If I were to address letters to everyone that can improve the life I live, I would begin by writing:
Dear Mayor.
Dear fellow citizen.
Dear local nonprofit organization.
For many issues, that’s enough.
State and federal governments matter. Large corporations matter. Technology matters. But without local government, citizen participation, and local institutions, you are nowhere. If you are trying to improve you life, you are not in the places where daily life unfolds.
Communities are where society becomes real.
We are a nation of communities. Our successes and failures are expressed locally—in schools, streets, libraries, houses of worship, nonprofits, and town halls. Violence, addiction, social isolation, economic stress, and distrust are not abstract national problems. They are lived in specific places. So are cooperation, belonging, shared purpose, and resilience.
Problems of Development
People’s lives improve when communities function better, socially and institutionally. From a development perspective, this requires a good idea—a plan—and the commitment to communicate, and ultimately, local people to implement the plan.
Constructive community development is doable—many communities improve quality of life through development planning. However, addressing a nation of communities requires a lot of resources plus effective outreach.
In order to succeed, you need to:
- Get an idea to stick
- Transmit the idea to as many people as possible
This is local government and citizen empowerment, scaled to reach many.
Collaborative Resource Networking
The goal of a national community development program is to communicate effective development ideas to as many local communities—villages, towns, counties, city neighborhoods—as possible. One nonprofit organization (NGO) cannot fix all problems, nor can it reach every person in every community.
The work of NGOs is limited by their financial resources, and the focus on their own issue. Which is to say, organizations have limitations. The idea of any NGO reaching out to every community with a development plan is a dream not worth having. Or so it seems. But it is not impossible. To address a nation of communities requires a good idea plus the resources necessary to communicate the plan: NGOs need to collaborate.
Nonprofits, like 4H, AARP, and National Association of Counties, have a broad membership reach. They have local partnerships, communications infrastructure, and experience coordinating across agencies.
National Rollout
The way to address a nation of communities is to utilize all of the contact capabilities of a collaborating group of nonprofit organizations. In this case, community development (CD) requires a plan that is supportable by all participating NGOs.
A program that is “ideologically neutral” is one that only addresses existing local institutional framework (IF)—the laws, and policies and procedures of nonprofits that serve the local community. This means—no organization or consulting that promotes a particular philosophical approach or ideology.
An effective CD plan strengthens the IF—encouraging citizen participation, transparency, and accessibility of local resources. The IF plan does not create a new service or organization: it strengthens the relationships among local government, nonprofit institutions, and citizens.
Phase 1—Collaboration
A group of nonprofits agree to collaborate and form a coordinated Outreach Team.
Their role is not to control communities, but to catalyze them.
Phase 2—Community Connection
The Outreach Team connects with local communities through existing local government and nonprofit entry points:
- Engaged citizens
- Public libraries
- Chambers of commerce
- Faith institutions
- Local government representatives
- Service organizations
Communities may also initiate contact with the Outreach Team.
Phase 3—Local Activation
The objective is to help each community form a cross-sector local workgroup. This process must be locally owned.
The local workgroup develops an IF plan to:
- Improve institutional coordination
- Increase citizen engagement
- Strengthen communication across sectors
- Enhance resource management
Empowerment
A coordinated national effort to strengthen the local institutional framework is practical, scalable, and aligned with the mission of many NGOs.
Promoting collaboration does not just happen between NGOs creating the Outreach Team, it happens between the Team and local contacts—government and nonprofits—and between local contacts and the general population.
The Outreach Team provides guidance, shared learning, and visibility; local people it connects with then share with departments, committees, and organizations like the public library, and the range of nonprofit services available to the community—the local institutional framework.
The goal is to empower citizens, as they meet with others, developing their initiatives. Community actions based on change that happens from internal movement rather than external guidance is empowering for the community as a whole, and is visible to neighboring communities. Seeing results can inspire communities to exercise their own control where they live.