Cultural Sustainability: Neighborhood Planning Toolkit

Abstract

This paper offers a Cultural Sustainability-focused toolkit that can be used as a blueprint for future redevelopment community-based work. This toolkit is based on an 18-month summary of a 2-year neighborhood redevelopment plan project in the Prairie Creek Run neighborhood in Indiana. It looks at the researcher’s self in work; how to recognize your own bias as a researcher and how to avoid having your bias interfere with the research itself, how to build a mindful rapport with community members, knowing what research and information is needed, and through what lens are you viewing the community you are working with. The toolkit also looks at partnerships; how to define what success looks like among stakeholders, how to recognize a shared vision, and how this has led to collaborative planning. Lastly the toolkit looks at engagement; what ways can you build social capital and what infrastructure needs to exist to make this work more sustainable.

Throughout my research I found, ● Being aware of self in the work or research not only helps you create a practice of learning and recognizing personal bias, but it also protects against potential harm to the community. ● The research process takes many different forms as the engagement with community grows deeper. The researcher moves from learning and interpreting, to building an analysis of that interpretation. ● Building a mindful rapport with the community is essential in this work and the approach to building that relationship is just as important as it can determine the kind of relationship that will be constructed. ● Be mindful of what lens you as the researcher are viewing the community through because the lens can either blind you or enlighten you about the assets and gifts the community holds. ● Assess and recognize what stakeholders are bringing to the project and partnership. Items that require particular attention may include: What are the multiple visions that people may be bringing, what are their power/resources, how they define success, and how all of these points can lead to a collaborative planning space? ● Sustainable engagement includes building social capital for residents and appropriate infrastructure for residents or other stakeholders.