 |  |  |  | | |  |
Look here for all your training needs
| |  | | |  |
Spread the word about Project Safe Neighborhoods
| | | | |  |
Find ways to reduce gun violence in your community
| | | | |  |  | | |  |
How PSN and you can inform people about gun violence | | |
| | |
|
|  |  |  | | |
Project Safe Neighborhoods is based on focused, planned actions to reduce gun violence. The initiative focuses on establishing partnerships withing law enforcement and with the community; those partnerships can then work together to create a comprehensive, strategic plan to reduce gun violence in their communities. This document will explain how the community can come together to create and deploy such a plan. To ensure efforts are not duplicated, the community groups should ensure at minimum that it is coordinating with the Project Safe Neighborhoods task force. The community planning group can even be a subset of the PSN task force.
Why Should the Community Plan?
Planning for community action provides a framework in which the community can best use its many assets. Community planning takes a comprehensive look at the problems and opportunities in a community as well as at the resources needed and available to respond to those problems and opportunities.
Comprehensive planning on a community-wide level is also strategic. It takes a longer and broader view of events and situations. It tries to anticipate challenges and obstacles and ways to meet and overcome them. It takes into account the goals, resources, timing issues, and other conditions that may guide or affect work. It creates and strengthens teamwork and partnerships. It helps the group focus not only on the crisis or emergency of today or tomorrow, but also on specific long-term goals that are shared by—and help to motivate—the entire planning group. It develops clear, measurable objectives; identifies resources to meet those objectives; engages multiple energies in carrying out the objectives; and tracks success. In addition, it provides for ongoing updates to ensure that the plans remain consistent with changing conditions and issues.
How does a community get started in this planning process as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods? First, a core group must be identified, and that group must concur in the subject around which planning will focus. In Project Safe Neighborhoods, for example, the subject might be to reduce gun violence in key neighborhoods. Second, the group should determine who else belongs at the table. Third, the group agrees on a vision—the condition it would like to establish—and on goals and objectives for achieving that vision. (Some of this work is sometimes done by subgroups.) The group then identifies resources needed to carry out objectives, sets any necessary priorities, and moves toward implementation and monitoring of the plan.
Who Gathers To Plan?
Though the subject of planning may help to determine who should be at the table, community planning should strive to be comprehensive (i.e., including rather than excluding). Faith community leaders, social service providers, public and other health agencies, school officials, youth and those who work with them, members of the business community, local crime prevention groups, and local elected officials are just some of the groups that ought to be present. Don’t forget to include police, prosecutors, parole and probation services, juvenile justice services, news media managers, and senior citizen groups.
It’s important to ensure that both formal and informal leaders (the community-designated as well as the official leadership) are represented. Think outside the box. Who usually isn’t present when civic issues are discussed? Who wants a safer community and would benefit from it? For example, you might include the chamber of commerce or the local arts league or museum or symphony society. Each has an interest, sometimes several interests, in the safety and safe image of the community.
Why enlarge the planning group? For one thing, a community planning process that is truly comprehensive brings folks together around shared concerns. It helps them see how their interests mesh with those of others. It suggests new ways of doing business and of working together. The more people who work together during the planning process, the stronger the plan and the backing for its implementation and the more likely that the plan will reflect a sense of the whole community.
What’s the First Step?
It is helpful to get a sense of the problems that people see. First, it lets everyone put key concerns before the group. Second, it identifies areas of overlapping concern. Third, it may suggest others who should be immediately recruited for the planning group.
It is also important to identify community assets. These assets can range from tangible (a new emergency communications system for local government or an excellent network of after-school programs, for example) to intangible (a high level of willingness to help neighbors or an active faith community, for instance). This identification helps in several ways: the group has a more balanced picture of the community; people and organizations appreciate the recognition for their work; and comparing assets and problems can lead to quick actions that energize the planning group.
Next Step? Vision and Goals
This step may be quick or it may take some time to work through, depending on the group. But for planning to be effective, there must be agreement on where the planning should take the group or the community. The vision holds the image of the changed community; the goals outline the achievements that will make the vision a reality.
Goals set priorities, shape the tasks, and make the achievement of the vision operational.
The vision for a community planning group might be framed thus: “Every neighborhood in this community will be one in which its residents can move about freely, without the threat of gun violence.” Goals might include reductions in specific kinds of violence, targeted action in high-violence neighborhoods, and longer-term preventive strategies to reduce future problems.
In some cases, communities have used the vision-framing step to help bring groups together (or show them that they are more closely in agreement than they realize) by letting them discover that they indeed want the same outcomes for the community. This process can be especially useful where there has been a history of mistrust or friction among some groups.
Transforming Intention into Reality
Now that the planning group has agreed on the vision it wants to work toward and has established its overall plans for action (via the goals), it is usually helpful to break the group down into subcommittees or task forces to work on objectives—and even strategies and tasks—around specific goals. If the subgroups reflect the wide-ranging makeup of the main planning group, rather than “subject area experts,” they are usually more likely to come up with innovative answers and to avoid re-enacting turf battles and resurfacing old debates. This strategy has the added benefit of making it easier for the main group to accept and endorse the work of the subgroup.
