Guerilla Community Development

September 18, 2015UMANT Conference

Colleen Casey, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Public Policy Program DirectorCollege of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs

University of Texas at Arlington

• Using unconventional and inexpensive means to generate interest or raise concern among the public, as in commercial marketing or social activism

• Relating to radical or unconventional methods

• For today, let’s define it as moving beyond the traditional ways of doing things!

Solve Local

Problems

Promote Democracy &

Civic Engagement

Promote Inclusion & Diversity

Promote & Build a Sense

of Community

The Meaning of Community Development…

Planned and emergent action for the explicit purpose of the betterment of people

Putting Them Together….

Moving beyond the traditional ways of doing

things

Promote Democracy

Promote Inclusion

Promote and Build a Sense of Community

Guerilla Community

Development

Community Engagement is the foundation of all successful

efforts

A process for implementing

change

A program with specific

activities

A desired goal or outcome

resulting from the change

An ideology of action “to restructure the

social, normative, and economic

order for desired ends”

The Core of Community Development...

What is the Role of Local Government?

B. The Bridge Builder

C. The Outsider

A. The Lone Ranger

The Role of Local Government is to …

1. Build relationships and connections

2. Unleash the power of the assets in our communities3. Ensure that relationships and connections bridge and link diverse communities and assets

Local government is not, nor can it afford to be, the lone ranger or the outsider to engagement efforts!

Guerilla CD in Action…

inform consult incorporate collaborate empower

Citizen input Community Engagement

One-Way Tools increase communication and information flows

Two-Way Tools promote dialogue, deliberation, problem-solving and joint

action

Basic Tools of Action • Surveys, Citizen Panels and Focus Groups• Sharing Information: Discussing, Educating, and Envisioning • Using the Internet and Social Media• Deliberation and Dialogue• Co-production and volunteerism in service delivery• Using the Arts• Neighborhood Organizing and HOAs• Organizational Processes, Cultures and Attitudes

Creating the Space for Citizen Engagement

Empowered and Educated

Citizenry

Educated and Trained

Administrators

Enabling Structures and

Processes

The Engaged Community

Using Stories to Empower and Educate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGRJodE4yZc

Using Art to Empower and Educate

Art at Work, Portland Maine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDcAV-7E1oo

Enabling Structures and Processes

Many Voices-One Community Lynchburg, VAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ahndJnsfHg

21st Century Meetings & World Cafes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jyM4bL4jBw

Empowering Citizens to Act

• Municipal Volunteer Programs: Coproduction of Services

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hALXEdn1lM

• Blight Busters, Phoenix Arizona

Using Social Media to Educate

How did a town of 10,000 get 88,205 Facebook Likes?

Going Guerilla…

• Think simple but different…• Emphasize two-way communication in all strategies• Empower residents and communities to take action in

their own hands• Enhance collaborations and partnerships with nonprofit

organizations in your community• Eliminate or demystify governmental processes or

practices– Make it possible for communities to take action

• Commit to the Long Term!

Connect the Dots

Activities are connected to what citizens perceive to

be important

Citizens are connected to

each other

Citizens are connected by electronic and

traditional linkages that foster sharing

and deliberationCitizens are

connected to each other in meaningful

ways to expend civic

capacity

Activities are linked to each other in ways that build on previous ones

Organizations in the

community are partners in

engagement

What is the Long Term Aim?

Connect the Dots in Your Community…

– How would you describe the level of community engagement in your city (high, medium, low)?

– What is 1 example of a successful community engagement effort in your city?

– What 3 dots can you connect to improve community engagement? • Are there opportunities to connect citizens to each other?• Are there opportunities to replace one-way exchanges with two-

way exchanges? • Are there community partners that can offer promise?

– Share 1 new activity or idea your local government could implement to connect 1 of the dots above.

Sources Referenced1. Slide 1, Definition 1, Free Dictionary. Available at http://freedictionary.com2. Slide 1, Definition 2, Merriam-Webster. Available at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guerrilla3 Summers, G. (1986). Rural Community Development. Annual Review of Sociology. 12:341-71.4 Berstein, R. J. ( 1998). Community in the pragmatic tradition. In Morris Dickstein (Ed.), The revival of pragmatism: New essays in social thought,

law and culture (pp.141-156). Durhman, NC: Duke University Press. 5 Smith, C. The lone ranger. http://media.photobucket.com/user/uberlad/media/Uber%20Customs/100_4944.jpg.html?filters[term]=the%20lone

%20ranger&filters[primary]=images6 Prein, A. Bridge builders. http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mh99hCM/Bridge+builders7 Decroos, S .Excluded from group. Available http://www.rgbstock.com/user/COBRASoft8 Casey, C., & Li, J. (2012). Web 2.0 technologies and authentic public participation: Engaging citizens in decision making processes. In Kloby, K. and

D’Agostino, M. (Eds), Citizen 2.0: Public and Governmental Interaction through Web 2.0 Technologies. Hersey, PA: IGI Global. 9 Ihechenbleikner, P. Gilburg, D., & Dunnell, K. (2008). PM Magazine, ICMA. Available at http://webapps.icma.org/pm/9010/public/cover.cfm?

author=Pete...g’s%20World%20Cafe%3A%20Increasing%20Community%20Engagement 10 Neighborhood Stories, BC Workshop. Available at http://www.bcworkshop.org/neighborhood-stories 11 The Neighborhood Story Project, Available at http://www.neighborhoodstoryproject.org/12 Art at Work, Available at http://www.artatwork.us/portland.php13 Kerrigan, H. (2013). Government on social media: How did Brimfield, Ohio (a town of 10,000) get 88,000 Facebook Likes? Governing. Available at

http://www.governing.com/blogs/view/gov-social-media-government-brimfield.html14 Svara, J., & Denhardt, J. (Eds.). (2010). The connected community: Local governments as partners in citizen engagement and community building.

White Paper for the Big Ideas Conference sponsored by the Alliance for Innovation in October 2009 in Decatur, Georgia.