Idea Collection Events

CHAS community members collected ideas from the neighborhood community for several months in the Cole neighborhood, beginning in early May 2018 to September 2018. There was a kickoff idea collection event, held in early May, for the neighborhood to learn about participatory budgeting and submit ideas. It marked the only structured in-person idea collection event. Other than the kickoff event, participants submitted ideas online or in person through door-to-door canvassing conducted by steering committee members.

The CHAS kickoff event occurred in the St. Charles Recreation Center in the Cole neighborhood. Several steering committee members attended the event and were responsible for organizing, facilitating, and assisting those who came to learn about PB and submit project ideas. The event was organized as a self-guided tour, where attendees could walk through four stations that explained each phase of the PB process. The first station introduced CHAS as a community-led project that would place the power in the hands of the community to improve the neighborhood. The next station was intended to encourage participants to identify problems and propose solutions about how the Cole neighborhood could be enhanced. Project ideas could not be submitted online until after the event had finished. Following the idea collection brainstorm, participants were informed of ways to stay engaged in the PB process, including how they could continue to contribute. The final station provided participants with the opportunity to share their own Cole story.

CHAS steering committee members only hosted the one structured idea collection event, known as a neighborhood assembly. Project ideas could be submitted online, but many of the submissions were submitted in-person. Many of the ideas submitted in-person were collected by steering committee members that canvassed from door to door in the Cole neighborhood to meet and listen to community residents. After CHAS’s conclusion, many of the steering committee members reflected that they found the idea collection canvassing the most rewarding part of the process. The level of engagement of the steering committee members to do outreach around the neighborhood was instrumental to the participation of community residents and the 254 ideas collected.

 

“Many residents have been wanting change for many years without being heard. They are eager for someone/anyone to listen and help them make a better community. What is going to be done and what are they going to do that will benefit as many people as possible.” - CHAS Idea Collection Participant

Demographics

Of the approximately 199 individuals that submitted a project idea, 23 completed surveys, which generated a response rate of 11.56%. What follows is a breakdown of the demographics of idea collection participants who completed surveys. Respondents mostly reflected neighborhood demographics, except for the Hispanic or Latino/a population, in which 8% of respondents were Hispanic or Latino/a compared to 47% of the Cole neighborhood population. More than half of survey respondents were women-identifying. One respondent was under 18 years old, with almost 40% of respondents 25 to 34 years old. Almost 50% of respondents had a household income of less than $50,000. The median household income for Cole neighborhood is $38,542, suggesting that CHAS engaged low-income individuals, generally reflective of the neighborhood’s population.


Breakdown of CHAS Survey Data vs. Cole Census Data in terms of Annual Household Income:

Idea Categories

Following idea collection, steering committee members grouped project ideas into several broad categories: public space (e.g., a basketball court, public trash cans, a playground; n = 59), infrastructure (e.g., repaving roads, adding bike lanes, improving street lights; n = 28), community beautification (e.g., planting trees, public art, community gardens; n = 26), community development (e.g., microgrants for residents, job training programs; n = 24), safety (e.g., traffic signs, crosswalks, addressing gang activity; n = 24), education (e.g., preschool programs, improve neighborhood schools; n = 25), recreation (e.g., improvements to the St. Charles Recreation Center; n = 12), health (e.g., exercise classes, a mental health center; n = 17), kids (e.g., summer activities, microgrants to join sports teams; n = 17), retail (e.g., a farmers’ market, a grocery store; n = 9). These categories highlight the needs and desires of the Cole community, as identified by its residents.