Engaging the Community

Getting people to turn out for an event or meeting once isn't too difficult, but sustained involvement is one of the hardest tasks of a community organizer. Here are some ways and means to get and keep people involved.

New Home, Fresh Outlook
How one non-profit's change of address is turning around a neighborhood. (Written with the generous assistance of Parkway Partners, New Orleans, LA)
Putting It All Together: Community-Based Process
An excerpt from How To Turn A Place Around that suggests ways to motivate people into making a space a community place.
Project for Public Spaces
Places for People
Why do some parks flourish while others fail? M. Christine DeVita, President of the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds, shows why community involvement is key. From Trust for Public Land's "Land and People" magazine.
Establishing a Friends-of-the-Park Group
Based on interviews with leaders of successful park groups, these tip sheets from Partnerships for Parks cover the ins and outs of starting a "friends" group: goals, structure, publicity, money and more.
Building a Greenway in Boston
Valerie Burns, director of the Boston Natural Areas Fund, discusses new lessons learned while working on a greenway project in East Boston.
Community Committees: A Primer from Piedmont Park Conservancy
Community committees serve as a forum for communication, input and relationship-building between a conservancy and a park's many constituencies. Atlanta's Piedmont Park Conservancy outlines how they come together.
The Neighborhood Matching Fund: Building Community in Seattle
Jim Diers, Director of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, describes the city's commitment to community: its neighborhood grant-matching program.
Assets Management: Chicago Communities Find Hidden Strengths
Most communities, even when money's tight, are sitting on unacknowledged treasures in the form of other assets - such as human capital. This article shows real-life examples of assets-based management at work.
The Neighborhood Works Journal
A Bottom-Up Approach to Rebuilding Neighborhoods
The "Showcase Savannah Neighborhood Program" has been recognized as one of the 25 most innovative programs of its type in the U.S.; it creates partnerships with residents, financial institutions, and local government to address crime, litter, dilapidated structures and other substandard conditions.
Neighborhood Reclaims Meridian Hill Park in Washington, DC
This success story shows how a group of volunteers in Washington, DC worked to turn a neighborhood park with an astonishing murder rate into a haven and center of community activity.
Project for Public Spaces' Urban Parks Institute
The Big Backyard: Neighborhood Park Becomes Center of Community Activity
With locally-inspired activities that fly in the face of traditional park programs, from bread-baking to puppet shows, Toronto residents created a community place out of a park neglected by locals and city officials alike.
Philadelphia Green: Expanding Its Role in the Community
A citywide greening organization reaches out to neighborhood groups to build parks and transform vacant lots.
Creative Discovery Garden Flourishes in New Park
A design process that gathered input from schools and in-kind donations from businesses and organizations turned a children's play area, and the environmental restoration project surrounding it, into a backyard, a schoolyard and a science classroom.
A Conservancy Rebuilds and Revitalizes Urban Parkland
Susan Rademacher of the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy, on how the conservancy was formed and its first steps toward restoring and increasing use in Lousiville's parks.
Action For Change
An inspirational speech about reconciling a strong vision for the future with the dirty, day-to-day work neccessary to achieve that vision. From Larry B. McNeil, organizer, Industrial Areas Foundation.
Cooking With Fire In Public Space
Four excerpts from Jutta Mason's book on how campfires and a communcal bake-oven dramatically changed a Toronto park.
Neighborhoods First: Putting Community Back into the Chicago Park District
A Success Story from the Urban Parks Institute.
What Role Can Citizens Play in Creating Safer Parks?
Giving people a greater feeling of control over their park can, in turn, foster a sense of ownership and pride. From Toronto Parks & Recreation's Planning, Designing and Maintaining Safer Parks.
Oakland's Fruitvale Neighborhood Transforms César Chávez Park
Local students, residents, teachers, and artists combined to turn this formerly derelict green space into a place to be proud of. (Courtesy of the Spanish Speaking Unity Council)