Every objective that supports a goal should have a time frame, a measurable outcome, and a clear link through that outcome toward advancing the goal. The objective should be specific and trackable. Two examples: “By the start of school in 2002, develop and distribute to all parents a complete list of after-school activities for children and teens.” A longer-term objective might look like this: “Within five years, have enough places in after-school programs to accommodate 80 percent of the children in this community.” In further planning by the implementing person or group, each of these objectives can be supported by specific tasks necessary to reach them.
In some planning processes, the subgroups propose objectives and resources necessary to achieve those objectives. In other scenarios, the main group reviews objectives from subgroups and then identifies resources that will be needed to reach those objectives. This second process has the advantage of avoiding duplicate use of assets, and it allows the main group to set priorities among various objectives or to reframe some of them.
If the plan involves wide-ranging community impact, the planning group should provide an opportunity for public comment. This can include open hearings, formal presentations of the draft plan to community and government groups, mailing of the plan to key groups with a request for comment, and similar strategies. This process can build support for the actual implementation of the plan, and it can help spot flaws in the group’s thinking.
Turning Paper into Action
The plan initially exists on paper. It should have built a high degree of support among key community members as a result of the planning process. But its value will only be realized when the plan is engaged as a blueprint for action that moves the community toward the vision.
The planning group may be charged with monitoring or overseeing implementation of the plan, or the job may fall to some other group. Whichever is the case, several tasks must be performed for the plan to have meaning: checking on progress toward objectives and goals, reporting on that progress, supporting the allocation of resources toward the plan, renewing civic support for the implementation of the plan, and updating the plan as necessary.
It is important—perhaps vital—that the community see the plan in action. Engaging the news media, especially the managers, to actually take part in the planning means they will be able, even eager, to help identify newsworthy developments and get the stories told, which in turn strengthens ongoing commitment to the plan and its implementation.
Assessing Progress from the Outset
Evaluation needs to be considered at the outset, or at least very early in the process. It strengthens and solidifies the work. It measures progress and highlights areas in need of work. But without information on where things were at the start, it’s almost impossible to measure the direction and degree of change.
Those measurable objectives developed by the planning group form the bedrock of an evaluation process. For many communities, it will be best to involve an independent evaluator (perhaps someone from a local university) very early in the planning. The evaluator can help document the process and ensure that objectives are using measurements that are realistic from both monetary and human perspectives.
Taking Another Look at the Plan
No plan is perfect and no community is static. Situations and conditions change, so it is important to build in a time to re-examine the plan and to revisit goals and objectives. Use a process similar to the one that developed the plan, although the process can probably be abbreviated. The revised plan may enlist other community groups, drop some objectives and add others, or switch the emphasis of the work. It may leave the plan exactly as it stands. Whatever the result, the process helps make the plan a living document that keeps partnerships vibrant to meet vital community needs.
References
National Crime Prevention Council. Creating a Blueprint for Community Safety: A Guide for Local Action. Washington, DC: author. 1998. ISBN 0-934513-67-8.
National Crime Prevention Council. How Are We Doing? A Guide to Local Program Evaluation. Washington, DC: author. 1998. ISBN 0-934513-73-2.
Both these books contain numerous examples, detailed explanations, and further references.
Ten Principles for Success in Comprehensive Planning
- An approach that incorporates both prevention and enforcement is essential.
- Police are vital partners, but other agencies and groups must also participate.
- Both formal and informal leaders must be involved.
- All segments of the community must be engaged and mobilized.
- The plan must acknowledge and address both perceptions and realities.
- The plan must address both short-term and long-term action.
- The process must start with a clean slate; groups must be redirected from casting blame to finding solutions.
- The vision must be recognized and shared by all.
- Participants must understand that the process is the secret of success.
- Objectives must be feasible, trackable, and measurable.
25 Reasons To Plan
- Focus effort where action is needed and productive.
- Avoid the "business as usual" trap.
- Maximize use of existing resources.
- Uncover new resources.
- Reflect and incorporate changes in the real world.
- Create a roadmap to reach goals.
- Increase ability to check progress and results.
- Bring problems into manageable focus.
- Help make goals clearer, more solid, more achievable.
- Aid in establishing priorities.
- Help identify milestones and progress to celebrate.
- Establish evaluation criteria and baseline.
- Galvanize action.
- Develop clear choices and alternatives.
- Help minimize confusion and frustration.
- Improve communication and reduce conflict.
- Sustain commitment.
- Spotlight basic assumptions for re-examination.
- Help control events instead of letting events control.
- Check perceptions of problems against realities.
- Act and prevent more, react and control damage less.
- Focus on results rather than process.
- Develop shared agenda for the future.
- Solve problems and improve conditions.
- Deal more effectively with contingencies and emergencies.
| |  |
|
| |
Forward to a Friend
Print Friendly Version