Community Civic Engagement and Awareness Program
Rationale: Residents and neighborhood groups cite an ongoing need for more involvement in local planning decisions and the need to have greater autonomy over their ability to improve their own communities. Building local civic capacity to address urban problems is essential for maximizing opportunities for change within neighborhoods. Capacity is enhanced when community residents have sufficient information, experience, and trust in both their neighbors and local institutions. Civic engagement and awareness of local issues go hand in hand and must be actively promoted.
Program Description: The primary strategy to promote engagement and awareness is to recruit 30 community residents, referred to as community fellows. These volunteers will be paid a small stipend, $1,000 each to gather information from local residents, assist with the interpretation of the information, and convene neighborhood meetings to disseminate information and discuss findings and to act as a bridge for this information to local government.
This approach leverages community assets and activates social capital on the terms understood by community residents themselves. Connecting community residents to information and resources is difficult and there are a number of social and cultural values in minority communities that make traditional strategies of limited effectiveness. The "promatora" model that recruits existing community leaders who are widely known and trusted in their neighborhoods and is considered an effective practice in health promotion. In this case we will promote civic engagement in Kansas City, Kansas by working directly with community residents for data collection, analysis, and information dissemination.
Major Program Objectives :
- Recruit and train five cohorts of six community fellows who will conduct a community needs assessment survey of Wyandotte County residents and develop a comprehensive community resource guide.
- Disseminate information to community residents and community-based organizations in 10 community meetings and to the Unified Government via meetings with appropriate departments.
- Publish community resource guide and the needs assessment survey results on both the internet and hard copy for distribution to community-based organizations.