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| Four Steps to Grow a Strong Community |
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| Written by ARAcontent | |
| Sunday, 11 November 2007 | |
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(ARA) - Successful communities are built, not born. What makes communities successful has changed dramatically over the past decade. Evidence shows that now, more than ever before, successful communities can be built. In other words, the characteristic assets of a successful community can be created, developed and encouraged. An excellent example is Bemidji, Minn. The Bemidji Leads! program involved more than 300 community members, led by seventeen community stewards, working together to become a force for positive change in the lives of the community. The results have been incredible. More than 10,000 trees are being planted each year to reforest the community. Bemidji State University has been identified as a center for excellence, and plans for a new event center are well underway. These are just a few examples of the positive changes resulting from Bemidji Leads! Another was the creation of the Center for Community Stewardship – a group dedicated to helping other communities realize the same success as Bemidji. The trick to growing successful communities is knowing where to start. According to the Center for Community Stewardship, the key is empowering a community’s most important asset -- its leaders. * Identify “Successful Gardeners” Much like successful gardeners, community leaders plant the seeds of success so that everyone can enjoy the fruits of their ideas, innovation and labor. They are people of vision who are passionate about their community, take risks and understand the changing dynamics of community development. Leaders not only possess these qualities themselves, but they’re able to recognize these characteristics in potential leaders for the future. The Center for Community Stewardship’s Steward Academy program, for example, focuses on helping communities identify, grow and support strong leaders. These community leaders then work to communicate, plan and accomplish their goals of community progress and change. * Understand the “Ecosystem” Of Your Community Just like a garden has differences in soil, the characteristics of communities are extremely diverse and unique. Leaders and representatives should draft a community profile, which will serve to clarify its identity and determine the resources needed to meet goals and address problems. This profile also serves to pinpoint where there is community interest and energy, prioritizing strategies and opportunities. Finally, a community profile can help by providing a realistic, yet optimistic, picture of the community’s destiny. This serves to help the community graduate from “good” to “great.” It also ensures proper planning, which makes implementing positive change much easier. * Plant the Seeds of Improvement Once community leaders have been identified and the community has been profiled, a plan of action can be created and realized. This is where ideas become real plans with clear goals, and the seeds of improvement are sown. It is necessary to identify specific action steps and strategies for bringing about positive change in a community. As soon as a plan is established and agreed upon, it can be put into action. Here’s where leaders are transformed into coaches, helping the community improve itself through the plan that has been developed. These coaches need to generate a positive “buzz” around the changes that are taking place, thus encouraging more community members to participate. They can do this by promoting practical reasons for change, identifying big ideas and encouraging achievable first steps. * Evaluate the Yields of Growth In order to determine if a plan’s goals have been achieved, they must be properly evaluated and measured. Has the community utilized the right recipe for the right soil mixture to best raise the crops of progress and optimism? Techniques such as community surveys and focus groups can provide feedback on existing efforts and help assess where improvements can be made. Mistakes or errors in judgment are bound to happen. Through evaluation, communities can learn from mistakes and improvements can be made. Steward Academy sessions provide the basics for many of these concepts. In fact, by utilizing help from organizations like the Center for Community Stewardship, communities across the country are realizing similar success to that of Bemidji. In other words, when strong leaders plant the seeds of improvement, communities can reap the benefits of positive change. To learn more, visit www.stewardacademy.com. Courtesy of ARAcontent |
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