What If
Planning Smarter
These and other recent projects represent an approach to planning
and community development that is more integrative and participatory
in nature. At the core of the strategy is the recognition that
sharing resources is often smarter than duplicating resources
and that working together can produce greater gains than working
in isolation.
The evolution of a more integrative and efficient community-based
planning strategy opens up significant opportunities for maximizing
the resources of the community as a whole. Imagine the educational,
social, environmental and financial benefits of the case studies
presented if these ideas were implemented in districts and cities
throughout the state. Imagine the efficiency that could be created
in a community where all of its assets are integrated. Imagine
the impact if all of the community's physical, cultural, social,
economic, organizational and educational resources could be planned
together in a way that maximizes the collaborative benefits of
each. Over the past ten years, architects have been developing
and implementing a technique for integrating community resources
called the Concordia model, where all community assets are organized
into six interdependent environments.
The first of these environments contains the community's physical
resources that encompass the total of the community's built and
natural assets. These assets include all of the community's buildings,
bridges, highways and telecommunications infrastructure as well
as natural resources like parks and other outdoor recreation areas.
The second component of the interdependent community system encompasses
the community's cultural resources. Included in this category
are programs and artifacts related to the expression of individual
and communal values and aesthetics.
The third component encompasses social resources that include
a wide spectrum of the health and human resource assets required
to maintain a healthy community infrastructure.
The fourth component of the total community system is the economic
environment. Represented here are programs and activities related
to business and commerce. Included are activities ranging from
regional and local economic development programs to innovations
and initiatives developed by private entrepreneurs.
The fifth category of community assets encompasses organizational
resources. Included in this category are the various components
of community governance, including the school board, city and
county boards of supervisors, Rotary Club, Lions Club and a myriad
of other civic organizations. This category identifies how decisions
made on behalf of the community-at-large are developed, deliberated
and implemented.
The sixth component includes all of the community's educational
resources, encompassing a wide variety of learning assets. Included
in this category are all Pre-k to 12, community college and university
educational delivery systems. Also included in this comprehensive
category are all of the community's civil service training and
skills development programs along with similar programs in the
private sector.
These six resources include a wide cross-section of the community's
most vital learning and living assets. Although they can be seen
as independent components of every community system, it is the
quality of their interaction that can contribute to the community's
overall health and well being. In the best scenario, educational
information interacts with economic information, cultural and
social data, and other available data to the point where all interactions
are linked in a contiguous living web of interactive data and
knowledge. When this web has been achieved, the community's assets
can be said to be working in concord. In this context, our current
community learning and living malaise can be seen as a kind of
congenital disease that blocks the flow of information between
each of the community's vital organs. When the system is functioning
to its maximum advantage, the parts support the collective whole
and the collective whole likewise nourishes all of its various
parts.
But in order to succeed, the development, celebration and integration
of these diverse community assets must be in tune with the heartbeat
of the community organism. It is for this reason that the planning
and implementation of these collaborative ideas must be developed
through the creative input of a wide range of community stakeholders.
The noted progressive educator John Dewey said that we need not
only education in democracy, but also democracy in education.
The planning and design of a more integrated and ubiquitous learning
community provides an opportunity to engage students, parents,
educators and a wide variety of community stakeholders in decisions
that benefit all aspects of the community's health and well being.
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