Why?
Einstein famously said that if he had only 1 hour to save the world, he would spend 55 minutes on framing the problem.
The same applies to community priorities. They are the foundational piece in helping us determine if resources are allocated effectively and whether or not an innovation in mobility is relevant.
Example
Community Solutions, an independent non-profit, initiated the Brownsville Partnership by recruiting local community organizers and sending them to a high quality training program at Harvard Kennedy School.
Over a three month “Listen” period community organizers helped establish the priority issues for Brownsville residents through workshops and information campaigns.
Priorities are reported on regularly and led to the Brownsville Plan. It is used to hold agencies accountable for reporting improvements and delivery.
Deliverables
Due process
Make sure you have involved community, even those who are hard to reach, to collect their needs, problems and aspirations. Invest here to build a solid foundation.
Capture needs, problems, aspirations
Involve the community and contribute information, data and research to help describe needs in ways that help you track actual progress and success.
Prioritize
Help community members consolidated related needs into larger items. Agree on a trusted process to prioritizing needs. Prioritizing is done best openly, involving constituents.
Report
Show results by using the priorities right away to report on the current state as a baseline for future actions and holding stakeholders accountable to outcomes.