Living in a community means that you get the best out of your properties and homes. Real estate developers concentrate as much as they can on this. However, later on down the line, it’ll be up to the homeowners themselves to handle it. They would still be around to supervise various legal actions that the community may need, but many homeowners at this point would have officers-in-charge in developing the community.
If you’re one of the officers in your community, you might be starting to realize right now that community development is a complex project. But if you take it one step at a time and consider your resources and options, you can literally make something out of nothing. Assessment of resources and options is the first step to community development because it will help you understand what kind of services and projects you can have in your neighborhood.
Consider Your Budget
The very first thing you should consider is your budget. The budget you have will determine what kind of projects you can have.
If you have been asking for payments from homeowners for various utilities in your community, then you should have some funds in hand. These utilities may include payment for essential utilities such as water and electricity. If your community members are making these payments themselves, you can charge them for the security and surveillance in your neighborhood. You can even sign up your members for home insurance and offer the insurance companies that the officers will be the ones collecting the payments for it.
Negotiate the median value for the home insurance that members have to pay so that you can standardize payments. Charge a small amount as a community charge when collecting these payments, and assure members in your community that it will go into a good cause. Make sure that you already have projects that you can already explain to them when this point comes. This is why project feasibility becomes important.
Project Feasibility
Talk with your officers regarding how feasible your projects will be for community development. Remember that you should talk about projects that you will have on your term. Projects beyond your term should be ignored unless there is a dire need to start them early. Some important projects in community development are sustainability projects and youth initiatives. The very first thing you should do is the latter.
Getting the Youth Involved
The heart of the community is within the youths who live in it. Many of these youths will fuel the growth of the neighborhood and help it develop and prosper. They are literally the future of your community, and you should start a youth group to facilitate this.
Aside from the general officers in charge of handling important projects in developing the community, the youth should also have their own officers. These officers will look into what the youth needs based on their personal experience. They will conduct various projects for those in their age group and even recruit more youths to join the cause. Having a youth group can make a difference in community development as they can give significant inputs regarding where the community currently is when fostering the hidden talents of the youth. These talents will eventually bring the community together in the future.
Run a Survey
If you’re still having difficulty determining what kind of projects you should implement or which projects to implement first, consider running the survey. A survey will tell you what homeowners need. This will also help you identify growing problems in the community. Although you can’t really act upon all of these problems, you can certainly address some of them during your term.
Running a survey can give you the knowledge you would not otherwise have. This will be very important in your decision-making when it comes to essential projects.
Getting the Community to Work Together
The last thing you should consider is getting the community to work together. If your community has been around for quite some time, then the coherency is already there. You have to start it through various initiatives. Meet-ups and general meetings can help with this.
However, if your community is new, you should consider taking things slowly. Get-to-know-you activities and weekly assemblies can help with this. Remember that you want your members to volunteer for these initiatives, so don’t force them into it. Take it slowly, and eventually, they will be ready to work together to develop the community through your projects.
Community development is an important but complex aspect of community building. Here are the things you should consider doing first when it comes to developing the community. Know that projects for development can only be as good as the community members willing to do it.
