· Cast your net widely in seeking help — around the neighborhood and your community of friends and affiliates. You never know where help will come from, and you’ll need a diversity of talent to complete a project.
· Don’t be bashful about ASKING others to assist. Enlisting is often the best way to “find” volunteers.
· Prioritize both the projects you take on and the steps you take in each one, based on what’s most broadly supported, most needed, and doable.
· Perfection is the enemy of Done. A good plan today is often better than a perfect plan tomorrow.
· Just get started. Do something small that shows you’re on the way. It will be much easier to attract support with each step you take.
· When a project takes years to realize, have real milestones enroute – plant something, install something — to keep folks from losing heart or interest.
· Have two projects – one long term and uncertain, and one short term and likely to succeed. That way, you keep going, and at least some of the hard things get done.
· Be prepared for process. To paraphrase Woody Allen, sometimes nine-tenths of success is just showing up at meetings. Sometimes, the one who attends the most meetings wins.
· Things will get much easier as you develop a broad network of contacts, partners, and a track record. A good way to do this is by helping others with related efforts.
· Always be nice to government officials or staff. They’ll be grateful, because they get dumped on so often. And thank everyone for everything. People remember how you make them feel.
· Who is already working in the area? What can you learn from them? Is part or all of your project in their plans? Can you help or partner? Think about territoriality – yours and theirs.
· Reach out to the neighboring community and keep people informed about your plans from the beginning. People have less tendency to get polarized if they have information and feel that you’re taking their concerns, hopes, and fears seriously.
· Most conflicts are between “good” causes. Be prepared to incorporate others’ goals, broaden your ideas and purpose, compromise, and pick your way through more regulations and requirements than you dreamed.
· Expect things to take much more time and effort than you expect.
· Be realistic about the future. Ask yourself: What is success? When you move on, what will be needed to keep it going? How will the project be maintained?
Finding funding: A panel discussion
Do you have an idea for a great neighborhood or community project, dreams for a bit of green space or a new recreation program? Berkeley Partners for Parks wants to help you get started and find funding. Mark your calendar for our March 19 meeting, 7 pm at the Berkeley Public Works Green Room, 1326 Allston, Berkeley. A panel will discuss funding sources including the UC Chancellor’s Partnership Grants and Northern California Grassroots Fund. BPFP’s member citizens groups will offer information on topics such as forming partnerships and finding volunteers.
Directions: Take Sacramento two blocks south from University, then Allston two blocks west. Park in the large Berkeley Corporation Yard parking lot on the south side of Allston just before the street ends. The meeting room is on the west (right) side of the parking lot. By bus, take the 51 on University Avenue to Acton Street, walk south two blocks, then right on Allston.
Along those same lines, if you have an idea for a summer youth-recreation program, check out Northern California Grantmakers’ Summer Youth Projects, http://www.ncg.org/. The deadline is March 1 to apply for grants of up to $1,000.
Finding funding: A panel discussion
Do you have an idea for a great neighborhood or community project, dreams for a bit of green space or a new recreation program? Berkeley Partners for Parks wants to help you get started and find funding. Mark your calendar for our March 19 meeting, 7 pm at the Berkeley Public Works Green Room, 1326 Allston, Berkeley. A panel will discuss funding sources including the UC Chancellor’s Partnership Grants and Northern California Grassroots Fund. BPFP’s member citizens groups will offer information on topics such as forming partnerships and finding volunteers.
Directions: Take Sacramento two blocks south from University, then Allston two blocks west. Park in the large Berkeley Corporation Yard parking lot on the south side of Allston just before the street ends. The meeting room is on the west (right) side of the parking lot. By bus, take the 51 on University Avenue to Acton Street, walk south two blocks, then right on Allston.
Along those same lines, if you have an idea for a summer youth-recreation program, check out Northern California Grantmakers’ Summer Youth Projects, http://www.ncg.org/. The deadline is March 1 to apply for grants of up to $1,000.
BPFP Holiday Party: Dec 11
“Re-Storying” fo the Common… by BPFP President John Steere: Dec 6
Click here for more information.
Just as our communities are becoming more multi-cultural, our experience of public open space and urban “greening” is become more multi-dimensional and participatory, reflecting an appeal to many purposes and sensibilities. Could we be entering a new era of the commons?….a deepening of our collective perception of public space to encompass the environment and its renewal? In the past half-century, we’ve expanded its definition from city parks, plazas, and playgrounds to a more vitalizing field of wildlife and creek corridors, wetlands and habitat restoration, greenways and paths, and community gardens. Why has this shift occurred….and how is our understanding of the commons evolving? What does it mean to the experience of community? What are the implications for the future of public open space? The presenter will reflect on these questions in the context of the restoration and “re-storying” of the commons and will draw on examples from his own city, Berkeley, and others in the East Bay.
John Steere is an environmental planner whose 20-year career spans public, private, and non-profit sectors of land use and resource management planning. An environmental planning consultant, he is the author of the award-winning Restoring the Estuary and numerous articles on habitat partnerships. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard College and a joint Masters degree in city and regional planning and landscape architecture from University of California at Berkeley. Active in urban habitat, greening, and park issues, he has helped develop a couple parks in the community, is the founder of East Bay Citizens for Creek Restoration, and serves on the boards of Livable Berkeley and Berkeley Partners for Parks.
This talk is part of the Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning Colloquium (LD ARCH 253), taught by Georgia Silvera.