A Grass Roots Sustainability Initiative Campaign Approach (Draft)
[THIS MATERIAL IS AN OUTLINE OF AN APPROACH TO A COMMUNITY GRASS ROOTS SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE THAT DEVELOPS OVER TIME BASED ON THE INTERESTS AND SUPPORT OF STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPANTS--I.E. IS NOT A TRADITIONAL FULLY FUNDED, USUALLY GOVERNMENTALLY SPONSORED, FORMAL PLANNING PROCESS ENDING WITH A COMPREHENSIVE "PLAN." HOWEVER, DEPENDING ON THE LEVEL OF COMMUNITY SUPPORT, THE SCOPE AND DEPTH OF THE INITIATIVE MAY BE MORE FULLY DEVELOPED AT THE OUTSET. AT WHATEVER LEVEL OF INITIAL DEVELOPMENT, THE APPROACH IS GRASS ROOTS, DYNAMIC, AND EVOLVES OVER TIME, I.E IS A PERMANENT FEATURE OF SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY. THIS APPROACH IS SUITABLE FOR COMMUNITIES THAT ARE GOING TO DO THIS WORK THEMSELVES WITHOUT EXPENSIVE STUDIES AND CONSULTANTS]
PLACER COUNTY SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE CAMPAIGN
I. Goals. An Initiative That:
A. Creates a Community Organizing Focus with Broad Public Awareness of Sustainability Principles and Opportunities.
B. Brings together local government, businesses, non-profits, and citizens.
C. Creates an Action Plan that includes a Vision, Goals, Objectives, and Implementation Strategies related to Sustainable Community, Environment, and Economy.
D. Strengthens our capacity to create a sustainable future locally by building a county-wide network of communication, collaboration, learning, and sharing—people helping people, our greatest local resource.
II. Basic Elements.
A. Broad and diverse involvement of citizens
B. The creation of a collective vision for the future
C. The development of principles of sustainability
D. An inventory of existing community human assets and resources and identifies additional assets that would benefit the community
E. Clear, measurable goals
F. The development of community indicators to evaluate progress
G. Open and transparent communication
H. Early, visible results
I. Celebration of success
III. Action Steps
A. Inventory Existing Efforts – Community, Environment, Economy
(1) Public Programs
(2) Non-profit services
(3) Community Organizations
(4) Individuals/Private Businesses
B. Identify Stakeholders
C. Convene working groups of stakeholders/ Open Public Participation
D. Identify Issues/Interests/Sustainability Principles
E. Determine Goals, Objectives, and Action Strategies—Action Plan(s), including, identification of information, program, and relationship/organizational needs and recommendations.
F. Make Recommendations to the Boards of Participating Stakeholder Organizations and solicit Resolutions of Adoption.
G. On-going Web and Media Public Engagement
IV. The Approach—Scale (Levels), Scope (Subject Matter/Geographical), Dynamic (Developmental).
A. Scale. The Action Plan(s) may be flexibly developed at multiple levels concurrently—governmental, community, neighborhood, community organization, businesses, and individuals. The basic process can be conducted at a variety of “levels” concurrently.
B. Scope.
(1) Subject Matter. Potential full range of social (community), economic, and environmental issues; however, depending on the interests of actual participants, the planning may be less than comprehensive, and limited to subject areas where stakeholder interests are actively involved. Likewise, the level of sophistication and technical expertise reflected in the various Action Plans may vary.
(2) Geographical. At the level of specific objectives and action strategies, the geographical focus of the Plans may vary. It is not necessary that the effort be geographically comprehensive, i.e. an entire community or jurisdiction. This depends on the interests of the stakeholders that come forward to participate in the effort.
C. Dynamic Plan Development and Implementation. In contract with a perhaps more traditional and governmentally funded effort which is fully articulated at the end of a formal planning period, this Initiative would evolve and become more fully articulated over time. Basic goals and sustainability principles will likely be more fully developed at the outset, but over time this type of planning grows. More subjects and issues may be added. The implementation of the plan involves a movement to more depth and scale as more communities, organizations, and businesses, etc., adopt their own Action Strategies. All of these efforts, collectively, comprise an evolving and growing overall Action Plan.
