Planners across all disciplines have a common goal: to make communities safer, more equitable, more accessible, and more connected. This starts with rebuilding social infrastructure — the interpersonal and systemic relationships made of trust, genuine communication, and community agency.
Years of disinvestment, skepticism of city processes, and mistrust (a reality for most planning projects across the country, especially in traditionally disadvantaged communities) led us to do things differently — slowing down with authentic community engagement, and starting with listening and implementation first. Community engagement is far more complex than a community meeting or a series of focus groups. The Thrive approach starts with objective trust-building that fosters meaningful connections and friendships and creates spaces for fun and collaboration.
Next, the Promotore program was created as a cohort of passionate community ambassadors from different demographic groups across the neighborhood. After capacity-building and training, Promotores led engagement events, scaling from small coffee chats in apartments to 300-person events. The Promotores are involved and leading the project input with the goal of creating implementable “Action Activities,” so the neighborhood can see real investment and improvement before focusing on a long-range neighborhood plan to realize the community’s vision.
Consider the spectrum of community engagement and push the boundaries of traditional community engagement methods.
Format future projects based on capacity-building for disinvested and disadvantaged communities through the use of trust-building and ambassador programs.
Identify potential shortcomings of traditional neighborhood planning processes and have the tools to consider an "implementation first" model.
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