Intervention+Options+and+Thoughts

__Please put your thoughts for how to outreach and activate citizens of Bowling Alone, Ohio__
Folks, I invite you to use this framework to start to synthesize our ideas as we work towards a final goal of a deliverable set of recommendations to the client. Let's continue to use the blank space below the table to have discussion about clarifications, additions, etc...

Short Term Wins - Specific Recommendation** || **__Implementation__ Details/Logistics - Include Strategies for Establishing Urgency** || **__Target Audience__** || **__Assessment__ Start with Baseline assessment or pre-test and follow with intermittent tests (post-tests) to measure progress and determine success ** || http://adblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/06/1481140.aspx || All - perhaps play to the interests of the townsfolk. The ad includes a beach scene which is more appropriate if BA, OH is on the coast. || See if people talked about the ad, or recalled it. It may not be very measurable. It plays to the underlying emotions of the residents. || The organization should be contacted and a member directory attained (the organization should have one). Email blasts, or other communication manners could be utilized. Marketing/advertising could also occur in the 'church bulletin' or other paraphanelia. It could possibly serve as a financial benefit to that organization, which would enhance buy-in from that organization. || People affiliated with different religious organizations ||  ||
 * = **__Target Outcome__** || **__Objectives__
 * || Get physically fit and build relationships. || True Life: In Fossil, Oregon, the whole town is working toward getting physically fit. I suggest similar endeavors for Bowling Alone. The bonds that are built using this would be incredible. || All those who want to become healthier and inprove their lives. || Biggest Bowling Alone Loser ||
 * || Cause residents to recall emotions and feelings from another era. The ad pokes fun at technology, even though there is some truth to the ad. || Put ads like this dentyne ad around to encourage people to "Make Face Time" and to show them the importance and the benefits of "face to face" contact. Snapshots could be advertised on billboards and other print materials. This link includes a msnbc article on Dentyne's ad campaign.
 * || Host "watching" parties at community leaders houses for popular tv shows || Provide large-screen televisions, food, etc... || Adults that have substituted watching tv home alone for community engagement || People continue to attend watch parties after tv season ends and other engagement activities have been introduced instead ||
 * || Host 'play dates' for parents with children. || Determine an appropriate breakdown of age groups and organize various play areas for children & their parents to play. Parents would be required to stay - it is not meant to be a drop off babysitting service so that they can run errands. I would suggest different locations, but I wouldn't suggest they plan a big activity each week. Let the kids play. Activities often don't allow kids to interact with each other (one goal, right?) Perhaps it is at a different house the first Saturday of each month - or every Saturday for that matter.... __Parents often will go out of their way if they're told it will benefit their children. Therefore, I would suggest marketing in this manner__. Ultimately, parents will talk with each other based on the common thread, their children. They will likely forge relationships that will last for years to come. The children will ask - Mom/Dad, can you call Billy so that he will come over & play. Parents will realize the benefits of making their lives easier when they have other children to play with. || Families with Children || Children & their families engage of their own choosing. This may be after the implementation phase is complete, or at alternate times during the implementation phase. ||
 * || Host Community activities around various religious activities. || Perhaps it's a community breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Or, maybe once a month they host a bazzar/yard sale/craft sale before/after the religous celebration.
 * || Use the social networking technologies to connect like-minded people who live in Bowling alone to connect with one another in the real world and engage in activities together.

When I asked the question,” What should Bowling Alone, Ohio, look like in 20 years?” on Tuesday night, I was thinking long-term. For example, I strongly believe that our plan must include some sort of community planning/zoning component. — Pete

Create locations within social networking sites (or even a site specific to bowling alone) that engender people living in Bowling alone to gather in person. || * Select two neighborhoods and find a couple of older lots where you would build a community center. The center’s first floor would include free wireless service and a coffee shop that the city would sub-contract out to a local vendor. Residents of the neighborhood would get a discount on their coffee, tea, scones, etc. On the second floor, the center would feature two large meeting areas for various clubs and organizations. The city would hire a community relations person who would work with a volunteer neighborhood organization to fill the meeting rooms. (The community relations person would have other duties, though they would expand as the community centers grew.) For example, you might have a film club, several book clubs, a Pilates class, an anime club, a scrap booking club, a fly fishing club, a chess club, a bridge club, etc.) The center would be free to the neighborhood and could be reserved for wedding receptions, anniversary parties, graduation celebrations, etc.

