NCLB

Overview
The local strategy mirrors the overall general strategy of the process that can be replicated in any neighbourhood. Following are the steps required to begin and carry out the planning process, the elements required for developing a local strategy in each of the designated neighbourhoods, and some techniques for assembling a plan to serve as a management tool for implementation.

Vision
Neighbourhoods selected for inclusion in the NCLB process generally have some common features. Poor social and economic conditions and fear of crime are three of the factors that make these communities challenging to restore.

Given the commitment to overcome these challenges, it becomes important to develop a plan of action that can be followed by everyone involved in the No Community Left Behind process. This plan serves as a blueprint for determining which actions are taken and by whom and how certain goals and objectives are achieved.

Once completed, the neighbourhood level plan provides a clear and concise vision of the community. It identifies the gaps and prioritized issues. It also shows activities and actions for bridging the gaps and addressing the problems. Some of these activities already may be in place and only need integration in the bigger picture; others may have to be developed. There are activities that have previously been contemplated or partially implemented, but players were missing who were needed to sustain them and make them a success. This process to integrate all these missing or ignored links is one of the unique features of the No Community Left Behind process. The neighbourhood-level plan brings stakeholders together to address issues affecting the community. For many, this is the first time they have worked with one another. The plan helps provide guidance to ensure that everyone is following his or her role.

Two types of plans are needed for the neighbourhood level strategy. The first is the strategic plan, which outlines the vision, mission, critical priorities, goals and objectives. The second planning document, Community Action Plan, is an operational or tactical plan - a continuation of the strategic plan that defines, in greater detail, the tasks and resources required and the timeline needed to achieve the goals and objectives.

Implementation Process
Several steps are required in planning the local No Community Left Behind strategy.

Step 1: Assembling the Planning Team

Before beginning implementation, the CHRC knows who is participating in the planning process and who can help guide the process so that the final product — the neighbourhood plan — is embraced by all community stakeholders.

Communities vary in the degree and level of participation of individuals during the early stages of the No Community Left Behind process. One community may quickly form a Local Steering Committee that is prepared to lead the planning process. In other communities, a core group of individuals may take responsibility for putting the planning process into action and keeping other community members informed of the progress.

The next question is: Who should be part of the planning team? Bringing together individuals from the community to serve as members of the Planning Committee is a strategic decision that helps move the planning process forward. Individuals who agree to serve on the Planning Committee may ultimately serve on the Local Steering Committee. For this phase, emphasis is placed on identifying individuals who have the time, expertise, influence and commitment to work through the planning process to create a realistic neighbourhood-level strategy. Emphasis that this is temporary and created specifically for the purpose of planning eases anxiety around the composition of the sub-committee and its responsibility in leading the planning process.

Step 2: Identifying Resources for Planning

As the Planning Committee takes shape, the CHRC looks for a person to serve as a facilitator during the meetings. Another option is to have members of the local committee lead different components of the planning process, making it more of a group-led process. If needed, a professional facilitator from outside the community is found through a local university or consultant agency experienced in working with nonprofit organizations for strategic planning. However, this is not to underestimate the ability of the concerned community to lead the planning process.

Before starting, everyone included in the planning process clearly understands what is involved. Often, community members who have never been a part of this type of process feel reluctant to become fully engaged. For that reason additional information or “preplanning” activities are provided.

Before outlining the local context for developing a strategy, some of the primary tasks and sub-tasks associated with the development of a strategy are outlined. This list can be used as the CHRC and the designated communities initiate the planning process and includes the following:

Step 3: Preparing to Plan

Based on the information collected during the community assessment, the Planning Committee has sufficient information to identify the neighbourhood’s priorities. These priorities are based on factors contributing to neighbourhood stress and resources that should but do not exist in the community and are desperately needed. In addition, community members provide information on what they perceive are requirements to revitalize the neighbourhood.

Collectively, the Planning Committee has several datasets to work with in developing the priorities. The challenge for the committee is to rank and allocate these priorities based on the four prongs of the overall No Community Left Behind strategy: social, physical, service and economic.

At the outset of planning, the Planning Committee needs to fully integrate the needs and views of the community. The sum of experiences and philosophies of Planning Committee or Local Steering Committee members and other stakeholder representatives responsible for implementing goals and objectives greatly affects the potential and ultimate success of the initiative.

The combined experiences include operational styles of agencies, traditional patterns of agency-community relations, and social experiences within the neighbourhood. Opinions on the causes and effects of crime and underdevelopment vary greatly. Consequently, these opinions influence how the parties involved evaluate the potential of strategic interventions.

Differences in perspective and context are evident in all important aspects of the planning process. Members of the community and other stakeholders may view the intentions and design of an initiative differently. While the Steering Committee might design an initiative to assist communities, neighbourhood community members may or may not view the goals and objectives as meeting their needs.

