Funding Program

We will conduct outreach and encourage more community involvement threw NC Events and Community Improvement projects. We will reach out to our councilperson and alert him/her to the concerns of our stakeholders in order to act in a timely manner. We will strengthen and utilize the talents and expertise of our board members in order to maximize the productivity of our council.

1.    We will collaborate with the local business community and the residents, as well as non-English speakers by:
•    Including a second language options to our stakeholder meeting agendas, outreach material and providing translation service’s as needed to generate more community interest and involvement.
•    Emphasis on our local business community and help promote in our economic development.
•    We will include in our newsletter important City contact information and public notice announcements.

2.    Emphasize work with youth in order to look to the future of the neighborhood council movement. Opportunities include:
•    Encourage youth to participate in stakeholder meetings in order to give them experience in the field of city government. Reach out and encourage youth to speak and ask questions at our meetings. 
•    Identify and describe local volunteer opportunities of special interest to youth
•    Promote youth career development by participating in local job fairs
•    Motivate, encourage and educate youth to become more involved with local government,

3.    We will place great importance on identifying key topics of interest of our community and develop and implement programs and activities to address them. At this time, we recognize the following as important issues to be addressed in our community:
•    Small business viability
•    Improved streets and sidewalks
•    Improved local parks
•    Community appearance and cleanliness
•    Public safety 
•    Housing and homelessness
•    Environmental sustainability
•    Transportation                                   

4.    We will work to develop strategic partnerships with key local organizations in order to leverage our collective resources for community engagement and improvement. We will endeavor to maintain a liaison between our organization and others, and prioritize a neighborhood council presence at local community events. We will contribute as a sponsor to others’ events in return for significant community exposure, and endeavor to purchase needed supplies and services from within our community. Key community partners include:
•    Other Harbor Area neighborhood councils, including HANC - the Harbor Alliance of Neighborhood Councils, NCBA Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates
•    The San Pedro Chamber of Commerce and our local merchants 
•    The San Pedro Historic Waterfront Business Improvement District, aka the PBID
•    San Pedro Waterfront Arts District
•    Grand Vision Foundation
•    Non-profits working to end homelessness
•    Faith-based organizations

5.    We will work to strengthen our relationship with our City Councilperson, his staff, and other city departments. Towards this end, we will strive to:
•    Create clear lines of communication
•    Follow up promptly and thoroughly with all communications
•    Strive for civility, cordiality and respect in all conversations
•    Provide notice of topics we are interested in hearing about in advance of our stakeholder meetings, in order to enable city staff to respond effectively in a timely manner

6.    We will utilize the talents, expertise and volunteer time of our board membership to the fullest extent possible. We will:
•    Through general efforts of our Outreach Committee
•    Provide volunteer support for our community partners
•    Share board member and committee expertise with the community through committee activities, community events, and other outreach opportunities
•    Emphasize cordial and effective relationships between board members, and minimize extended dialogue on personal (as opposed to agendized) matters at our stakeholder meetings

7.    We will maintain a high level of visibility of and accessibility within the community through our NC Website and all of our NC Social Media Pages. Which will include:
•    A broad range of topical and timely community information
•    A thorough explanation of the mission and goals of neighborhood councils in general
•    A regular monthly (rotating) poll of the community on items of special interest with interactive online surveys, in order to take the pulse of a broad range of community opinion
•    A regular posting of volunteer opportunities
•    A community calendar of special events

8.    Actively search for opportunities to carry out community improvement projects with board funds, active board members and community volunteers. Such opportunities might include:
•    Community clean ups in parks, streets or other public properties
•    Tree plantings and other landscape work
•    Minor repairs within the scope of volunteer labor

9.    We will endeavor to maintain an informed, trained, dedicated and engaged neighborhood council board by doing the following:
•    Maintain a full rostrum of seated members, promptly filling seat when it becomes vacant
•    Closely monitor board member compliance with required trainings
•    Maintain the highest ethical and fiduciary standards, avoiding even the appearance of conflicts of interest
•    Respect the time of board members by running efficient and effective stakeholder and committee meetings, encouraging committee work to be done in committee rather than utilizing time ineffectively at our monthly stakeholder meetings
•    Encourage committees to report in writing and in advance of our stakeholder meetings in order to fully inform the board of pending actions in a timely and effective manner.
•    Keeping and posting of all committee minutes on our NC website to maintain the transparency of our NC. 

1 – 3.) The challenge is that we tend to simply respond to what comes to us, often through local lobbying efforts. The solution is to more pro-actively “think outside the box” about what the greater community may be interested in, or need (rather than waiting for them to come to us).

4-5.) The challenge is that these community partners are not necessarily making a similar effort to reach out to us. The solution is to be tenacious, and to consider their mission and focus as we try to mutually make a difference in topics that our community partners care about.

6,8.) The challenge is that our board members are stretched pretty thin with all of the meetings and obligations of board membership and personal obligations. The solution is to engage more stakeholders, who are not board members, in committee activity. We should seek out local experts in various fields and ask them to chair a committee of our neighborhood council, bringing their friends and working groups with them. We will reach out to other community organization and non-profits to collaborate in community activities and events in order not not “Burn out” our NC board members. The challenge is the cost of making physical improvements. The solutions include using more volunteer labor, seeking donations of materials from local partners, and actually partnering with other agencies to make things happen.

7.) We can only do so much to be as transparent as possible but, we will make it a priority to give as much information as we have and we will go over and beyond if needed. In regards to our website the challenge is that building website content is labor intensive. Our administrative assistant should not be doing all of the work to generate content. The solution is to encourage and empower board members to generate content in their area of interest, and continually remind them that they can author short or long “hot topics” or “articles” that we will then post on our website.

9.) The challenge keeping “On top of it”, we will appoint a member to keep track and remind members of their duties.