2. Survey the affected neighborhoods to gauge quality of life levels related to their neighborhood. Have they changed? You might even ask them how many neighborhood people they can name each year in the survey. 3. Number of people living in the downtown district. You could survey them as well. Long-term, you could see if the people living in the downtown district are staying in Bowling Alone longer since I am guessing that the younger residents are more likely to move with their careers. || J.D. || As stated before, many feel that the trend setters in the community have a duty to help us increase the city's social capital. However I think it is vital that we convey that message to said trend-setters in a way that will really hit home with them. First, identification. Who started local fads? Identify what element of Bowling is higher than the surrounding area. (ie. Black hats, running on thursdays, wed night bbq) Once that element is identified, poll people to see where they got the idea to do whatever thing they are doing.
 * Design new and old neighborhoods so that they encourage more foot traffic. For example, Bowling Alone, Ohio, should make sure there is an outdoor park within walking distance.
 * Also, I am sure it has some portion of the city that is run-down and forgotten. A good solution might be to develop some type of metropolitan residential area in which there are brick buildings that house shops on the first floor and apartments on the second story. You could use tax breaks to encourage developers to come in and build such communities, though the idea is to have the advantages of the big city — with shops, restaurants and night life within walking distance — mixed with the small town feel of a neighborhood. The people served would include younger professionals though also older couples and residents who don’t want to manage a large home. The area would feature a parking garage, although it would be built to encourage people to own no more than one car. Of course, we would build a community center somewhere.
 * My main point is that we need to start thinking about housing and community development. I don’t know if any of these ideas would work, but hopefully it will get us thinking. || Primarily home owners along with new residents to the community. Initially, we would target three or four neighborhoods in Bowling Alone. || 1. Use of the community center s in terms of number of people visiting and number of events held.
 * || Trend-setter identification/recruiting

Next, stage a presentation with the people who scored highest in the poll. We would have to nail the presentation on the importance of social capital and all the ways that it with benefit the society. More importantly, emphasize how large of a role those individuals play in the development of our program. Finally, ensure that whatever we decide to do, we have the trend setters free to help. || Trend setters || 1. A relatively small number of individuals listed from the poll 2. The now identified trend setters getting involved with our project. ||
 * || School-to-work program between medical complex and local high schools || Under the action creates social capital which in turn creates more action theory ([[file:Beyomd Bowling Together.pdf]]

The local medical complex supports an effort to give high school seniors, interested in entering a medical field, an opportunity to earn high school credit while learning (and possibly earning) at the medical center. The medical center will reimburse the school district a certain level of FTE to cover teacher cost, and the medical center will be responsible for training and on the job supervision. The benefits include; a students ability to connect with the greater community (Pete's idea), a business will connect with the younger generation, the medical center may be able to find future employees (potential scholarships could be offered), the medical center and school district create stronger bonds, the program could grow beyond the medical center, and the students can gain real world experience. . . || High school students, school district staff, & Medical Center employees || # General Interest in the program.
 * 1) Possibly how many students enter into medical fields after high school
 * 2) How many students return to work within the medical center
 * || Foster social relationships with community members through the use of social media technologies.
 * || Foster social relationships with community members through the use of social media technologies.

Create mini Meetup groups || Host classes on how to use social media technologies to create spontaneous social gatherings (low cost) activities within the community.

Promote, host, and publicize a social media enabled gathering.

Put together social, educational, physical fitness, etc... groups || {this needs work } Give presentations on the importance of social media / on efficiency and lowering transaction costs associated with community activities - tie this back to the critical importance of social capital to specific areas (industrial, education, social, health)
 * Use of facilitation process to enable community leaders (1st and 2nd tier) to identify outstanding issues.
 * Following an analysis of the gathered information, give presentations to community organizations about the critical importance of social capital. || Number of person to person gatherings enabled by social-media.

Survey the town to determine whether the spontaneous gatherings improved the community. || Students use their personal learning networks to connect with other "like minded" learners to learn by doing something with others. Students facilitate their own learning, in an area about which they are passionate--by connecting what they learn through online content, and the classroom, with the real world. This would include volunteering with local organizations and producing something. || Connect students with their passion.
 * || Contribute to society as a whole through community service learning projects.

Teach students how to locate learning resources (online or face-to-face) that will help them engage in learning about what they like or are interested.

