The Quality of Life Plan serves as a guiding document for neighborhood residents and leaders. The plan provides a picture of the vision and spirit of the near Eastside.
The Near Eastside Quality of Life Plan will be managed by nine community action teams, who will work with an individual lead agency and a variety of implementation partners.
The community action teams (CAT) will ensure that neighborhood voices are heard throughout the implementation of the plan and that neighborhood leaders continue to pursue increased equity in the implementation of the plan. The teams will also provide expertise and neighborhood thought leadership on their respective focus areas.
How will the CAT teams work?
- Any neighbor can join a community action team, but the community action team will be limited to 15 residents per year. Additionally, neighbors can only serve on one community action team per year.
- Neighbors will commit to working on their CAT for a one year term. After one year, the community action team members would be welcome to move to another team. Residents can stay on their current community action team for more than one year if the 15 person capacity has not been met. If the 15 person capacity has been met, priority will be given to new members.
- CATs will meet bi-monthly with a representative from their lead agency, but the community action team will be encouraged to meet more often, as is deemed appropriate by the team.
- Each community action team will work closely with one lead agency. These agencies are committed to focus their efforts on Near Eastside Quality of Life Plan goals by working with the community action teams and neighborhoods on relevant projects. Lead agencies will assist the community action teams with identifying resources, meeting space, and creating connections between agencies, organizations, and individuals. Implementation partners will work with the lead agencies to track plan progress and they will work with the community action teams to implement projects relevant to their agency.
More information about the CATs can be found on page 11 of the QoLP document here.
USING THE PLAN
IMPLEMENTATION
Each Quality of Life Plan action item will be tracked using the following process/benchmarks.
1.
ENGAGE RESIDENTS & COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Residents and partners will be enlisted to identify wants, needs, goals, and desired outcomes. They will also be engaged to access relevant expertise and resources.
2.
ASSESS & PLAN
For each action item, the relevant group will assess current conditions as necessary and develop a collaborative plan to achieve the goal.
3.
GATHER RESOURCES
The relevant group will gather funding and any other resources necessary to implement the action item.
4.
IMPLEMENT
After these steps are complete, the relevant group will Implement the collaborative plan & report on their progress.
These benchmarks will be used instead of traditional performance metrics, allowing for greater flexibility in implementation by individual neighborhood groups and to increase transparency for neighborhood members. Information about these benchmarks will be collected and posted on the Quality of Life Plan website quarterly.
In addition, lead agencies will compile a separate annual report on the state of Quality of Life on the near Eastside. This report will include high level indicators from a variety of outside data sources designed to measure quality of life on the near Eastside.
The plan was not designed to be a static document. The Quality of Life Plan will be regularly updated through quarterly summits. A neighbor or neighborhood group can request permission to pursue or add, modify or remove priorities and/or action items. Learn more about that process here.
USING THE PLAN
PLAN GOVERNANCE
The plan is meant to be a “living” document. This means that it is able to be updated to meet the current needs of the community.
Changing the Plan
It is likely that not every action item will align with the vision of every neighbor. In the case that you do not approve of an action item, please contact us using the information on the contact page to learn more about how the action item was created.
- Step One: You should discuss the action item with the Community Action Team responsible for that plan section and gain approval from the CAT to make the change.
- Step Two: you can then ask for a vote at the next neighborhood summit to remove the item. If the attendees at the summit approve the removal, the item will no longer be a part of the Quality of Life Plan.
Adding an item to the Plan
The goals of the near Eastside will change and evolve over the next 10 years, and it is likely that the neighborhood will add additional action items.
- Step One: The first step is to meet with the relevant community action team to propose the new item. If the group supports the item, move onto step two.
- Step Two: Reach out to the community builder and let them know you would like to propose the action item at the next neighborhood summit. If the people at the summit approve your action item, it will be officially added as an action item.