The Community Involvement Process

Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning is the definitive introduction to public consultation for developers, students and planners. The past decade has seen a complete transformation in consultation and community relations in the UK, from increased requirements to consult, to the introduction of neighbourhood planning and a revolution in online communication. Public Consultation and Community Involvement in Planning takes readers through consultation from the basics right through to emerging trends to demonstrate how a successful consultation process can benefit both the developers and the local community. The book begins with a definition of consultation and community involvement and an explanation of their role within the development process, before going on to clarify the legal, ethical, practical and ideological concerns to be addressed by the consultation process. Consultation strategy is explored step by step, and social media and online consultation is explored in detail. This is the first comprehensive guide to modern public consultation within the UK development sector and will be essential reading for developers, students and planners.

How can we engage communities? What is empowerment? To what extent should the project process be participatory? How is an outsider-insider relationship handled? How do researchers negotiate with the hegemony of western cultural interpretations? How are organizational and contextual influences handled in a project? What leadership demands do such projects place on researchers? What is capacity building? What are creative leaders and creative communities? How does the researcher journey from their studio to the situation? M2 Models and Methodologies for Community Engagement discusses key theoretical constructs — community engagement, capacity building, and community empowerment — in order to demonstrate how theory and practice are relevant to the development of forms of community involvement. The book maps the attributes of community based projects by moving beyond simply bringing people together from a variety of disciplines, and taking an approach which is transdisciplinary and applicable across cultures and genres. Here, all people — including the community — are ongoing contributors, and can freely move between their own and others’ discipline-specific arenas. M2 differs from and extends on other works in this field of practice and research, in that its transdisciplinary, collaborative approach positions the community as a particular kind of discipline to create real change in diverse locations and fields of experience. The book is in itself a model of community engagement, as the researchers have formed a community of research and practice for change, and have developed a transformative model for community engagement that is greater than the sum of its parts – hence M2. M2 offers a valuable resource for students, researchers, academics, practitioners, policy developers and volunteers from the fields of architecture, interior architecture, health, planning, anthropology, education, home economics, communication, political studies and development studies.

"Parent engagement with schools is known to be key to student achievement, but building such involvement can be a challenge, especially in economically disadvantaged schools that need it the most. In Community connections and your PLC at Work®: A guide to engaging families, author Nathaniel Provencio guides readers to build this vital engagement by broadening a school's professional learning community (PLC) so it includes parents, families and other community members in a productive collaboration toward success for all students. Drawing on his own experience as a principal who used the PLC process to transform a struggling school into an award-winning one, Provencio demonstrates how F-12 schools can use the focus on learning, collaboration and results at the heart of the PLC process to not merely enhance family engagement but also create a collaborative culture in which all stakeholders become educators." -- back cover.

Ethical Considerations for Research on Housing-Related Health Hazards Involving Children explores the ethical issues posed when conducting research designed to identify, understand, or ameliorate housing-related health hazards among children. Such research involves children as subjects and is conducted in the home and in communities. It is often conducted with children in low-income families given the disproportionate prevalence of housing-related conditions such as lead poisoning, asthma, and fatal injuries among these children. This book emphasizes five key elements to address the particular ethical concerns raised by these characteristics: involving the affected community in the research and responding to their concerns; ensuring that parents understand the essential elements of the research; adopting uniform federal guidelines for such research by all sponsors (Subpart D of 45 CFR 46); providing guidance on key terms in the regulations; and viewing research oversight as a system with important roles for researchers, IRBs and their research institutions, sponsors and regulators of research, and the community.

This important volume provides a source of information on the key issues, including constraints and capacity building, necessary to implement participatory approaches in China today. A wealth of case studies are provided by principal Chinese academics and practitioners in forestry, natural resource management, rural development, irrigation and poverty alleviation. At the core, the book is about strengthening local government as a key player in the development of participatory initiatives. It is an invaluable text for development practitioners, donors, researchers and students seeking to understand the opportunities and constraints for participation in China, and for those working to institutionalize participatory processes in a complex rural context.

The influenza pandemic caused by the 2009 H1N1 virus underscores the immediate and critical need to prepare for a public health emergency in which thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people suddenly seek and require medical care in communities across the United States. Guidance for Establishing Crisis Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations draws from a broad spectrum of expertise-including state and local public health, emergency medicine and response, primary care, nursing, palliative care, ethics, the law, behavioral health, and risk communication-to offer guidance toward establishing standards of care that should apply to disaster situations, both naturally occurring and man-made, under conditions in which resources are scarce. This book explores two case studies that illustrate the application of the guidance and principles laid out in the report. One scenario focuses on a gradual-onset pandemic flu. The other scenario focuses on an earthquake and the particular issues that would arise during a no-notice event. Outlining current concepts and offering guidance, this book will prove an asset to state and local public health officials, health care facilities, and professionals in the development of systematic and comprehensive policies and protocols for standards of care in disasters when resources are scarce. In addition, the extensive operations section of the book provides guidance to clinicians, health care institutions, and state and local public health officials for how crisis standards of care should be implemented in a disaster situation.

Community Engagement in a Changing Social Landscape reaches deep into the authors’ extensive experience as both observers and practitioners of community engagement. It is further enriched by insights drawn from the diverse experiences of professionals in the field. Critical questions are honestly faced in a refreshing discourse that also highlights promising practices and approaches. These combined features provide both a thought-provoking retrospective and forward-looking commentary, which offer the reader a renewed understanding of community engagement and its exciting possibilities. Professionals, students and volunteers working in the community should find in this book a very useful resource.