Charlotte sponsors strategic planning meeting for neighborhoods

The city, instead of holding its traditional spring summit conference for neighborhood groups, will offer them space and time with facilitators in July to encourage strategic goal-setting and planning.

The meetings will be in Foundation For The Carolinas’ uptown meeting rooms, which can accommodate as many as 17 organizations. Trained facilitators from the city and the community will be available for each group. Continental breakfast and a box lunch will be provided; participants are encouraged to attend breakfast for networking. Parking will be validated.

The offer is open to neighborhood and merchant associations. To participate, each interested neighborhood must complete an application with commitments from its board, and it must include at least five but no more than 10 participants from its board.

The neighborhood groups will be able to discuss ways to improve the quality of life, to implement visions and strategies and to set clear goals, priorities and plans. Each group, with the help of a facilitator, can brainstorm and collaborate on neighborhood improvements. The facilitator will meet with the neighborhood groups before the July retreats to tailor the meeting to the groups’ needs.

The city will resume its traditional conference-style community summit meeting next year. That meeting will feature presentations from city and county staff in a format modeled on those of the nationally prominent TED presentations (Technology, Entertainment, Design). The second part of the day will feature neighborhood successes and celebrate groups that have improved the quality of life in their neighborhood.

Aisha Alexander, neighborhood resource coordinator with the city, said she hopes the July sessions will get neighborhoods to start thinking like efficient, effective nonprofits. If demand is so great the board retreats fill up, she said, the city will attempt to find additional space to accommodate the overflow.

The city will notify neighborhood groups and merchant organizations about the July 14 event. Applications will be handled by Charlotte’s Neighborhood and Business Services Department.

Brad Satterwhite wrote this article while interning at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute in 2012.

Brad Satterwhite