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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Strategic Planning and Community Engagement Tool

Dewey & Kaye, in partnership with 3 Rivers Connect (3RC), recently completed an in-depth study of real estate development activity in Pittsburgh's Hill District. The Dewey & Kaye — 3RC research collaborative was tasked with answering the question, "What development activities are planned and/or underway in the Hill District and which organizations are driving those activities?"

To collect data on real estate development, our team engaged in over 25 interviews with local community leaders and stakeholders and also conducted an extensive literature review. Once we had gathered information on all of the current development projects, such as the purpose, the location and the organization responsible, we plotted each project onto a map of the Hill District and categorized projects based on their purpose. While our research began to paint a picture of real estate development in the Hill District, it lacked context. We wanted to better understand the community being affected by these development projects. How many people live there? What are their incomes? What is the availability of social services and where are they located? And finally, to what degree is crime an issue in the community and where are crimes occurring?

To answer these and other questions, we leveraged the extensive data resources of 3RC, producing maps illustrating the population, income, location of social services, occurrences of crime, and overall characteristics of distress present in the Hill District. Once complete, our research allowed us to identify several development trends present in the community, as well as draw some interesting conclusions about how development could impact other aspects of the community, notably the delivery of social services. Equally important, the full development picture prompted community members and other stakeholders to ask critical follow-up questions that would not have been possible prior to the compilation of the report. The full report is publicly available for download on the Dewey & Kaye website and can be accessed by clicking here.

While we recognize that not everyone has a specific interest in the Hill District, it is our hope that this research methodology can provide value to the Greater Pittsburgh community as a template for further studies. For instance, this same research question could be posed to other Pittsburgh neighborhoods in transition, such as East Liberty or Central Northside. Or it could address an entirely different question, such as mapping community assets, locating areas in greatest need of social services, or identifying the pressures or stressors facing a given community, such as gentrification, crime, housing supply or other factors.

Regardless of the research question, the value of this methodology is the ability to customize the process to meet a tailored informational need, combined with unparalleled access to data from a host of quantitative and qualitative sources. To learn more about this innovative project, or to discuss how this process can be tailored to meet your specific needs, contact Dewey & Kaye.

Shawn Sheridan specializes in nonprofit strategic business planning. Contact Shawn at ssheridan@deweykaye.com.