Green Impact Zone® Processes
The Green Impact Zone will develop and operate a number of community processes to help connect residents with available programs, make sure that transformation is sustainable beyond the federal stimulus funds, and ensure the transparency and effectiveness of what is taking place.
A few of these key processes, how they will work, and the objective of each process:
- Building Capacity – The Green Impact Zone will work to not only transform housing, lives and neighborhoods in the zone, but also to build the capacity of neighborhood organizations and institutions to continue this process long after the stimulus funds have ended. This will include initiatives to develop individual neighborhood organization capacity to inform, engage and mobilize its residents, such as the establishment of block captains in communities that do not have them. The zone will provide leadership training to neighborhood residents. One element of this aspect of the game plan is to develop ways to encourage residents to remain engaged in the neighborhood over the long haul.
- Community Outreach – A very key element of the Green Impact Zone is the community outreach piece. The outreach program will include zone staff, neighborhood leaders and staff, and volunteers from the community. The objective is to inform and help every resident of the zone to assess their needs, identify programs and resources, and help them access these resources. The outreach initiative will be a key element of every program operated within the zone.
- Stakeholder Engagement – The Green Impact Zone will need the active involvement of a wide range of public, private and civic stakeholders and funders. Zone staff will work with these stakeholders to identify the needs of the zone and ways these stakeholders can help to support and enhance the work within the zone. This means not only identifying and acquiring public and private funding, but coordinating existing and new services available to residents and businesses within the zone.
- Evaluation and Accountability – The Green Impact Zone, besides being an initiative to transform an urban community, is a national model and experiment in the effectiveness of concentrating coordination, outreach and resources in a single community. This requires a high degree of data collection and evaluation, not only to assess whether change has occurred over time, but also to provide a "real-time" assessment of program and process initiatives so that they can be adjusted to be more effective. This will enhance our ability to report to the community and stakeholders on what has been accomplished and what needs to be changed.
- Communication – Coordinated communication will be important to make sure that despite the complexity of what we are attempting, everyone -- residents, leaders, stakeholders, and staff -- has the same understanding and expectations of what will happen and how programs and processes will work. The outreach program will play a key role in this, but so will the media.
