Foundations for Building a Neighbourhood Strategy – Tamarack Institute

This foundational course will walk you through 6 modules that will help you to define your reason, build the case for a neighbourhood strategy plan, and think about the development of the strategy.

The foundations for building a neighbourhood strategy course is for:

• Individuals who want to make their neighbourhood a better place

• On-the-ground staff to support residents to build a plan

• Municipal staff who have been tasked with putting a plan together

Have you been tasked to develop or want to build a vision and organize activities that will deepen a sense of community in your neighbourhood or town/city? How do you build the case to the decision-makers that this is a good idea?

The course brings Collective Impact and Asset-Based Community Development together to focus on building a plan with residents at the centre.

MODULE ONE: What is a strategy?
Have you ever developed strategies that end up going nowhere, sitting on a shelf? or wonder why the strategy did not work? This is because we did not take the time to reflect on what is a strategy, why we want to develop one, how to involve people in planning for a strategy and how to sustain the strategy. In this module, we will talk about what is a strategy, why develop a strategy and the different types of strategies.

MODULE TWO: What problem are you solving with a strategy?
Understanding why you want to develop a strategy is important. Is it because it's an internal organization request, is it because you are seeing the problem in your neighbourhood or you have been doing random activities and what to bring it together for a common agenda? The reasons why you are doing a strategy are really important to help you know how to put it together.

MODULE THREE: Communicating to your why
The next step is to understand the level of support for the potential neighbourhood strategy and communicate why it is important to have a strategy. You will need to think about different neighbourhood stakeholders, champions, or partners whose opinions on the issue are important.

MODULE FOUR: Engaging champions
In this module, we are going to focus on building your list of individuals whom you think should be involved in the development of the strategy and how to engage with them. It is so important to engage diverse perspectives and people and groups from across all sectors and bring their voices together. We encourage you to think about diversity- this means figuring out how to go out of your way to reach those who are not normally involved or the unreachable.

MODULE FIVE: How neighbourhood strategies get done
This next module takes you to the next step which is how to create your strategy. More specifically how to develop a strategy with the community at the center. We are going to talk about Asset-Based Community Development and Collective Impact.

MODULE SIX: Putting it All Together
Understanding the purpose and having support for your strategy will go a long way in the development of a strategy that is useful. This module is the last one in this course. It's about putting everything you learned together and what better way than to share case studies of those who have built strategies to inspire you?

To register: Tamarack Institute – FBNS