To Be or Not to Be? Community Readiness for Planning Holt Boyd Podcast

To Be or Not to Be? Community Readiness for Planning - September 19, 2022 - Jordan Rasmussen - Extension Educator - Rural Prosperity Nebraska

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• [0:03] Like Hamlet, who in Act 3 expresses his famous statement -
• [0:06] “to be, or not to be, that is the question”
• [0:09] - communities can also question themselves,
• [0:12] asking what do they want to be? Where do they want to go?
• [0:15] What do they want to risk in reaching their goals?
• [0:19] Is it better to do nothing and let circumstances force change,
• [0:22] or do you take up community efforts to plan and focus for the future?
• [0:26] All communities are at different stages of growth or change.
• [0:30] Some communities have the talent, willingness and leadership
• [0:33] to get things done, while others seem to languish,
• [0:36] unsure of the direction they want to go, or simply don’t want to change.
• [0:41] Nebraska Extension has developed an assessment that helps a community
• [0:44] determine if it is ready to implement action and engage its citizens
• [0:49] to strategically plan for their preferred furture.
• [0:52] Community readiness is an assessment of a community’s social capacity to sustain
• [0:57] long-term initiatives that require time and resources of community volunteers and staff.
• [1:03] Social capacity, also referred to as social capital, is defined as having:
• [1:08] 1). resources such as individual skills, organizational strength,
• [1:12] and access to financial capital;
• [1:15] 2). networks of relationships within and beyond the community;
• [1:19] 3). leadership, both formal and informal;
• [1:23] and 4). a history of taking collective action and problem-solving.
• [1:28] Studies have found that communities with strong social capacity are able to
• [1:32] accomplish more ambitious goals and address longer-term issues.
• [1:36] Communities with weaker social capacities may first need to build their social capacity
• [1:40] to take on larger projects.
• [1:43] To measure community readiness, community members are asked questions
• [1:47] about the energy of leadership within the community,
• [1:50] community collaboration and trust, inclusivity, level of community engagement
• [1:54] and capacity to think entrepreneurially and strategically.
• [1:58] These are not “yes” or “no” questions, but a ranking of how the community
• [2:02] perceives itself in relation to the questions.
• [2:05] Discussion about these different areas lends to a greater understanding of where
• [2:10] the community may focus efforts to build capacity.
• [2:13] So, the question is: to be or not to be?
• [2:16] Is your community willing to address change and strategically think about the future,
• [2:20] or is it going to take the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
• [2:24] and let the future be what it will be?
• [2:27] Community readiness assessments are provided by extension educators within the
• [2:31] Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Prosperity Nebraska.
• [2:35] This article is authored by Marilyn Schlake.
• [2:38] For Nebraska Extension, this is Jordan Rasmussen