manchester
  2020
• Latin America Buga, Columbia Quito, Ecuador
  Santos, Brazil.

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The General Visioning Workshop

• What do people want to preserve in their
  community?
• What do people want to create in their community?
• What do people want to change in their community?

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Example Housing Workshop

• What do we want preserved in terms of housing?
• Are there special buildings, special
  neighborhoods that we want preserved?
• What kind of housing, what kind of neighborhoods
  do we want in our community?
• What neighborhoods or areas could be improved?
• In the next 10 to 20 years, what do we want our
  residential community to look like?

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Preparing the Strategic Housing Plan

• Housing task force
• reviews current and on-going plans, programs,
  and/or projects in community, county, region
• outlines data needs
• Sub-task forces established for gathering data
• Household survey
• collecting Census data
• collecting data from local government, utilities,
  etc.

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Creating Goals and Strategies

• What are the key issues resulting from the
  previous analyses?
• How should and how can we (the community) address
  these issues?
• Do they need to be addressed in the long term?
• Are there solutions that can resolve some issues
  in a relatively short time period?

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Five Strategic Areas of Consideration

• Housing availability
• Housing affordability
• Housing adequacy
• Housing accessibility
• Other housing concerns, such as, regulations,
  finance, Fair Housing Regs, etc.