Use Facebook or other social media technology that students are already engaged within to connect them to opportunities to practice what they are passionate about. || Give presentation on the importance of personal learning networks for connecting learners to their interests and providing them with opportunities to connect to learn - how these networks can provide opportunity for individual learners.

Provide use of social networking technology workshops for parents. Sell it to the parents' need to know what their children are doing online. Utilize the workshops to not only teach the parents where their children are online but also how they can utilize it to communicate within their like-interest groups. || Number of student volunteer hours that were self initiated by the student and their engagement in their individual learning community || Create opportunities for professional engagement of community members with similar professional interests. || Baseline measures and intermittent measures of:
 * || 3) Foster professional realtionships among community members through the use of topical roundtables, brown bag lunch lectures, and coffee/tea discussion socials*
 * Gain commitments from employers to provide at least 1 hour per month of release time for such professional development and networking
 * Recommend that receptive employers include participation in this type of social-capital intensive professional development in the performance plans of employees || Discussing the concrete benefits of social capital to the workplace, using the analogy of grease on gears:
 * Social capital is more effective and efficient for getting things done as opposed to focussing solely on legalistic and procedural requirements.
 * Social capital helps build a happier workforce
 * Happy and well-connected employees are healthier employees.
 * Absenteeism will decline.
 * Productivity will increase || Organize community members according to their professions
 * Workforce efficiency prior to as well as at a predetermined future time to determine if there is a measurable difference.
 * Survey the opinions of participants.
 * Survey the opinions of employers ||
 * || Create neighborhood associations to:
 * Host block parties
 * Do group cleanups of common areas and assist the elderly (e.g. raking leaves in the fall)
 * Watch out for suspicious activities in the neighborhood
 * Do emergency preparedness trainings (e.g. CERT, CPR, first aid) || Provide a small amount of money for some refreshments, perhaps in conjunction with a popular television or sporting event

Put flyers on doors in the neigborhood where crime or vandalism has occurred ||  || Do a neighborhood cohesion baseline survey (e.g. How many of your neighbors do you know? Have you ever had a home or auto break-in? T/F People in this neighborhood look out for each other) and follow up with intermittent measures. ||
 * || Foster adult team sporting events (e.g. Bowling Leagues, soccer, and/or softball) || Provide free field or rec center space and T-shirts for team founders

Partner with health insurance companies, recreation facilities, and life insurance companies to publicize importance of physical activity and social capital. ||  || Do a health and athleticism baseline survey followed with intermittent measures ||
 * || Create social capital that transcends racial, ethnic and cultural boundaries. Foster cooperation and social interaction between diverse groups of people. Promote an open and tolerant attitude among diverse groups in our communities. Bernadette || Invite leaders and interested members and recruit volunteers from diverse groups to participate in the planning and implementation stages of this initiative. See Newsweek Article: Seeking Hispanic Scouts at http://www.newsweek.com/id/180046. || Community leaders, community members from diverse ethnic, cultural and racial groups, local council members, and family members of all ages. ||  ||
 * || Generate interest in the creative arts: music, storytelling, poetry, literature and art. Celebrate cultural events, festivals and rituals. . Bernadette

In addition to Bernadette's ideas, if there was a community center there could also be conversation classes and cultural presentations. - Cathy Lee || Promote multi-cultural events such as international food fairs, art shows, poetry readings, and music festivals in the community. Celebrate events such as Chinese New Year. Provide opportunities for people to interact in a creative, uplifting environment.

To further promote multi-culturalism and give community members the opportunity to learn more about other parts of the world. ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers who live in the community would also have the chance to practice their English. || Artists, writers, musicians, from diverse ethnic, cultural and racial groups, community and family members of all ages. ||  ||  I have been thinking about Pete's comment last night about trying to tackle the same problem in the town of Casper, WY and how difficult it would be to find common causes (except maybe a stop the wind campaign!)

Instead of trying to determine intervention strategies for a population of 175,000, is there value in breaking down the issue into our respective groups and proposing strategies at that level. Even within our groups if we could focus on one area, I think it could help us to understand the issues and areas of concern that we are up against, and then apply what we learn to a larger setting. For example, for the industrial group, we could look at designing an outreach strategy(s) for the community medical complex - - can we at least convince a targeted group of employees to get out and do something (as someone put it last night)?