A primary objective in preparing a solid strategy and plan is the development of open communication, cooperation and trust among partners. This can only be achieved through a planning process that is inclusive and respectful of the community. A planning process that considers the neighbourhood perspective leads to creative approaches to achieve desired results.

Step 4: Moving From Community Needs to Critical Priorities

Understanding the local context, combined with the planning process, prepares the Steering Committee to begin formulating local goals and objectives. The Steering Committee now focuses on identifying the priorities of the neighbourhood in light of communities’ identified needs and priorities. By this time, the Steering Committee has taken steps to ensure the planning process includes a balanced approach to developing community goals and objectives.

In the previous needs assessment process, both assets and gaps were identified. Part of the process in identifying gaps was to encourage community members and other stakeholders to help shape a vision of what the community could be if everyone contributed something to the “community-building pot.”

Critical priorities are issues that could affect the ability of the community to achieve this vision. After identifying these priorities, the CHRC and partners assess the ability of the community to address them. Given the multitude of stakeholders who are involved in this process, certain questions are asked of the organization’s representatives and the communities separately and collectively to determine what priorities are addressed by the designated neighbourhood. These local priorities are consistent with the goals and objectives of the overall No Community Left Behind strategy.

Benefits of completing this type of exercise is the critical thinking that emerges and the synergy created from having various groups come together to work on the No Community Left Behind strategy. After making what may be a long list of priorities, the committee asks the following questions about each priority:

After completing this exercise for each of the selected priorities, the CHRC finds that many of the issues can be condensed as it works to ensure they correspond to one or more of the four NCLB components. When the list is completed, the respective CHRC is ready to begin developing goals and objectives to respond to each issue in close collaboration with the rest of the partners.

For planners involved in this process, note that the following four components of the NCLB process would remain constant for all the No Community Left Behind sites: Social, Physical, Service and Economic.

The goal statements reflect major desired changes in conditions as a result of the NCLB process.

Many agree that a goal is a broad target to be achieved through the implementation of tasks that connect to some measurable objectives.
Objectives are viewed as the tools needed to provide some specificity to the goal. Objectives can be either qualitative or quantitative. Although the initial goals are often easy to formulate, it is usually the measurement of these goals that presents a challenge.

Goal statements can be made by reversing problem statements so that they express the desired result. For example, if the problem were open-air drug trafficking in a neighbourhood, the goal statement reads: “Eliminate open-air drug trafficking.”

The use of goals and objectives enhances the potential success of the NCLB process and facilitates its effective implementation, management and evaluation activities. Goals and objectives focus on connecting to the critical priorities of the community. When completing the questions relative to each critical priority (see step 4, above), the last question begins the connection between the three. By answering the last question, the Planning Committee can begin to formulate the goals and objectives for the local No Community Left Behind strategy.

Although each of the four No Community Left Behind process components have goals and objectives, these components do not operate in isolation from one another.

The goals for social development and service provision work in conjunction with all the other goals. Service provision, such as community policing, can be a bridge between goals. As the police and other partners develop positive relationships with community members, they gain insights about some of the problems that plague the community.

As mentioned previously, law enforcement comes under service factors, but it can complement the other goals. For example, if an objective were to construct a small business “incubator,” the implementation task is to reduce and prevent crime by targeting that location and providing a secure area for the facility. But this also supports other economic development goals.

The data collected through the needs assessment and neighbourhood selection processes is an important source to help determine the critical priorities under each of the intertwined four components. These priorities drive the creation of the goals and objectives.

CHRC’s have the main coordinating role in the development of neighbourhood level strategies/plans in their program areas. How will the CHRC achieve these goals in partnership with other agencies? The CHRC needs to facilitate in identification of selected objectives and make a commitment to achieving them. Objectives connect the specific NCLB activities that will result in the achievement of the goal. The objectives are measurable so the CHRC can gauge whether it is taking the process towards the goal. In formulating the objectives that correspond to each goal, the question to ask is: “What do we need to do to achieve our goal?” For example:

Goal	Objective
Bring community out of isolation and effectively engage the residents.	Implement weekly community meetings around an activity that ensures participation for one year.

What is the measurable outcome associated with each objective? In other words, what would the CHRC be assessing to see whether it is working toward the goal? For the goal mentioned above, did the CHRC organize 12 meetings or only 2?

