Case Study 6

Forums as Needs Assessments for Urban Sustainability

By Ramona Madhosingh-Hector and Lara Milligan

Pinellas County is the most densely populated county in Florida with 3,347 persons per square mile and a total of 937,000 people (U.S. Census 2020). It is a coastal county with 24 municipalities, making it complicated to address common issues such as land use planning, sea level rise, economic development, and sustainability. Since 2010, the county and its municipal partners have demonstrated varying degrees of engagement with urban sustainability issues. This case study focuses on two partnerships between Extension and Sustainability Coordinators: one in the City of Clearwater and the other in the City of Dunedin. As is often common, sustainability programs are managed by a staff of one and the relationships with UF/IFAS Extension provided additional capacity to support existing and emerging needs on urban sustainability issues (e.g., waste management, sustainability action plans, community engagement, water pollution).

Audience and Community

The City of Clearwater is a large urban center of 116,946 people while the City of Dunedin is a town of 36,537. The sustainability coordinators at both cities were interested in developing sustainability plans and both brought to their new positions (in 2019) a focus on waste management and recycling. Extension faculty had worked with sustainability coordinators in the past on more traditional Extension programs (i.e., Sustainable FloridiansSM), and the coordinators were aware of the educational and facilitation services available through Extension.

Sustainability coordinators stressed the importance of getting input from a representative population from their communities. Strategic efforts were implemented to reach Spanish-speaking and underserved residents.

CIVIC Activities

In 2018, significant changes to the recycling markets forced municipalities to rethink waste management programs. To address these concerns, Extension faculty offered to collaborate with sustainability coordinators to facilitate community conversations on waste reduction, pollution, and general sustainability. Based on previous community forums, the collaborators knew targeted efforts would be needed to reach diverse audiences and receive input that represented the entire community.

In Clearwater, the partners conducted two community forums focused on waste reduction. One forum was held at the Hispanic Outreach Center (HOC) and the other at the Martin Luther King Jr. Neighborhood Center (MLK Center). Participants were given a discussion framework tool describing possible actions surrounding waste reduction that would be discussed. While none of the issue guides from the National Issues Forum Institute were specific to waste reduction, Extension faculty worked with sustainability coordinators to adjust and adapt similar issue guides to ensure they reflected realistic and relevant options, actions, trade-offs, local data, and relevant images.

The programs began with a welcome and overview describing the objective of the program, which was to engage and foster dialogue about pollution, and to gain feedback about possible waste management improvements in the City of Clearwater. After establishing group agreements, the participants reviewed three broad options and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each. Participants reflected on the overall direction of the program, completed an evaluation, and received free tickets to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium as an incentive to attend.

In Dunedin, Extension faculty conducted waste reduction community discussions similar to those in Clearwater. After seeing the impacts of this type of community engagement, in 2021 the sustainability coordinator asked Extension faculty to facilitate a series of community forums to support Dunedin’s Resilient Environmental Action Master (DREAM) Plan.

The city staff wanted to hear residents’ goals, hopes, and dreams for a sustainable city. A total of nine community forums were scheduled over a three-month period at various times and days of the week. Forums were virtually conducted via Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which yielded fewer participants than anticipated. To hear from more residents, an online survey was developed with similar questions used in the virtual forum discussions. This survey provided an additional opportunity for constituents to provide input on DREAM and proved to be significantly more effective than the online forums. Over the nine virtual forums, 22 members engaged in discussion; an additional 198 people responded to the online survey. Similar responses were received from both the online forums and survey.

Outcomes

The opportunity to discuss local issues of interest enabled participants to contribute their ideas in an open, structured format without any social or political pressure. Given that many of the individuals who attended did not know each other but were interested in the same issue suggests an underlying connection everyone had about the topic. The group agreements and a neutral facilitator helped create a comfortable atmosphere for discussion. Additionally, each participant was not required to be an expert; their opinion was all that was required for participation. Working with community leaders to identify forum locations helped support the successful turnout of African Americans (50% of the participants at the MLK Center) and Hispanic/Latinx residents (80% of the HOC participants). Translators were made available at the HOC to ensure all participants could participate equally.

Following each forum, UF/IFAS Extension faculty provided a written report to the sustainability coordinators summarizing the process, the discussion, and the results of participant surveys, along with conclusions and recommendations. Utilizing this report, the City of Clearwater sustainability coordinator met with the city manager who expressed an interest in doing more outreach to the community, and budgeted funds to support those efforts. Both coordinators shared the report internally and referenced it in conversations with their community groups.

Conclusions

In general, the community forums were valuable strategies to connect the sustainability coordinators with residents and highlight ongoing projects. The forums were also valuable for UF/IFAS Extension as many residents were unfamiliar with the services offered. In some cases, the forums were strategies to engage residents in the planning process and served as a needs assessment. Unlike classroom learning, forum participants can truly engage on the topic, connect with others who feel strongly about the issue, and empower each other to become civically engaged. This collective, peer-to-peer learning network can be capitalized on by proactive partners with a view to increasing opportunities for action and engagement at the community level.

References

U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). QuickFacts Pinellas County, Florida. U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved May 30, 2023, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/pinellascountyflorida/RHI225221