E.T.

YUCHENGCO COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

Academic Year 2017 2018

Strategic Community Planning

Heidi S. BASBAS

Airabelle D. DIVINAGRACIA

Course Adviser: Mr. Melchor Morandarte

 Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus
energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working
toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the
organization's direction in response to a changing environment. It is a disciplined effort that produces
fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, who it serves, what it
does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future. Effective strategic planning articulates not only where
an organization is going and the actions needed to make progress, but also how it will know if it is
successful (Institute, 2017).
The Strategic Community Plan sets out an enthusiastic and feasible vision, which developed
through an extensive and innovative program of community consultation over the next years and beyond.
It is a long-term project for economic sustainability, social aspects, and environmental well being.
Planning is consists of public participation and interactive forum in your community wherein the
community members or leaders contribute a formula of having an objective, vision, mission and direction
leading to its successful goal. Indeed, aiming to meet the expectations, needs and aspirations of residents.

I. Setting Organizational Objectives

Decide on your target audience and what you want from them. Set top-level community
engagement objectives at the start of your project. Use them to determine your community
engagement strategy, and to decide when and how to engage and with whom.

Set a specific and small number of objectives for community engagement work: ideally this
should be no more than five
It describes your intention in taking forward community engagement.
It must be aligned to the communitys vision in terms of legal, ethical, economic and
philanthropic outcomes.
For each objective state what will be done to achieve it, and how it will be measured. For
example:
1) Objective: Secure community involvement in projects design and development.
How: Communicate with community partners, tenants and residents and stakeholders at
the start through meetings, surveys or participative workshops, and listen and amend
project plans where necessary.
Measure of success: buy-in to project and consensus about objectives.
2) Objective: Obtain relevant and timely feedback and use these to improve the
project and strengthen popular support.
How: Build sufficient time into the project plan to listen and make changes; present the
information clearly and early; ask the right questions at the right time; put community
responses to decision-makers; feed back to the community on how their input has
influenced decisions, and if not why not.
Measure of success: buy-in to the project, practical proposals to improve it and
quantifiable increase in support.
3) Objective: Build and strengthen community representative structures.
 How: Tackle barriers to participation; support communication channels between
representatives and the community; draw up an exit strategy; develop a permanent role
for community representation in decisions about the area; build the capacity of the
community.
Measure of success: Increases in number of community representatives; other
organizations, for example, residential social landlords, in the area undertake
engagement; the number of constructive contributions made; the creation of a
Community Development Trust for the stewardship of local assets.

II. Gathering Community Profile

According to Bellers (2016) community profiling involves building up a picture of the nature,
needs and resources of a community with the active participation of that community. It is a useful
first stage in any community planning process to establish a context, which is widely agreed.
Christakopoulou et al. (2001) suggest that a comprehensive community profile ought to address the
following aspects of peoples lives:
the area as a place to live including the quality of the physical environment and peoples
attitudes to living there; the extent to which needs are matched with resources; and the
extent to which local facilities meet peoples goals and aspirations;
the area as a social community including residents involvement in the social life of the
community; the extent to which the community is supportive; formal and informal
networks;
the area as an economic community including income levels and employment prospects
of local residents; prosperity and viability of local shops;
the area as a political community including systems and structures of political
representation and local area management; the extent to which local people can influence
decisions that affect them; the degree of involvement in local decision making;
participation in community organizations;
the area as a personal space the degree of attachment that people have to the local area;
memories and life experiences of local people;
the area as part of its city infrastructural, economic and social linkages between the local
area and the city or district of which it is a part; the specific local identity that differentiates
the community from the rest of the area/district.

III. Defining the Problem

Define the problem. With the information in front of you, you're ready to write down a
"problem statement" - a comprehensive definition of the problem. Before you do,
remember two general principles:
a. Define the problem in terms of needs, and not solutions. If you define the problem in
terms of possible solutions, you're closing the door to other, possibly more effective
solutions. "Violent crime in our neighborhood is unacceptably high," offers space for
 many more possible solutions than, "We need more police patrols," or, "More citizens
should have guns to protect themselves."
b. Define the problem as one everyone shares; avoid assigning blame for the problem. This
is particularly important if different people (or groups) with a history of bad relations
need to be working together to solve the problem. Teachers may be frustrated with high
truancy rates, but blaming students uniquely for problems at school is sure to alienate
students from helping to solve the problem
Who is causing the problem, and who is affected by it? A simple brainstorming session is
an excellent way to determine this.
When did the problem first occur, or when did it become significant? Is this a new problem
or an old one? Knowing this can give you added understanding of why the problem is
occurring now. Also, the longer a problem has existed, the more entrenched it has become,
and the more difficult it will be to solve. People often get used to things the way they are
and resist change, even when it's a change for the better.
How much, or to what extent, is this problem occurring? How many people are affected by
the problem? How significant is it? Here, you should revisit the questions on importance
you looked at when you were defining the problem. This serves as a brief refresher and
gives you a complete analysis from which you can work.

IV. Designing and Planning Engagement Activity

Timeline: allow time for translation requirements, and time between engagement activities
to allow for further work to be completed before moving to the next stage;
Budget: ensure the budget is adequate to cover the activities needed and costs incurred;
Key dates and actions: including when final decisions will be made, who by and how this
links with the engagement process;

Briefing materials: decide what materials are needed by stakeholders in order to take part
effectively, using plain, jargon-free language, and breaking information into smaller, bite-
size chunks whilst maintaining overall consistency of message.
Venues: venues and spaces will be needed for workshops and public meetings. They must
meet the needs of the specific project, and be accessible to all.
Partnerships: Look for possible sponsors or other organizations who share the same vision
with you.

V. Develop Possible Interventions

Choosing the right technique and tools for community engagement will depend on the local
circumstances, objectives for the exercise, the needs of local people and the available resources.
It should be aligned with the organizations objectives.
 It should offer a solution to the presented problems of the community chosen.
If using a range of different methods at various stages in the engagement process, make sure they
work well together to make the overall process a success.
Everyone should know what the plan is and what role to execute.
Your plan must include measureable results. If not, the people will never know when the goal has
been achieved.
In order to be an effective organization you need to adopt a simple framework that everyone can
easily understand.
References

Bellers, R. (2008, August 9). Retrieved from Community Planning:

https://www.mheducation.co.uk/openup/chapters/9780335221646.pdf

Institute, B. S. (n.d.). Strategy Management Group company. Retrieved 1998-2017, from

http://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSC-Basics/Strategic-Planning-Basics

The National Archives. (2017, February 1). Retrieved from Homes and Communities Agency:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20170201050849/https://udc.homesandcommunities.co.uk/com
munity-engagement-toolkit?page_id=3873&page=4