You will now use the information you have gathered to determine community priorities. You can either plan for a separate standalone event or fold this into your initial engagement as the second portion of the session after the Community Perceptions Activity. This decision will be a factor of your team’s time and capacity, community member’s ability and interest for multiple sessions and how much time you need for each discussion. You already have two sources that should inform this activity:
- Tree Equity Score Exercise
- Community Perceptions Exercise
If you have other sources of information like interactive data tools, community plans or input from past community meetings feel free to use them as well.
Determine Community Priorities Exercise
Instructions: Use the table below to rate the priority level of topic areas identified by community members. You can begin sourcing this information from the common themes identified in the previous activity. It is recommended that you limit your priorities to five or less. It is easy to fall into the habit of making everything the highest priority at the risk of overextending yourself and losing focus. In this approach, you will first choose the five highest community priorities and name them in the left column of the table below. Do not worry about their order. Then, amongst those chosen priorities, you will rank each on a 1—5 scale of importance to the community. Use each number only once.
Access a downloadable version of this exercise. Determine Community Priorities Exercise
When complete, you will have the five (or less) priority areas that are most important to the community. This information will inform your steps in Phase 4 of this guide to develop goals and actions.