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.