Objective:
The Community Guide program is designed to give community members a voice in the development of local public policy. For this project, we are working with the Home2Health team to allow community members to look at and reflect on proposals suggested in the draft of the Housing Strategic Plan (HSP). Guides representing organizations and individuals host small group conversations that give community members an opportunity to share their opinions on these proposals and identify which would benefit their specific community most positively as well as considering how they could best be implemented. Guides collect data based on those conversations, and this data is provided to city officials for their use in the implementation phase of the HSP. In late April, you will be invited to attend a Community Summit where our guides, community members, and other stakeholders will get together to discuss these proposal areas and create metrics to measure success.

Project Timeline:

Training Sessions:
We will offer two training sessions. Session 1 will introduce Guides to Phase 4 and the HSP and prepare them to host their meetings. Session 2 will focus on facilitation skills, convening, and creating safe environments. New Guides are required to attend both sessions. Each session will be offered at two times, and Guides may choose which time to attend. Though we prefer for Guides to attend synchronously, both sessions will be recorded for those who can’t attend.
Session 1: Wednesday, February 3rd: 10:00 – 11:30am OR 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Session 2: Thursday, February 4th: 10:00 – 12:00pm OR 6:00 – 8:00pm

Community Conversations:
Guides will host one-on-one or small group conversations using a provided facilitators’ guide. They will first identify 1-3 proposals from the HSP that they think are most relevant to their community. Then they will provide a brief summary of the proposals and their intended impacts to participants. This information will be provided to Guides in Training Session #1 on February 3rd. Guides will then ask participants to respond to proposals, assessing whether they meet community needs and offering suggestions for the City to consider as they move toward implementing the proposals. Participants will also be asked to envision potential impacts of those proposals. During or after their discussions, participants will use a survey to provide their individual feedback and complete a demographic questionnaire.

Payment:
We are able to provide stipends for your work as a Community Guide. The following schedule will be used to determine payment to individuals:

If you are interested in being a Community Guide for Phase 4, please fill out this survey: https://col.st/WHGdb

After you have completed the survey, we will be in contact with you by January 30th to let you know if you’ve been accepted.