| Recognizing the value of a good
investment, citizens of Columbus South have developed significant
revitalization strategies for their area with the help of the Carl
Vinson Institute of Government.
The institute’s Community and Regional Development Division
recently conducted the final retreat for the 75-member task force
for the Columbus South Revitalization and Community Investment Plan.
Since the project kicked off last year with a town hall meeting
attended by some 300 citizens, the division has facilitated meetings
and issue group sessions involving more than 600 people, according
to CRD staff member Danny Bivins.
“This was a true civic engagement project from start to finish,”
he says.
“The task force has met with great success because it includes
enthusiastic residents of the area and because there has been a
buy-in by the business community,” says Carmen Cavezza, city
manager.
“Thanks to the work of the Vinson Institute, we had excellent
participation by citizens and government employees in the process,”
says Mayor Bob Poydasheff. “Their use of advanced technology
helped bring about the best town hall meeting we have had in Columbus.”
Numerous issues face the extensive area that runs from Ft. Benning
to the river and the historic district. CRD faculty paid special
attention to structuring a process to invite maximum input and to
generate ideas.
“We were fortunate to have expertise already on hand within
the Columbus local government,” Bivins says.
The 10 issue groups met every two weeks in facilitated sessions.
Participants developed not only objectives and strategies to deal
with particular issues but steps to be carried out, by whom, with
what resources and when. Many subject experts were provided to help
the issue groups, including representatives from the Atlanta Regional
Commission, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and the Georgia Department
of Transportation.
“Utter transformation can occur when citizens and government
unite behind a common vision,” says Brenda Hayes, CRD administrator.
“Our work in nurturing the civic engagement process is a very
important one in today’s fragmented society.”
Innovative approaches to current problems were not unusual. “The
crime issue group is recommending the formation of a literacy alliance
focusing on ages 3 and younger,” Bivins says.
“After hearing 15 witnesses involved with child development
and misconduct issues and reading volumes of research, we became
convinced that literacy is critical to crime prevention,”
says group member Myles Caggins, who adds that leadership provided
by the institute was of great value in keeping the issue groups
on task. “We were provided with fresh information and summaries
of previous sessions to maintain the integrity of our work.”
In another component of the project, students from the university’s
College of Environment and Design researched the study area, met
with task force members and developed renderings depicting adaptive
re-use possibilities for public and private places. Pratt Cassity
and Eleonora Machado of the college then compiled the students’
work into a final report.
“Putting ideas into an attractive and easy to understand format
makes them palatable to a broad citizen audience,” says Cassity.
“We were excited about using graphic design to help the people
of Columbus South visualize the options.”
At the March retreat, task force members reviewed all of the recommendations
of the issue groups and, with the help of CRD experts, worked to
combine them into approximately 30 major strategies.
“Each strategy will now be assigned a ‘champion’
who will develop a team to move the work forward,” says CRD
faculty member Steve Dempsey. “An accountability team will
also help in finding contacts and resources and tracking progress
of the work.”
“This project was a major commitment of time and energy by
our entire division and by members of Columbus South,” Bivins
says. “But Columbus is a large community, and many of the
necessary components already exist. In many instances it may be
a matter of bringing people together to form partnerships.”
Given the level of community dedication to the project so far, that
should not prove too difficult.
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