Ohio State University Extension Education for Sustainable Communities in Ohio

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Sustainable Community Process
Steps in a Community Process
Develop a Governance for the Process
A Futures Council will be created with representation from the appointing entity and appropriate sponsoring entities.  This council will be responsible for managing local Sustainable Communities process.  It is envisioned that there will be a representative from each of the following areas: government, unions, families, family support groups, local schools, training organizations, higher education, media, research organizations, safety, security, service organizations, youth, elderly, minority populations and religious organizations.  The Futures Council will be responsible for overseeing the sustainable development process. 
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Create a Shared Community Vision
Key to the process is the establishment of an inclusionary community visioning session.  The process is designed to seek participation by residents of the community.  Unlike representative visioning sessions where individuals are selected to participate on behalf of a particular constituency, an inclusionary process seeks to interact directly with residents who desire to participate.  To encourage individuals to participate, visioning sessions are held at various locations throughout the county where people gather.  For example, to increase participation there is not a central geographical location for the visioning sessions.  Instead sessions are held throughout the county which minimizes the time required for participation. 

In addition community residents will be asked to think fifty years into the future rather than traditional five or ten year visions.  To help residents imagine so far ahead they will be encouraged to think about the world they desire for their grandchildren or great-grandchildren. 
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Set Goals and Objectives with Appropriate     Indicators

For each goal selected through the visioning process an action team will be assigned responsibility for setting objectives and designing indicators to measure the success of the community in reaching goals.  These action teams will be lead (coordinated) by the appropriate entity from the Futures Council who traditionally have held responsibility for a particular area.  Community residents who volunteer to continue working on a particular goal will be included, as equal members, on the individual action team. 

Action teams will research and define objectives for reaching each community goal.  For example, if a community goal is affordable, safe housing for all residents, the action team will identify the type of housing needed in the community and what safe housing means. 

Once the objectives have been set by the action teams multi-dimensional indicators will be created to measure the communities success in reaching these objectives.  To continue our previous examples of safe, affordable housing some indicators may be: 

a. Mixture of apartments, single family housing and condominiums. 
b. Use of energy sources that increase the use of renewable resources. 
c. Home ownership by eighty percent of families classified as low-moderate income level. 
d. Crimes reported in each neighborhood. 
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Choose and Implement Activities
Community residents, local agencies, political jurisdictions, volunteer organizations and educational institutions will now have a clearly articulated vision, with appropriate goals and objectives measurable by agreed upon indicators of progress.  Each organization and public agency can now choose appropriate strategies necessary to assure a balanced, sustainable future for the community.  In addition, each organization will have indicators to help guide decisions when conflicting issues arise.  On a daily basis each organization will have a deeper understanding of the community's goals and objectives to guide their decisions. 
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Evaluate Progress, Celebrate Success, and Revise Activities
The Futures Council will continue to operate, perhaps with new representatives, as an evaluation organization to help participating organizations interpret community objectives and continually establish new indicators as technology and understanding advances. 

After four years a re-vision process will be conducted to access the accomplishments to date and set new community goals.  This visioning process will not be as intense as the first process since a community vision will not be recreated.  However, this re-vision process will be as inclusionary in setting goals and objectives as the initial process. 

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Maintained by:
Bill Grunkemeyer
Ohio State University Extension
Community Development
Last Updated (February 2000).
URL: http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~esco/
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