Community Engagement
SUSTAINABLE PORTSMOUTH
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ACTION CIRCLE
Introduction
The Community Engagement Action Circle met four times during Phase II of the Five Year Sustainability Plan Dialogue. Members included: Anne Romney, Carole Renselaer, Cristy Cordoso; Heather Parker, Jeffrey Cooper, Jim Noucas, Leslie McCarthy, Margie Eames, Robin Albert, Robin LeBlanc, Cliff Lazenby and Steven Borne. Set out below is our Vision for Community Engagement and the actions we are proposing to make it happen in Portsmouth.
I. Vision Statement
By 2015, everyone living, working and playing in Portsmouth will recognize the concept of Sustainable Portsmouth and know how they can participate.
Sustainable Portsmouth provides a collaborative platform that:
• Engages, educates and motivates the public on why it is important to participate in sustainability;
• Disseminates information about Sustainable Portsmouth and how to participate;
• Collects and evaluates feedback and data on what works in sustainability efforts; and
• Identifies and builds channels of communication to achieve the above goals.
II. & III. Community Engagement Baseline
Based on our Vision Statement, our baseline is how many people living, working and playing in Portsmouth recognize the concept of Sustainable Portsmouth and know how they can participate.
We anticipate that future recognition of Sustainable Portsmouth will include engagement in sustainable actions as part of a balanced and systemic approach to making Portsmouth the most sustainable place for everyone to live, work and play in. Our indicators should therefore reflect:
• Who is engaged in sustainable actions in Portsmouth?
• How they are engaged in sustainable actions in Portsmouth?
• How they are interconnected with others engaged in sustainable actions?
In a relatively short period of time we brainstormed the following list of individuals, groups, organizations, businesses, non-profits, institutions and others who are involved in sustainable actions in Portsmouth at varying levels of engagement and collaboration:
Schools (families with school-aged children- 20%?); PHS Eco Club; Churches — Inter-faith Sustainability team; City Hall – Sustainability Coordinator; Eat Local; Green Alliance; Restaurant Compost Group; Zero Waste Committee – Neighborhood; SABR – Seacoast Area Bicycle; Public Works Dept.; Blue Ocean Society; Chamber of Commerce – summer sustainability intern; Seacoast Local; Slow Food; Peterson Engineering; Green Drinks; South Church; Woodlands Oil Coop(involved in green initiatives/); Neighborhood Groups (30 with 7 involved in national night out); North Mill Pond Advocates; Workforce Housing Coalition; Cool Air Clean Planet; Mayor’s Blue Ribbons Committee; Service Clubs – Lion’s Club, Rotary Club, Kiwanis; Carbon Challenge; COAST; Portsmouth Brewery and Me and Ollie’s — Zero Waste; Piscataqua Sustainability Initiative; and Visitors.
When we apply our three indicators to these groups and individuals, we find some sustainable actions that are quite sophisticated. There are a significant number of groups forming into coalitions and alliances around particular affinities such as Buy Local or Green Alliance. PSI represents a systems approach extending to all aspects of the community: social, environmental and economic. However, there is not a collaborative platform on which all groups and individuals are commonly engaged to capture the synergy of their collective efforts. Our Vision is to engage all of the community in a common effort to make Portsmouth the most sustainable place to live, work and play for everyone.
We quickly realized it is impossible to accurately establish and quantify this baseline without substantial additional effort. We propose that a community wide survey be performed to measure appropriate indicators. The survey should include measure of indicators from other Phase II groups. It should be repeated half-way through the five year process and at the end of five years. Publication of results should be creatively supported by well published graphics such as a “heat map” of community engagement. Other means of establishing the baseline include:
• Check out baselines and other stats from City sustainability manager;
• Count # of people engaged in “formal” meetings of and presentations by Sustainable Portsmouth;
• Track # people at Fair (though many won’t be from Portsmouth) May need to have a “checker” assigned just to do this;
• Conduct a quick survey via Community Newsletter; and
• Can the website track #unique visitors?
IV. Community Engagement Actions
The Community Engagement Action Circle proposes the following five actions to make Portsmouth the most sustainable for everyone to live, work and play in. Inherent in all of our proposed action is the need for inclusiveness. That is, if everyone is involved in the process of building Sustainable Portsmouth, we are all much more likely to succeed.
1. Create a Common Identity
• Adopt the Natural Step as a Common Language
• Brand Sustainable Portsmouth
2. Conduct a citywide baseline inventory
• Market research
• Surveys
• Community feedback
• Business community research
• Metrics and measurement
3. Develop a Communication program
• Media engagement (radio, TV, Social Media, Web, Newsletter, Mailings)
• Engage existing groups and use existing communication structures
4. Motivate the entire community to collaborate
• Encourage all groups to adopt the brand
• Create competitions
• Dialogues and forums
5. Educate
• School curriculum
• Community education
• Adult learning
V. Impact
The Community Engagement Action Circle did not have time to apply the impact questions to each of our five proposed actions. We were able to offer the following insights on these issues as applied to our overall actions:
• Identify the measure of baseline and Vision.
It was difficult to identify a quantifiable baseline. There is evidence of many collaborations forming around sustainability but there does not appear to be any common platform to link them. Some effort toward community collaboration is apparent from the partnership among the City, Portsmouth Schools, Portsmouth Listens and the Piscataqua Sustainability Initiatives apparent from the creation of the Annual Portsmouth Sustainability Fair and the Sustainable Portsmouth dialogue.
• How the measure will be monitored over five years?
To identify the baseline and monitor it over the next five years, we are recommending periodic community surveys. The surveys should encompass all Sustainable Portsmouth plans and issues, and not be limited to community engagement. The survey should not be limited to the traditional written survey. It should community conversations and feedback and visual observations. For example, if we look around the community now, we do not see any signs of consistent sustainability branding. In 5 years, we will see many examples of branding throughout the community. This will be a powerful and sustainable metric.
• What resources will be needed to go from baseline to Vision?
The temptation is to respond that we will needs lots of grants and donations. However, we believe the collaborative platform will be better and stronger if built with Portsmouth’s social capital. If “we” build it, “we” will own It, and “we” will more likely make it successful. The United Way Volunteer program is a good measure of the extensive and wide-ranging local expertise, experience and talent that is available to help make Portsmouth the most sustainable place to live work and play for everyone. We will need to recruit and engage a wide range of local stake holders to “volunteer local” and make it happen. Our goal is to maximize the use of local social capital while minimizing financial needs.
• What groups, individuals, institutions, etc. are already involved with the indicator or action?
Many groups throughout the community starting to be involved with sustainability but collaboration across the community is in its early stages of evolution. Some community-wide collaboration is developing such as the Sustainability Fair and the Five Year Sustainability Dialogue arising from partnerships including the City of Portsmouth/Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Sustainability, the Portsmouth Schools, Portsmouth Listens, and the Piscataqua Sustainability Initiative.
• How will we synergize “everyone” to achieve each action?
“Inclusiveness” is inherent in the community engagement process. We will need to engage as much of community as possible. Getting as many people actively involved will create more buy in, and bring people together from different parts of the community. The increased opportunity for collaboration will increase the synergy across the community.
• How will each action impact the environmental, economic and social aspects of Portsmouth?
The impact of our proposed actions will be balanced by our “ inclusive” approach involving all aspects of our community – environmental, economic and social.
Respectfully submitted,
The Community Engagement Action Circle