Bruce said: That said, I do think neighborhood organizations have a very important responsibility to ensure that their participation processes are as open as possible. They need to have accountability mechanisms in place to make sure that their programs and activities serve the whole community, not just those who have the tenacity to regularly attend meetings. Some people just aren't going to feel comfortable in the format of many neighborhood meetings. This is sometimes hard for more well-educated people of the mainstream culture to understand. Neighborhood groups have a special responsibility to reach out to renters and other people that do not show up at their meeting and not to assume that the people (often mostly white homeowners) who show up at their meeting are the only ones that count.
Me: I agree that neighborhood groups need to make real measurable efforts to reach out to all the stakeholders in the neighborhoods. I would also say that I believe many neighborhoods are making those outreach efforts and succeeding. I currently work with 18 neighborhoods that are organized into 14 different groups. I see every effort being made to interpret flyers and other information into the languages of the stakeholders. I see efforts and success in recruiting people of color and renters. I have neighborhoods collaborating with one another to partner with yet another non-profit to increase outreach to the Mexican-Latino community. I have had neighborhoods do specific meetings for a specific immigrant community. The membership of one neighborhood is over 1/2 Somali people. My own neighborhood (I do not work in other than as a volunteer) has Mexican/Latino, Somali and renters representatives on its board. I agree with Bruce that we cannot just look at monthly meetings for the focus of outreach or to measure success in achieving involvement. There have been surveys, focus groups, festivals and other events hosted by neighborhoods. We need to count those outreach efforts as well. We also need to look at who the end recipient is of the NRP funds that have been invested and determine if we did benefit an acceptable cross section of neighborhood stakeholders. I can say with great confidence that my own neighborhoods investment of NRP funds have benefited a wide variety of stakeholders. I can also say that about the neighborhoods I work with. $5,220,793 out of $7,766,000 or 67% of the Whittier NRP funds invested benefited low income people and people of color. Those projects or activities include affordable housing, participation in the planning and development of the school and park, the bookmobile, youth programming, investment in a youth center and the providing the environmental clean-up funds for the now famed Elroy site. I am betting the same could be said about most of the inner-city neighborhoods. I think there is a great deal more we can all do to increase outreach efforts to the greater community we call Minneapolis. I look forward to exploring many ways of doing more of this as the city begins to examine its own citizen participation process. But, I think the NRP neighborhoods already do a pretty fabulous job that should not be discounted. NRP has been recognized and awarded internationally and has been deemed one of the nations "best practices" by Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Barb Lickness Whittier ===== "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
