Introduction
After the consultant team was brought on to
the Initiative, a series of draft designs were completed for
specific sites, issues and interventions. A second community
outreach event was developed to gain public insight into the
consultants’ draft solutions. Attendees were encouraged to
comment and make suggestions on these concepts and let the
Initiative’s management team realize a higher level of community
involvement throughout the planning process.
Scheduling
An effort was made to provide convenience to
participants by scheduling meetings that avoid holidays,
vacations and attempt not to compete with local special events
as well as avoiding spring break week.
Team leaders chose Monday June 9, 2008
because it was a weeknight, and the hours of 4 to 7 p.m. were
chosen to catch people on their way home from work or in the
early evening. The first outreach meeting was held between the
hours of 5 to 8 pm, but the number of attendees peaked between 5
to 6 pm. The management team wanted to capitalize on this and
therefore moved the second meeting time earlier by one hour.
Again, it was planned as a rolling admissions event so
participants could spend whatever amount of time they wanted to
familiarize with the information.
Location
Other regional organizations suggested
holding outreach meetings that were directly related to
school-aged children to increase community involvement. It was
than decided to hold the event at a local school due to a
convenient location that was easily accessible to our target
audience, including disabled residents.
Advertisement
The target audience and the media (English
and Spanish) were given two to three weeks notice. A mailing
list of approximately 550 was developed to include residents,
businesses, property owners, places of worship, and educational
institutions. The mailing list was developed from the three
community’s tax assessor databases, visual confirmation by
walking along the street, and the corrections made after the
previous bulk-mailings conducted. The use of viral e-mailing
among the team leaders was also used to branch out to social,
governmental, and non-governmental organizations in the region.
The Central Falls school district also
produced a bi-lingual reverse call message that automatically
dialed residents’ phones and aurally alerted them to the
meeting. All flyers were also included in school district
printed materials as well as every school distributed flyers in
their newsletters. School district staff also distributed flyers
throughout partner organizations and public spaces.
Findings in brief
-
There is a need for local historic
education
-
Improve vehicle-traffic congestion
-
Improve streetscape maintenance and
waste management, sidewalks
-
Enhance the street walkability
-
Develop/Encourage entry-level job
positions for High School aged residents
-
Encourage a variety of commercial
development
-
Create safe areas where residents can
people-watch that encourage loitering and do not necessitate
buy-in
-
Encourage the development of a movie
theatre
-
Program events that reach out to
teenagers and young adults
-
Improve the greening of the streetscape
-
Safety is a huge concern, especially in
public places
-
Business and façade improvement
-
Enhance night lighting
March
Outreach | April Outreach |
June Outreach |
September Outreach
En Espańol
.
News
.
Calendar
.
Contact
.
Home
Plan
.
Communities
.
Progress/Highlights
.
History
.
Resources
.
Sponsors
.
Discussion
