My Community, My World

Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration!
Thomas Edison

This is part 3 of a serial post.  (See the last post here.)  I will continue to discuss the various events and projects we implement to try to help increase participation in the community.

What better way to get started than to walk around the neighborhood and talk to people?  At the end of the neighborhood association meeting I proposed that we put together a neighborhood walkabout, to talk to neighbors about what neighborhood issues they cared about, and how the NA could be more relevant to them.  Everyone there liked the idea, and I passed around a sign-up sheet scrawled on a piece of lined paper.

I wanted to involve other agencies and offices in the walkabout, for several reasons.  First, I didn’t want to step on any toes by doing an event in a city supervisor’s district without inviting him.  Second, I am still relatively new to this whole community outreach thing, and want to learn from them on events like this.  Third, are involved with the communities already, and are usually interested in participating.

After some calls, I had confirmed attendance from the Sacramento department of neighborhood services, an officer from the community outreach and neighborhood watch program of Sac PD, and the Councilmember who represents the area.  This lends important credibility, actually, because people take you a lot more seriously if they think you can actually do something to address their concerns.

I have done a couple of other walkabouts, as well as some door-to-door marketing, so I know a few things about how these sorts of things turn out:

• A small handful of motivated people can cover a lot of ground, reach a lot of people, and make the effort a success.
• A lot of people won’t be home.
  
• You need a flyer or some sort of literature to leave at each door (for people who aren’t home), and for people who are home, so they’ll have something to refer back to if they want more information later.
• If people are even slightly interested, add them to a sign-up list with phone, address, and email so you can follow up with them later.  This is extremely important!  Never rely on people contacting you, even if they are very interested.

On the day of the walkabout, I got a call from the councilmember – he wouldn’t be able to come.  I had also been unable to reach the contact with the police department.  Keep in mind that in events like this, it is difficult to know beforehand who will actually show up, especially for an activity like this.

In any case, the walkabout went well.  We split up into four pairs and started walking.  Many people we encountered were interested in knowing more about what was going on in the neighborhood, and many were interested in receiving more information.

Some interesting observations:

• Most people didn’t have many (or any) neighborhood issues they wanted to talk about.  Many said they were pretty happy with the way things were, which surprised me, because neighborhood association meeting attendees have plenty of concerns, and are constantly trying to improve the neighborhood.
• A neighborhood member in my walking group tried approaching people by asking them if they were interested in getting involved in the neighborhood.  In my experience this is a chancy approach, because many people will interpret this as a request for time, effort or money.  My predictions were borne out; we got no contact information from anyone who was approached in this way, and I suggested the neighbor try a different approach.
• One woman had plenty of issues she was concerned about (abandoned houses, drug dealing, gang activity), but didn’t want to come to a NA meeting because she “didn’t want any trouble.”  We did finally interest her in receiving a newsletter from the NA, but it concerns me that she feels there might be reprisals against her if she speaks up.

We’re still collating the information we collected, but there is no doubt that it has increased the list of neighbors the NA can contact.  We’ll see if we can bring any of them out to the next meeting.

Two heads are better than one.
English proverb

This is part 2 of a serial post.  (See the last post here.)  In later parts of the series I will discuss the various events and projects we implemented to try to help increase participation in the community.

In the last post in this series I left off at the end of a neighborhood association meeting with the Colonial Manor neighborhood association (CMNA).  As I mentioned, the neighbors started discussing their concern about the low turnout at meetings and in NA events in general.  I’m glad they did, because I would have found it much harder to offer suggestions if they were unsolicited, a topic about which I think I’ll write more in the future.  Also, of course, there’s no way I could have thought of all these ideas on my own.

Here are the suggestions they came up with, and my thoughts on them:

• Start a blog: They used to have a blog, apparently, but it fell into disuse.  I think it could be useful to have a blog, but only if neighbors are actually participating, and are interested enough to check the blog for news.  I don’t think the blog would be a good way to get people involved.  And a blog can only survive if someone commits to updating it.  That said, if someone wants to maintain a blog, they’ll stay more active in the neighborhood.  And it would be useful once participation rises.
• Have a snack potluck: I always think food brings more people to meetings, and making it a potluck gives the meeting a “community” feel.  Each person feels that they have contributed some, and feeling may also help draw out people who otherwise may not feel they should contribute to the discussion.
• Change the meeting layout to a circle of chairs, rather than rows facing the front: I agree with this wholeheartedly, given the small number of people who currently attend.
• Introductions at the beginning of the meeting
• Childcare during meetings: Some neighbors can’t attend because they have small children.  One neighbor, a high school student, suggests that she and other students could come to meetings to watch the kids.  High school students often need community service hours.
• Yard signs: CMNA members could post yard signs to get the word out to others.
• Flyers sent home with students: Schools frequently flyers and permission slips home with students; the school could send along a notification about the NA.
• School sign publicity: Schools have marquee signs for announcing upcoming events, and a school could announce NA events as well.
• Bringing friends: Every member could promise to contact three neighbors about the CMNA.  I think this is an excellent idea, for those neighbors willing to do so (they shouldn’t be strong-armed, of course!).  It is often the case that people join a new organization (or religion) only when someone they know encourages them to do so.
• Block party: Close down a block and hold a block party; coordinate with other events and groups (National Night Out [NNO], problem-oriented police officers, etc.)
• What CMNA is already doing: CMNA already sends email notifications before meetings.  The membership packet includes some coupons and CMNA magnets.
• Raffle on National Night Out: Solicit donations from local businesses. On National Night Out, sell memberships to the NA; everyone who buys on NNO gets a raffle ticket.  Each ticket-holder gets a prize from a business (e.g. a bag of groceries, a toy, etc.)

Write in the comments if you have other good ideas to increase participation!

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Confucius

This is part 1 of a serial post.  In later parts of the series I will discuss the actual strategies discussed by the neighbors, and the various events and projects we implemented to try to help increase participation in the community.

Not too long ago I attended an excellent neighborhood association (NA) meeting.  I’ve been attending meetings in the Colonial Manor neighborhood for about 5 months.  I’m working to help connect them to some senior support services provided by nonprofits and by the city and county.  The meetings usually have 5-15 members, and almost every time the president tells me apologetically that she wishes there were more people.  I think she’s embarrassed that Senator Steinberg is sending a representative all the way out to the NA for only a handful of neighbors.  I feel sorry for her; I’d be embarrassed too, and in fact have been in the same situation when I’ve organized events with low turnout.  I feel I’ve let everyone down.

This meeting, while the community police officers were presenting, one neighbor, Lary, asked how CMNA meetings compared with other NA meetings they regularly attended.  She said that CMNA meetings were fairly well-attended, actually, which surprised most of us there – it’s a pitiful reflection on the state of NAs.  Or at least on the state of NAs in the part of Sacramento that these officers patrolled.

At the end of the meeting, Lary spoke up again and asked how we could get more people to come.  What followed was a 20-minute discussion about strategies the NA could use to bring out more people.  There were a lot of great ideas, many of them immediately actionable, and several people stepped up to get some of the started.  I was extremely heartened by the prospect of helping the NA reach more people, and I’ll be helping with several of the actions.  I had proposed, earlier in the meeting, to coordinate a neighborhood walkabout to talk to neighbors about what neighborhood issues interested them, and talk to them about how the NA could be more relevant to them.  I’m excited – this is a great way to get to know the neighborhood and pull it together some.

By focusing more on neighborhood projects, I’m forcing myself to go out and get to know the community more.  That’s a big part of why I’m so excited about this NA meeting taking such a promising move.