Community Engagement Plan

Plan Summary

We have a monthly newsletter to communicate with the neighborhood, which we mail to all the residents.
We mailed a postcard to all households to advertise for our community engagement event.
We increased our social media use through Facebook and post a variety of updates.
Our board utilizes Nextdoor and we also created an email list.

Targeted outreach: (Hispanic-Latino/a, individuals with disabilities, renters, youth)

NEPNA sent out a survey to collect the residents’ thoughts on the neighborhood and how to improve it. The survey was available in both English and Spanish (in the same survey), which was directly mailed to residents, business owners and property owners. For other languages, we provided a phone line to contact to request translation services.
ADA accessible services were offered as well. We always meet in accessible venues.
At the engagement meeting, we had a Spanish interpreter available if needed as this is the largest non-English speaking demographic in our neighborhood.
We worked to ensure that renters were provided the survey as well as the property owners and updated our mailing list to be as inclusive as possible. The survey also provided questions to include renters. The engagement event provided the opportunity for renters to connect and discuss their issues as well as including ideas about future events that could target the rental community.
We keep all of our meetings open to children. We also provided activities for children at our engagement meeting.
These services and considerations will be included in our annual neighborhood meeting.

We completed a neighborhood survey with 125 responses, which is a 24% response rate (adult pop. of 524 according to MN Compass).
We hosted a community engagement event in July where members of the neighborhood provided insight into the improvement and programming they would like to see from NEPNA.
Our January 2018 meeting was designated to completing the strategic planning through conversations with the community.

Survey Results

Neighborhood Priorities:

Surveyed Reasons Why People Like to Live in Northeast Park

Changes that would make NEP a better place to live in order of ranked priority from survey:

Priorities from engagement activity:

Neighborhood Board Outreach Priorities:

Increased involvement from neighbors who are renters
Increased accessibility and involvement for those who do not speak English or for those who have English not as their first language
Increased visibility in the neighborhood so everyone is aware of NEPNA and its purpose.
Increased communication with neighborhood
Welcome new neighbors to the community

Enhancing neighborhood livability
- Work with the park board to supplement park plan with flowers, trees and other natural enhancements.
- Support community garden committee to determine feasibility
- Place making -Work with local artists to create Northeast Park original artwork and branding to better advertise and beautify our neighborhood
  1. Work with the City to determine areas for improvement
  2. Complete bidding process

Partner with Northeast Park Recreation Center for neighborhood programming and meeting neighborhood needs

Funding Budgeted: $75,000

Housing
- Designate money into grant and/or loan programs to help neighbors pay for remodeling and upkeep. Work with Centers for Energy and Environment (CEE) to complete contract and guidelines then advertise to the neighborhood through fliers and door knocking as well as online advertisements on website and social media.
- Work with landlords and housing developers to keep housing affordable.
- Plan a solar power informational meeting for neighbors to learn about options. Consider partnering with other neighborhood organizations, CEE and Minnesota Renewable Energy Association (MREA) for event.
- Connect with city programs that provide options to Minneapolis residents to build improvements to their home and lawn to make more energy efficient, cost efficient and environmentally friendly.
- Plan more neighborhood events, such as a renters’ rights clinic.

Funding Budgeted: $145,000

Traffic calming
- Create neighborhood committee to determine where the issue areas are and then work with the city and Yinghua Academy to determine how these can be addressed.
- Partner with neighborhood organizations who are interested in completing a traffic study to improve Broadway Ave.
- Determine if investing in rebuilding speed bumps on Fillmore is tangible and constructive
- Work with City and Council Member to determine what other options may be available, such as a speed monitor on roadways of concern

Funding Budgeted: $50,000

Decreased pollution, graffiti, and litter and increased safety
- Increased communication with block leaders and neighbors to report criminal activity and deter criminal activity
- Continue to have regularly scheduled meetings with Minneapolis police to build relationships, dialogue, and knowledge
- Hold special meetings when there are neighborhood concerns about increased crime
- Work with neighbors to better understand concerns in order to shape a response
- Use relationships with Sociable Ciderwerks and build relationships with other businesses to ensure that neighborhood concerns can be appropriately addressed with them
- Increased residential lighting-determine areas of concern and work with residents to report issues or invest in improving lighting
- Create a neighborhood semi-annual clean-up day to pick up litter and promote stewardship for our community.

Funding Budgeted: $5,000

Increase businesses’ involvement and resident involvement
- Do outreach to neighborhood businesses to promote NEPNA
- Continue to partner with neighborhood businesses for events and development new relationships
- Meet with developers to discuss projects in our neighborhood and consider writing letters to the city planning committee.
- Provide language supports for meetings and advertisements
- Better advertise existing neighborhood events such as National Night Out.
- Utilize new recreation center to bring the neighborhood together for meetings and events.
- Promote availability of social services by planning events to target certain issues for which there are social service programs or non-profits that could benefit the neighborhood
- Work to include information about programs available to the neighborhood in newsletters, website and social media
- Partner with other neighborhood associations to buy welcome baskets for new neighbors

Funding Budgeted: $11,739

(Possibly shared with other neighborhood)

Increase involvement from neighbors who are renters or part of targeted populations in our outreach efforts
Increase visibility in the neighborhood so everyone is aware of NEPNA and its purpose.
Increase communication with neighborhood
Provide opportunities for engagement that are currently outside the scope of NEPNA
Attend meetings relevant to neighborhood associations

Funding Budgeted: $30,000

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