How to Eat an Elephant? One Bite at a Time
By Elizabeth Duffrin
Published: July 16, 2010
You’ve spent six months, or maybe a year and a half, developing a quality-of-life plan for your neighborhood. It’s well thought out and your partners are raring to go – but the plan has a dozen strategies with 50 projects attached. Where do you start?
“A lot of people don’t know,” said Joel Bookman of LISC/Chicago, “and a lot of plans are sitting on a shelf.”
First, choose priorities
You can’t implement 20 projects in the first year, so narrow your focus to between four and six. And be certain those priorities are:
- Critical. It’s easy to be lured away from local priorities by the promise of outside funding for a project unrelated to your plan. Proceed with caution. Projects driven by funders sometimes contain hidden costs that are not supported by their grant. They can eat up your time. And they often prove unsustainable when the grant dries up.Instead, zero in on issues that residents care about most. In the long run, remaining responsive to neighborhood needs will do more to bolster your credibility and influence.
- Visible. Projects that are visible attract interest – and resources. When Lawrence Avenue Development Corp. in Chicago wanted to spur investment its commercial corridor, it first focused on making small business loans. That turned out to be the wrong strategy because the improvements, such as new equipment for merchants, weren’t visible to the outside world, Bookman explained. “We switched to façade improvements and more attractive signs on storefronts because every bit that we did was visible and would bring other investment.”
- Catalytic. Projects that are catalytic serve as a springboard to future projects. These can be small endeavors, such as starting a youth program or neighborhood clean-up day, that build relationships and the confidence needed to take on larger projects. Or they can be large-scale endeavors, such as building a neighborhood plaza that provides a site for future projects like festivals and farmers markets.
- Doable. Some goals, such as building a housing development, may take years to achieve. People who devoted time and energy to the plan may grow disheartened if results are too slow in coming. To build momentum for the plan – and to maintain your credibility – focus on some quick wins.
Joel Bookman
Eric Young Smith
To get its quality-of-life plan rolling, the Quad Communities Development Corporation in Chicago contracted with a non-profit called Cleanslate to clean a main commercial corridor daily. Workers wore bright yellow vests and greeted passers-by as they worked. The project was quick to launch and addressed two major goals in the plan – creating new employment for residents and a commercial strip attractive enough to lure investment. It also was visible enough to signal to residents (and local drug dealers) that changes were underway. Years later, the corporation spearheaded the development of a new shopping center at the corridor’s main intersection.
Chart your priorities, create work plan
Once you’ve selected your priorities for the year, fill out a chart like this one for each priority, identifying the lead organization, partners and benchmarks for progress.
Now it’s time to create a work plan for each priority. It should look something like the chart below.
- First, begin with the end in mind. In box # 4, describe the results you want to achieve. The results should be specific enough that you can state conclusively whether you achieved them by the end of the time period you’ve selected.
- For box #1, think about your “kickoff activity.” What do you need to do on the first day of the first week? First activities typically include meeting with project partners to agree on each organization’s responsibilities, identifying a project manager, and discussing how the project can support goals in the quality of life plan.
- In boxes #2 and #3, describe the intermediate activities and final tasks that will ensure that you get the results that you want. For example, a neighborhood association that wanted to start a preschool arts program needed to identify an arts organization willing to lead the project and launch a marketing campaign. The last push included signing a final contract with the group, registering families and preparing the space.
Seek help from others
As a final step in the planning, LISC/Chicago asks each of its lead agencies to think about how LISC can help them reach their goals. “Sometimes it’s introducing someone to a funder,” Bookman explained. “Sometimes it’s putting a newsletter article on the website. “
“It’s not the old LISC,” he added. “We’re not sitting at a desk anymore, we’re out in the neighborhoods helping make things happen. Without their results, we have nothing to show. It’s a partnership.”
This story was based on a training by Joel Bookman for the Institute in April 2010.
Posted in Training Materials