 The issues and
conditions related to healthy,
stable neighborhoods cross city
geography, demographics, culture,
and economics. Ask yourself who
benefits from vital neighborhoods
and the list is long: residents
of all ages, property owners, developers,
businesses, schools, governments...
the list goes on and on.
Clear communication
of goals and strategies is
an important factor in the
success of our efforts to build
a community of choice. However,
initiatives to address neighborhood
and community health are often
hindered because stakeholders
fail to communicate effectively.
Community organizers and leaders
sometimes use a "language" foreign
to the target audience. Our
challenge, then is to learn
how to express ourselves in
a clear and meaningful way.
The following definitions will
provide help in addressing neighborhood
concerns.
- Asset Based Planning: A
planning philosophy grounded
in examining the positive attributes
of a neighborhood and the resources
available within and outside
a neighborhood to bring about
a desired outcome. Asset-based
planning is also called "building
from within" because it
suggests the solutions to community
problems and the resources
to enact them are primarily
present in the neighborhood.
- Assessment Tools: Process
or system used to classify the
worth, perception, or effectiveness.
- Goals: The
purpose toward which an endeavor
is directed.
- Healthy
Neighborhoods: A place
where it makes economic and
emotional sense for people
to invest their time, money,
and energy; and a place where
neighbors successfully manage
neighborhood related issues
and neighborhood change.
- Healthy Outcome Areas: Image,
Market, Physical, and Neighborhood
management.
- Neighborhoods of Choice: Communities
in which people can find a place
where they may choose to both
start and stay.
- Neighborhood
Management: The ability
of a neighborhood to manage
day-to-day concerns that arise;
develop the social fabric to
connect with neighbors; and
work together to implement
programs and projects that
positively impact the image
and the health of their neighborhood.
- Neighborhood Revitalization: Efforts
aimed at influencing future choices;
building confidence and, thereby,
influencing investment behaviors;
using data to develop strategies
that respond to the variety of
needs and populations within
an area; working with residents
to discontinue negative perceptions
and creating a vision and implementing
activities that will achieve
desired outcomes.
- Neighborhood Plan: Method
worked out beforehand for the
accomplishment of goals.
- Neighborhood Walk: Walking
through a neighborhood to collect
and analyze data, and talk with
neighbors to determine what is
working in the neighborhood and
what is not working.
- Neighbors: A
person who lives in close proximity
to you or within your defined
neighborhood; a business; a non-profit
agency, civic organization, or
organized group that provides
a service, commodity, or program
that impacts the quality of life
in your neighborhood. A church
or school that is within or borders
your neighborhood.
- Outcomes:
A way to describe how a neighborhood
looks and behaves when it is
healthy.
- Physical Conditions:
How the infrastructure, houses,
and other public spaces have
been maintained.
- Reciprocity:
A relation of mutual dependence
or action or influence; mutual
exchange or rights or privileges.
- Strategy: Plan
of action to accomplish specific
goals.
- Social
Capital: Connections
or networks among individuals
and groups that generate reciprocity
and trustworthiness, which,
taken all together, make it
easier to coordinate and cooperate
for mutual benefit.
- Toolbox: A
set of compiled programs, services,
and activities for use in addressing
neighborhood health concerns.
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