Comprehensive Community Development

Introduction

Linking human and physical revitalization.

Overview

Ideas and resources for working to revitalize your community comprehensively, as a whole system.

Page Index

  • Key Issues
  • Common Problems and Solutions
  • Successful Strategies
  • Annotated Web Resources
  • Topic Library
  • Sub-Topics and Vendors


    • Key Issues Related to this Topic

  • By thinking locally, neighborhood associations see the links between issues. By focusing on a small geographic area, neighborhood associations create a place where residents can think holistically. In practical terms, local residents see how solving one problem (like under-achievement by students at a local school) depends on finding solutions to a number of problems (like housing instability and weak bonds between a school and neighborhood.)

  • Neighborhood associations add a perspective that no one else can offer. Most institutions, non-profits and city departments at work on one issue (i.e. small business loans, housing rehabilitation, child protection, etc.). Neighborhood groups have the freedom to look at all these issues at the same time, bringing residents, businesses, institutions and government staff together to reflect on the health of their community comprehensively.

  • Comprehensive Community Initiatives (CCIs) , are a new way of doing community development. Through the CCIs now underway in Minneapolis, St. Paul and other cities across the U.S. local residents are looking at the challenges and assets of their neighborhood as a whole. Residents have seen the need to link their crime prevention efforts, with their housing rehabilitation work and their economic and human development activities.

  • Residents are the experts in CCIs. Locally and nationally, CCI’s begin with local residents offering their ideas through door knocking, surveys and community meetings. These ideas are then shaped into a long-term vision statement, goals and strategic directions for the neighborhood.

  • CCIs take a long-term view. Neighborhood associations who are developing comprehensive revitalization plans realize that they can’t address such a wide range of issues overnight, and seek funding long-term partnerships of up to 7 years or more in order to implement their plans.

  • Foundations are often partners in CCIs. In other parts of the nation comprehensive community initiatives (CCIs) are initiated and sustained by foundations. These initiatives emphasize the merger of two traditionally separate fields of philanthropy and development—human service reform and community development. CCIs reflect the belief that single-issue planning and development neglects the interconnectedness of all the threads that create the neighborhood fabric. National foundations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF), the Ford Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation—have seized upon CCIs as a way to address neighborhood development where traditional project-based initiatives have proven unsustainable. Foundations aim to show the effects comprehensive planning can have when resources are focused on a small area. (from Winton Pitcoff’s article in Shelter Force Jan ’98.)

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    Common Problems and Solutions

  • Working comprehensively requires long-term funding for neighborhood capacity. All Twin Cities neighborhoods that have created comprehensive revitalization plans have needed funding for a minimum of two-years of planning work and 3 years of implementation work. Many local efforts struggle due to adequate funds for organizing, partnership building and/or project administration.

  • Redesigning public services takes time and commitment. The Minneapolis NRP program has sought to give local residents a forum where unique neighborhood needs can be voiced to public officials and government staff, leading to the re reexamination of budget priorities and new methods of public service delivery. Helping city departments to think outside of their “boxes” to work with one another to address neighborhood issues in comprehensive way is a long term process which requires patience and persistence both on the part of neighborhood residents and city staff.

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    Successful Strategies

  • Hamline Midway Coalition (HMC) developed a 20 year vision and plan. Over two years, HMC partnered with the Midway Chamber of Commerce, University United and the Midway YMCA to involve more than 300 community members in developing a 20 year vision and action plan for their area, including economic, housing, environmental and human development strategies.

  • LISC’s Neighborhoods MainStreet Initiative takes a comprehensive approach to revitalizing commercial districts. The Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is partnering with neighborhood development companies working to revitalize the Payne and Robert street corridors in St. Paul and the West Broadway and Central Ave. Corridors in Minneapolis through their Mainstreet Program that uses strategies that have proven successful in revitalizing rural main streets.

  • The Minneapolis NRP Program is a nationally recognized example for comprehensive community development. Through the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program, 66 neighborhood associations have been supported to organize neighborhood residents to develop comprehensive 3- to 5-year neighborhood visions and action plans.

  • The NorthWay Community Trust is a 10 year comprehensive community initative developed by the residents of North Minneapolis in partnership with Northwest Area Foundation and The Minneapolis Foundation to reduce poverty, increase wealth and social capital and increase access to affordable housing.

  • The St. Paul Comprehensive Plan St. Paul's Department of Planning and Economic Development's 1999 Comprehensive Plan provide information regarding the City's integrated approach to shaping the City's future.

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    Annotated WebLinks

  • Roundtable on Community Change
    Aspen Institute   06/14/04
    A roundtable of neighborhood-based efforts that seek improved outcomes for individuals and families as well as improvements in neighborhood conditions by working comprehensively across social, economic and physical sectors

  • National community-building resource
    National Community Building Network   06/14/04
    An alliance of individuals and organizations that work to reduce poverty and create social and economic opportunity through comprehensive community building strategies. Promotes and advances community building principles, in practice and policy, to achieve social and economic equity for all children and families. NCBN provides a forum for community practitioners, researchers, funders and others engaged in neighborhood transformation to share their common interests, insights into barriers they encounter, and field-tested strategies for rebuilding communities. The Network is also committed to developing tools and building capacity within communities to influence comprehensive community building policies at the local, state, and federal levels.

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    Library

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    Vendors by Sub-Topic

    City Department Contacts  
        Minneapolis Community Development Agency
        Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program
        St. Paul Planning and Economic Development (PED)


    Local and National Resources  
        Alliance For Metropolitan Stability
        Alliance for Sustainability
        Asset-Based Community Development Institute
        George Garnett Community Development Consultant
        Hamline-Midway Coalition
        Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Twin Cities
        NorthWay Community Trust


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