BENTONVILLE -- A plan to engage the community in talks about how to improve Northwest Arkansas should focus on children, a group decided Thursday.
About 12 people -- consisting mostly of business representatives and School District officials -- gathered for the second time this year with Rich Harwood, president and founder of the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation in Bethesda, Md.
The Harwood Institute
The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation is a nonpartisan, independent nonprofit organization that teaches and coaches people and organizations to solve pressing problems and change how communities work together. The people the institute teaches, called public innovators, come from nonprofits, businesses, government, the media, and educational and religious organizations.
Source: TheHarwoodInstitute…
Wal-Mart invited Harwood to Bentonville to guide a process that eventually will involve dozens of community members. The institute plans to compile feedback from numerous group discussions in a report that will be presented to the community about 18 months from now, according to a timeline Harwood provided Thursday.
The process of collecting community members' input will start with asking them not what problems they see in the area but what their aspirations are, Harwood said.
"If we can start with people's aspirations, that creates a destination we're trying to create together," he said. "Americans are builders. So if you focus on your aspirations, we can start to build toward that. And then we can look at what are the challenges in the way of our aspirations."
The group met for the first time Jan. 29. During that meeting the group's focus shifted from primarily Bentonville to all of Northwest Arkansas. They discussed things they'd like to address, such as promoting an environment in which everyone has the opportunity to achieve their potential.
"We want to create the best region, not just the best community," Harwood said. "At the same time we said we need to start some place to make it more concrete."
Harwood asked the group Thursday to consider what area they could focus on that would give them the most traction in starting to build toward a model community. The consensus was kids.
"I just think to me, children is something we can get our head around and really get some quick wins, because there are clearly some opportunities there," said Greg Warren, vice president of diversity and inclusion at Wal-Mart.
Brent Leas, a School Board member, suggested the community conversations involve not only adults but kids as well.
The next steps, expected to occur between now and August, involve recruiting people from the community to participate in small-group conversations that would last about two hours. Certain people will be chosen and trained to be moderators and note-takers for those conversations, which will happen during the second half of this year. The institute will train and provide coaches for the moderators and note-takers.
Those who met Thursday agreed to meet again soon to determine additional details of the work ahead, such as defining what geographic area should be included in the process. They also agreed to meet once every few months after that.
The Rev. Roger Joslin, vicar at All Saints Episcopal Church, asked Harwood if the process he outlined has always worked in other communities the institute has visited.
It hasn't always worked, Harwood said. He added the institute has learned from past failures and evolved along the way.
"Through a lot of research, we've isolated the factors that allow communities to move forward," Harwood said. "Where this doesn't work is when communities try to skip over certain developmental stages."
NW News on 03/20/2015