 * I agree with Shawn... maybe thinking about a more targeted approach. Our groups would be a great way to break that down. If we can get community leaders (corporate CEOs ect.) to "buy in" - maybe we can find ways to reward people within these structures for "getting out and doing things together." For example, maybe vacation time off if they engage in a community building activity. I know that our local hospital gives employees vaction time if they successfully recruit a new employee to a open position within the organization. If "social capital" is so critical to their community and the leaders know it - maybe we need to push this through our organizational leaders and get them to promote it with incentives.???


 * I am going to advocate that we follow a "begin with the end in mind" philosophy. We must decide what this community will look like after our interventions if we have been successful. If we can come up with a list of just a few of these outcomes, we can work backwards to determine what intervention strategies can reach each goal, and then target them to specific audiences within the population.
 * I have added an "end in mind" page for identifying these "BIG" goals.


 * I also believe we must take advantage of the mini-wins that present themselves; our goal is to build social capital/establish community. The concern is that this population has substituted time with neighbors and involvement in community or civic organizations for time alone, possibly in front of the television. Perhaps we can start with building community //around// the activities people are already doing - have community leaders have viewing parties centered on popular tv shows. Then, as the respective seasons of those shows end, we can continue to host these parties and insert other activities. This transition could be to card games, board games or community service projects.

It has been my experience that when people are involved in decision-making, they are more likely to buy into changes and any activities designed to promote the change. In contacting our group, Bowling Alone, Ohio already recognizes that there are some troubling issues within the community. By gathering together our first and second tier community leaders, we could take them through a facilitation session(s), the leaders themselves could ID specific issues, problems, and possible solutions. Since one of the characteristics/concerns is individual isolation, some may not initially recognize the developing problems. They may have more concerns within a group environment when others express their own observations. Round-table sessions could be used with several facilitators. After the process, we could analyze the information and develop a variety of strategies to implement not only their suggested solutions, but others identified by our group. Small wins could be identified and "plotted", long-term goals could be identified and strategies determined. Ann

In reading “Bowling Alone,” I kept thinking that we will need to address the under-30 market in some way. One thing that Putnam keeps repeating is that as we are losing social capital each year with the passing of our highly involved seniors. Unfortunately, that capital is not being picked up by the younger generations who replace them. With that in mind, we may want to consider a strategy to address building capital in people who are age 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, etc. The question will be how young, especially knowing that it will take many years for our investment to pay off. Also, there is the factor that a natural part of growing up is to leave your hometown and establish roots somewhere else. Some might argue that by focusing on youth, we are building social capital in future communities not our own. I don’t buy this argument, especially since many of the young people will stay in town — we should invest in them — plus there will be young people who go off to college at 18, but then return at 35 with their spouse and young family.

With this in mind, we might want to focus on community problems in Bowling Alone that might be solved with the growth in social capital. For example, 10 years ago I was involved with a community-wide committee in Casper aimed at reducing the drop-out rate in high school students. In developing our plan, we used a national study that identified more than 30 attributes in young people who stay in school. More than half of the identified attributes related to their sense of community engagement. The gist was that if students bond with their school and their community, they are more likely to stay in school, as well as less likely to engage in risky behaviors. The end result was the development of the Youth Empowerment Council (YEC) that was made up of students from the three high schools in Casper plus many of the middle schools. Today, the students interact with the city council and offer input on issues important to their peers. In addition, YEC members have helped develop a new skate park in Casper, plus sponsored numerous concerts to build awareness about teenage suicide, school bullying and the use of meth. Perhaps this might be one approach. — Pete

That's a great idea, Pete. It goes back to personal investment in identifying issues and being part of the solution. - Ann

It seems to me that with only a few exceptions we are producing a bunch of idea with no specific plans on how to make them successful (to actually get people to attend) If just having these activities and events were enough I don't think Bowling alone would be facing the problems it is, I think we need to have some focused thought and discussion of how to successfully implement these ideas. -Ben

We could ask the school system to intergrate the topic(idea) of community into the curriculum. Teachers could talk to students about the idea of community, inclusiveness, and participation. This topic should be part of the curriculum from the start --pre K or Kindergarten and it should continue through high school. If kids work together to build a better community, the adults may participate. And let's not forget about the 'tools" featured on the BetterTogether web site. That could help teachers start the conversation. Also we should look into how the traffic(infrastructure) allows for a sense of community. We should examine the flow of traffic, speed, etc.. We could suggest speed bumps, speed monitors and roundabouts to slow traffic and allow for more outdoor activities--walking, running, cycling, etc...---Terry

Take a look at this link-- --Terry Shortcut to: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30244952/

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