Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/04/2014

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Strategies to Improve Communities published by The Park Record in cooperation with The Park City Foundation, offer an array of indicators about community from administrative sources and survey research. The Boulder County Trend Report touts "i5o ways to gauge the state of our community and be inspired." Each publication focuses on annual highlights. The Park City Mile Post is focused on three areas: growth and development, connectivity and the economy. In the Connectivity section of the report, social connections and civic engagement are covered. The Boulder County Trends report highlighted the economy, education, the environment and the Latino community at the same time that it also offered up to date indicators of community engagement7. Percent of Boulder County Residents Who Say We're Very Open or Open to the Following Groups Families with young children Young adults without children Gay and Lesbian people Senior citizens Recent college grads Racial and ethnic minorities Immigrants from other countries Source: TCF Survey 2014 81% 68% 51% 58% 51% 45% 43% In their data reports, both Park City and The Community Foundation of Boulder County offer examples of how residents and businesses can support the community not only through monetary donations but through donations of time like reading to children in school, becoming a tutor, volunteering for an after school program, making sure your business supports parents with children in school, using alternative modes of travel, becoming more active and more. Partnering with Other Organizations Your creativity in finding strong and even uncommon partners that are outside the sector in which you operate can be an enormous asset for local government. An unlikely nonprofit partner may hold the solution to a problem you have faced for a long time. Partners from the private sector may be especially powerful allies. You cannot succeed doing everything on your own, hidden from the goodwill of potential partners. Engaging in meaningful partnerships takes motivation and a plan, and not all partnerships and In, "Our civic participation and giving"(p. 85, Boulder County Trends 2013, Community Foundation of Boulder County) collaborations are successful. Research has found that successful partnerships have certain practices in common. Consider how you can implement some of these strategies, or add to the ones you already are using, as you strengthen your network of partner organizations and volunteers. Strategies to Promote Successful Partnerships • Identify service needs and organizational gaps that could be filled by partners • Strategically identify partnerships that will be most beneficial to your organization • Create a partnership plan that describes the purposes and activities that will link the partners over the coming 12 to 24 months • Partner with diverse types of organizations, both for -profit businesses and nonprofits, private and public • Provide meaningful roles and engaging activities for partners Work with partners to leverage community resources in order to achieve goals • Communicate regularly with partners — sharing information on each others' activities, successes, and challenges, as well as community needs and resources • Co-sponsor activities with partners • Participate in grant writing activities together • Periodically publish evaluation findings in communications aimed at a wide variety of stakeholders, including partners • Create community events with partners not only to familiarize the public with each program but also to show the links between program partners Hamilton, Ohio is featured to demonstrate the importance of public -private partnerships. A Public -Private Partnership to Energize the Urban Core Hamilton, Ohio Even as the great recession was receding, Hamilton, Ohio, like many cities and towns across the U.S. continued to suffer economically. Ratings from The National Citizen Survey described a community that felt job growth was too slow, shopping opportunities were not good and Hamilton was not a great place to work. On top of that, ratings for economic development were subpar. © 2014, National Research Center, Inc. Page 13