How Our Directional Assessment Helped Create a True Community Partnership
An Initial Lack of Consensus and Buy-In Doomed their First Effort
A group of community leaders knew that they wanted to continue to build upon the quality of life that they had grown to cherish. Prior to our involvement, this group of community leaders had come together and decided that the community needed a multi-use fitness center. They set out to raise a significant amount of money to build a facility to accommodate the community’s needs.
The leaders meet with some success toward their goal given that they all had full time jobs to focus on and that they knew it was what was needed. While much effort and time went into their attempt to raise the money for the project, their vision proved to be shortsighted.
The capital campaign they launched eventually lost the traction and buy-in needed to come to fruition. The effort to build the facility was disbanded at that point.
An “Ah-hah” Moment Creates New Momentum
Later on, one of these same community leaders was attending a conference that Opportunity Funding sponsored and that started a conversation about how we help communities. Much of our conversation centered on our process and the importance of building consensus. As we like to say “…it does not have to be your idea or my idea…just the best idea!”
From this initial conversation and the community leader’s optimistic outlook about the next steps required to build a stronger community, we were engaged to help.
We started by listening and then compiling their thoughts and components into a plan for a customized Directional Assessment—one that would be singularly focused on the ultimate goal of building consensus.
A cross section of community leaders identified ten different areas that they thought could be the next priority for building upon their community’s quality of life. Through our Directional Assessment, we were able to come back to this group of leaders and report “…these are the things the community would rally behind.”
A Bigger Vision, One Built Around Community Support, is Achieved
By adopting our consensus building process and employing our guidance, a community with a population of less than 13,000 people now enjoys a downtown legacy park that brings the community together and accentuates their quality of life.
They were quick to admit that consensus building was the key to raising over $4,300,000 and in making their dream a reality.