Community Action Roadmap: Resources
Setting a Timeline for Your Roadmap
The timeframe for each step in the Roadmap process will vary, depending on your goals. In some instances, there may be external deadlines your community must respond to, such as an established timeframe for a public comment period. These deadlines can create the need for an accelerated timeframe. (This could be as short as a month or two!)
In other cases, your community may be able to set its own goals for timing that respond to the scope of desired community engagement and partnership building. The more partners you are trying to engage, or the more complex the topic or ambitious your goal, the more extended the timeframe will need to be. For short, discrete projects, such as an established community-port partnership to distribute information about air quality to community residents, the timeframe for moving through the Roadmap could be three to six months. For larger efforts, such as a broad-based community visioning and implementation effort, the timeframe could be extended to one to two years.
In any scenario, it is a good idea to set target deadlines for each step of the process. This can help build momentum and generate enthusiasm and a sense of accomplishment for you and your partners along the way.
Measuring Success
One way to track success over time is to establish measures of success at the outset of a project. You may wish to develop metrics (qualitative and quantitative) for (1) your process and organizational capacity (e.g., engaged five new partners) and (2) environmental and/or quality of life improvements (e.g., air quality measures).
The following resources provide additional considerations for establishing and tracking performance metrics:
- Measurement Tips and Resources for Community Projects (EPA CARE Program) (PDF)(7 pp, 408 K)
- Evaluation Metrics Manual: Chapter 6 - Capacity Building (National Institutes of Health) (PDF)(149 pp, 1.9 MB)
Using FOIA
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law that gives you the right to access information from the federal government. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government. FOIA requests can be used to gain access to government records that are not routinely made available to or easily accessible by the public. For more information on FOIA and how to make a FOIA request:
Community Resource Publications
The following chart contains resources on additional subjects that may be of interest to near-port communities, including community engagement, collaborative problem-solving, land use and equitable development. Additional resources that pertain directly to port operations and impacts can be found in the Ports Primer for Communities.
| Resource | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CARE Roadmap: A 10-Step Plan to Improve Community Environment and Health (PDF)(14 pp, 612 K) | EPA | A tool to help communities identify, prioritize, and address environmental health risks. |
| Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities: Strategies for Advancing Smart Growth, Environmental Justice, and Equitable Development | EPA | Principles and approaches for promoting equitable, sustainable development. |
| Developing Effective Coalitions: An Eight Step Guide | Prevention Institute | A step-by-step guide to coalition-building. |
| Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model (PDF)(44 pp, 1.3 MB, EPA-300-R-06-002) | EPA | A handbook explaining how to use the Collaborative Problem-Solving Model to address environmental issues in distressed communities. |
| Environmental Justice: Key Resources for Building a Community of Practice for Local Use Planning (PDF)(26 pp, 1.2 MB, EPA-231-F-14-003) | EPA | Resources to inform the land use planning process, promote a collaborative decision-making process and support environmental justice. |
| Local Government Advisory Committee’s EJ Best Practices for Local Government (PDF)(46 pp, 7.6 MB) | EPA | Explores environmental injustice challenges faced in a local government context and offers best practices for advancing environmental justice. |
| Public Participation Spectrum (PDF)(1 pg, 755 K) | International Association of Public Participation | A framework for setting expectations and understanding the impact of various types of public participation. |
| A Sustainability Workbook for Environmental Justice Communities (PDF)(59 pp, 1.6 MB) | EPA | Workbook for using a Collaborative Problem-Solving approach to tackle tough environmental issues in disadvantaged communities. |