The Community Planning Handbook

STARTING FROM THE premise that local involvement brings unquestionable benefits to community-level planning and management, this handbook gets down to the practicalities in terms that are useful and accessible to all stakeholders. The
author acknowledges that every situation needs a strategy to suit local conditions but stresses that there are proven principles and methods that can serve as guidelines.
General principles are quickly covered, from “accept different agendas” and “agree on rules and boundaries” to “use outsiders, but carefully” and “work on location”. The section on methods, which makes up the bulk of the book, describes some 50 practical events and approaches, such as action planning events, design workshops, risk assessments and street stalls, which can effectively involve people in the process. Each is presented in a clearly laid out double page spread that lists the main strengths and characteristics of the approach, helpful tips, the resources needed, sample documents and checklists and sources of further information. The section on scenarios covers some common development situations, including community centres, disaster management and settlement upgrading, and illustrates how various methods might be combined to create an overall strategy, along with a likely time scale. A possible scenario for derelict site re-use, for instance, suggests as a possible process moving from initial research to a public forum, an ideas competition, the formation of a development partnership, holding art workshops, an open house, implementation, and the establishment of a management body. Each of these is described in the methods section. Appendices include a glossary, lists of contacts, publications and other resources, and a number of detailed sample formats and check lists.