Can you provide more detail on this process?
The process is usually used by a municipality to construct a central facility of a park, usually an all ages youth playground. The process typically follows these steps:
- The municipality determines a site for a project and determines that a Community Build may be a good approach to completing the project. This usually includes developing a master plan for the park that lays out what potentially could be built on the park grounds.
- The municipality reaches out to the community to see if there is interest in the community for a park community build project. Basically are residents and business owners willing to support a community build with their time, talents and financial support?
- Once community commitments are in place, the municipality works with a core group of volunteers create a Community Build Committee. This core group typically consists of 20 to 30 volunteers.
- The Community Build Committee, with funding help from the municipality, selects a consultant to help lead the design, fund raising, public relations/volunteer recruiting and construction process.
- With help from the Consultant and through successful volunteer recruiting the Committee adds members to form sub-committees, typically a design committee, public relations committee, fund raising committee and build (construction) committee.
- For youth playground projects, the Consultant typically holds a Design Day, where they enter the local elementary school(s) to solicit youth ideas on what should be in the park usually in the form of a ‘drawing contest’. The best, constructible ideas are then incorporated into the design.
- The Consultant works with the Committee to design the park project.
- The Consultant works with the Committee to help promote the park project and recruit volunteers.
- The Consultant works with the Committee to develop funding for the project, usually a combination of fundraising, grant monies, in kind donations, utilization of municipal staff and equipment, and some public funding.
- The Consultant works with the Committee to help organize and manage the construction phase. The Consultant provides a construction foreman during construction to help coordinate the volunteers who are building the park and to ensure it is constructed as designed.