Although the community and the CHRC may be tempted to develop several goals for each of the four components, we must be careful to avoid doing so. In addition to addressing several — not all — of the critical priorities identified, the local strategy is made as realistic as possible. It is more advantageous to refine the list of critical priorities for the NCLB process to ensure that those selected can be dispersed across the four components. Each component need not have more than four goals. Each goal may have several objectives; however, the CHRC and partners at the Steering Committee limit the objectives to four. Below is a review of the planning process:

The respective CHRC measures the progress of the collaborative work of all partners. Completing the goals, objectives and tasks correctly with every stakeholder’s participation simplifies the process of developing the implementation plan. The following sections cover the implementation and management plan for the designated neighbourhoods.

Step 6: Developing the Implementation Plan

Developing a No Community Left Behind strategy is a challenging task. Unlike independent organizations involved in strategic planning, the overall planning process of the NCLB involves several important actors who may never have worked together. In such situations, not only is there pressure to develop close working relationships quickly, these relationships create a marriage of different perspectives, beliefs, and, often, biases. Developing common goals and objectives are the first of the major hurdles to overcome; designing an implementation plan the second.

The implementation plan for the No Community Left Behind process involves several organizations undertaking a sequence of activities. Some of these activities are performed concurrently; others sequentially. Similarly, addressing factors related to social capital precedes community economic development. No one wants to live or invest in a crime-ridden, drug-infested neighbourhood. The NCLB process uses a holistic approach; therefore, service provision efforts (law enforcement, for example) are reinforced with social (prevention, intervention and capacity development) and physical development (CPTED studies) to make it difficult for the neighbourhood to slide back to its pre-restoration condition.

Developing an implementation plan requires linking goals and objectives with tasks, assigning responsibility for these tasks, creating a timeline for action and identifying resources necessary to implement the tasks.

The tasks developed in the implementation plan correspond to the informal commitments made by all partner agencies. Everything in an effective No Community Left Behind strategy is connected — neighbourhood selection, needs assessment, identification of goals and objectives, implementation plan, and evaluation. A sequence of activities reinforces each Steering Committee member’s or other stakeholder’s commitment to the NCLB process by helping them to see where they fit in the total plan. The implementation plan is where “the rubber meets the road.”

To determine what tasks are initiated to address each objective, the Steering Committee tries to come up with answers to questions like these:

Activities relating to the four NCLB components begin at the same time to avoid the experience of communities complaining that nothing can begin in a community until the correctional activities have been executed, which mean the criminals and their influence removed.

In developing the implementation plan, it is important to determine which organization takes the lead for each of the proposed tasks. Other organizations will also be needed to work in close collaboration with the CHRC.

During the process, the time required to complete a task may exceed the total time allotted for the implementation plan, which happens because certain tasks may take several years to complete. Most important, the tasks are cited in the plan and progress toward achieving the objective(s) is reported to the Steering Committee on a consistent basis.

For the CHRC the following steps are necessary to develop an implementation plan in partnership with other agencies:

Step 7: Designing a Planning Format for the Local Strategy

The beauty of the No Community Left Behind process is that it is designed to be flexible, proactive and interactive. Continuous realization of all partners and commitment of multiple resources is a key requirement for overall success.

Furthermore, it is unrealistic to assume that local officials can confirm the availability of all the necessary resources during the initial planning phase. As the strategy develops, local agencies discover new ideas and resources to assist the community. The neighbourhood, the City, law enforcement agencies, resource agencies and others continually recommend adjustments to the plan.

The Steering Committee encourages all participants and other interested groups to make recommendations for changes. Managers do not assume that the original goals and objectives are cast in stone. The purpose of well-defined goals, objectives and tasks is to ensure that the proper mix of activities results in a successful No Community Left Behind initiative. Even if complete goals and objectives exist, efficient or systematic implementation cannot be guaranteed. Management is responsible for converting these processes into a format that advances the functional operation of the strategy.

Managing the ongoing relationships among the tasks and their timely implementation is the backbone of the management process. Successful management of the NCLB process involves assigning specific responsibility to execute each task.

A task timeline organizes the tasks by each objective and enables managers to arrange the tasks in sequence. A timeline shows when additional tasks are needed, responsibilities identified and the link between tasks organized.

Site coordinators require some kind of very basic, simple online data input which helps identify changes and generate reports by task, agency, milestone and other criteria. Site Coordinators use this data feeding mechanism in coordination with the Community Development section at the CHRC. This type of management system does not only improve process oversight but also assists with process reporting.

The No Community Left Behind strategy design is sufficiently flexible to quickly accommodate any program enhancements and approaches not identified during the planning phase. When the Steering Committee accepts a new activity recommended by community members, the new task energizes and supports all the community efforts designed to create a healthier neighbourhood.

Many changes in the original strategy may occur during the implementation phase. These changes can easily be accommodated if the Steering Committee does not view the original goals and objectives as rigid guidelines subject to strict compliance audits. Being the lead coordinating partner, the CHRC documents each change and ensures that administrative and funding guidelines are followed.