Selection Process

The FHLBank of Pittsburgh, aided by program partners and an advisory group, selects communities to participate. Communities identified as potential participants are sent a request for proposal (RFP), which establishes eligibility and provides the foundation for fair selection.

Communities are identified by referrals from a variety of stakeholders across the state.

How communities are selected to participate...

One of the first steps in the selection process for the community revitalization training is the analysis of the community and the preparedness of the stakeholders. The community must be at a point where it would derive benefit from the training and have an opportunity to sustain a comprehensive development approach. A distressed community may not be ready for large-scale investment, but must begin on a smaller scale to build up to a comprehensive approach. An analysis will be performed to ascertain if the community is at the point where the foundation exists for sustainable concepts to take root and eventually flourish.

Blueprint Communities uses an RFP to garner information about the communities identified through the referral process. Specifically, the RFP requests information such as:

• Community team description — composition and why they were selected
  
• Support letters from the CEO of organizations sending representatives as part of the community team
  
• Clear delineation of the target community or neighborhood
  
• Eligibility based on Blueprint Communities parameters
  
• Population and demographics of the target community
  
• Goals of the community
  
• Current stage of the community visioning and planning process
  
• Governing body resolution supporting the team

Emerging communities, as classified by the neighborhood type spectrum, make up the segment of potentially eligible communities. An in-depth review and analysis by the FHLBank, and subsequent input from the advisory group, determines the selected communities.

Elements of a Comprehensive Strategy

It is important to understand the basic elements of community or neighborhood planning in order to establish a context or baseline for additional discussion of issues relating to the comprehensive strategies, which the Blueprint Communities training seeks to foster.

The Blueprint Communities training focuses on the importance of taking a comprehensive approach to community revitalization. The training offers a step-by-step process that will guide participants in developing their own comprehensive strategy.

A comprehensive strategy includes a holistic approach to revitalization, taking into account physical, economic and social needs. It addresses all aspects of development, including housing, infrastructure, economic stimulation and healthy, safe surroundings. It attempts to coordinate human, neighborhood and social capital through the guiding principles of comprehensiveness and community building. It is not a science but, rather, an art. While the core parts for success are relatively consistent, the required strategy and action takes a unique form in each community.

A comprehensive community strategy is a plan that includes a clearly articulated vision, with clearly identifiable goals and a process for implementation. It should seek to change not only the physical environment, but also the perception of the community among residents and those outside the community. The strategy should help an investor answer the question, "Why should I invest here?"

Creating community revitalization is a very complex, time-consuming and challenging process. The greater the level of a community's distress, the more daunting the revitalization process becomes. Real community revitalization takes the dedication of neighborhood residents and organizations and a host of institutions outside the community.

In places that have strong markets, private demand sustains a community or local economy. Unfortunately, in many places in the FHLBank's district, the conventional markets have broken down or do not exist at all. Strategic interventions are necessary to fill the gaps in the market, the details of which vary from place to place. It takes a keen understanding of the local economy and community assets to make the right interventions. A comprehensive, holistic approach to planning helps communities understand what needs to be done and by whom, with the ultimate goal being to create self-sustaining, thriving communities.

The information provided below is based on a review of training materials employed by both the Development Training Institute and The Enterprise Foundation as part of their respective community development training programs. However, it must be noted that local planning is more art than science. It typically reflects local situations and characteristics that are constantly evolving. As such, community planning is "...best understood and practiced as a continuous process, not as a one-time, up-front linear activity."

An effective community planning process typically has the following elements:

1. It is based on a shared perception of the community, which may be based on perceived problems and/or opportunities.
   
2. It involves a systematic and comprehensive consideration of key community characteristics as the basis for developing specific strategies.
   
3. It results in an articulated vision for the future of the community.

It is also typically an "active" process, meaning that it should involve the participation of a broad range of stakeholders in the targeted community if it is to be successful. Community planning done in isolation by local municipal officials or planning experts, who then present their vision for the community in "take-it-or-leave-it" fashion, has long been discredited as an effective approach.

The process of community participation could easily be viewed as a process within the larger planning process and is considered critical to the success of that larger process. The participation process can take a variety of forms, ranging from simple community surveys to detailed group planning exercises. It is here that the whole issue of community leadership comes into play. An effective leader or leaders must emerge in order to organize and push the participation process. A key objective of this process is building and maintaining consensus within the community. It is that consensus that really drives the planning process.

The planning process, in a sense, overlays the participation process which is an ongoing activity. For purposes of this discussion, planning could be described as a series of steps. However, it is important to note that, in actual practice, these steps are not necessarily successive and may require retracing from time to time to ensure that all relevant issues are considered and adequately addressed. The goal for the planning process is to build consensus around both the conditions and possibility for specific actions in the community, to develop workable objectives in support of those actions and to specify mechanisms for implementation.

The basic planning steps identified by The Enterprise Foundation are as follows:

1. Collecting information — Information is gathered from a variety of sources in order to develop an accurate profile of key community characteristics (i.e., demographics) or to document issues (i.e., crime, unemployment, housing conditions) that provide the basis for action.
   
2. Identifying issues — The analysis of the information collected will determine the direction and focus of the planning process. This important step in the process will result in prioritizing what are often competing needs.
   
3. Visioning the community — A common vision of what the community would look like or how it would be different after the issues identified are addressed provides an effective basis for the development of specific goals.
   
4. Setting goals — Goals need to be general statements of intent that correspond to the issues identified and the vision established for the community. Too often, communities start the planning process here and back into the vision and issues, which leads to a very narrow, less effective approach to the issues.
   
5. Developing alternative approaches — As part of the ongoing consensus building process, there needs to be recognition that goals can be met in several different ways. Consideration should be given to alternative approaches, and criteria for choosing among them should be established, that again reflect the issues and vision established for the community.
   
6. Articulating the plan — While there is no one best format as far as content is concerned, a typical plan might consist of a description of existing and desired conditions in the community, goals describing what needs to be done based on the conditions described, general strategies for how to get it done and specific actions that need to be taken in support of the goals and strategies.
   
7. Designing and implementing plan activities — To quote one of The Enterprise Foundation's training manuals: "Plans do not implement themselves." In a sense, the articulation of the plan is really the easy part of the process; the real work lies in its implementation. Most plans fail because the implementation is not adequately considered in the planning process. The commitment of stakeholders to the planning process must include a "substantial and tangible" responsibility for the resulting implementation activities that bring the plan to life. The classic questions of "who, what, where, and when" need to be answered regarding the actions specified in the plan, either as part of the plan itself or as a separate implementation agreement.
   
8. Monitoring, evaluating and updating — Some mechanism for measuring the effectiveness of the planning process, particularly with multi-year planning efforts, is essential to determine the ongoing viability of the plan. This mechanism also provides the basis for making periodic adjustments to meet changing conditions and circumstances. It is important that the criteria for monitoring and evaluation be defined before, and not during or after, implementation. That way the measurement is based on what was desired and not merely on what actually happened.