1. Establishing Neighborhood Beautification Programs

2. What do we mean by a neighborhood beautification program?
In simplest terms, neighborhood beautification means making a neighborhood look and feel better.
A neighborhood beautification program isn’t a single event, but rather a strategy to maintain, enhance, and/or change the character of your neighborhood over the long term.

3. Aspects to consider as to what might benefit from change
Cleanliness
Harmony and variety of buildings
The condition of individual buildings
Other unused or potentially dangerous sites
Greenery and plantings
Parks and other open space
The streetscape
Signage
Lighting
Traffic
Parking

4. Projects that a neighborhood can successfully complete independently
A neighborhood, park, or lot cleanup
Improvement of individual properties
Clearing trash and brush and/or building trails in a natural area
Painting over graffiti
Creating a mural or other artwork
Planting borders, trees, median strips, etc.

5. Employing Advocacy
Your program may need to employ advocacy to get what it needs. You might want to advocate for:
Help in realizing a neighborhood vision
Tax or other incentives to motivate developers and/or businesses to follow specific standards
New laws, regulations, or policies, or changes in existing ones
Cooperation or collaboration from neighborhood businesses or corporations or industries that operate in the neighborhood

6. Why establish a neighborhood beautification program?
A neighborhood beautification program can build neighborhood pride and ownership
It can improve the quality of life of the residents
It can help attract new residents
It can help attract new business
It can attract entertainment and culture
It can serve as the base for neighborhood revitalization

7. Neighborhood beautification can improve neighborhood and community health
It is a way to involve youth and other people who are often overlooked
It can build stronger neighborhood relationships
It can send a message to the rest of the community about the values of your neighborhood

8. Employing Advocacy
Your program may need to employ advocacy to get what it needs. You might want to advocate for:
Help in realizing a neighborhood vision
Tax or other incentives to motivate developers and/or businesses to follow specific standards
New laws, regulations, or policies, or changes in existing ones
Cooperation or collaboration from neighborhood businesses or corporations or industries that operate in the neighborhood

9. When should you establish a neighborhood beautification program?
When a neighborhood group acts as a spearhead
When the neighborhood has gone, or is in danger of going, downhill
When there’s a specific problem that needs to be tackled
When funding or other support is available
When there is a conjunction with a brownfields cleanup or similar effort
When there is a concurrence with other types of neighborhood improvement efforts

10. Who should be involved in establishing a neighborhood beautification program?
Homeowners.
Renters.
Landlords and property owners.
Business owners and managers.
Local officials including: neighborhood City Council representatives, state legislators, Board of Health members, etc.
Youth.
Specific populations defined by race, ethnicity, or other common denominator.
Neighborhood organizations. Possibilities include: neighborhood associations or councils, a neighborhood watch, block associations, and neighborhood youth groups.
Organizations and agencies that serve the neighborhood: a local hospital, the public library, health and human service organizations, cultural institutions.
Community services (planning, police and fire, garbage pickup, recycling, etc.)
Neighborhood faith communities.
Service clubs (Lions, Rotary, etc.)
Schools and other educational institutions.

11. How do you establish a neighborhood beautification program?
There are three phases to establishing a neighborhood beautification program:
Recruiting people to participate in the effort and to determine what needs to be done.
Planning for action, including developing a vision, setting short- and long-term goals, devising a strategy for meeting those goals, and developing an action plan (with a timeline) for each goal.
Presenting the plan to the neighborhood, getting approval, and implementing the first step.

12. Phase One: Recruiting neighborhood residents as leaders and participants
Recruit people to take the lead
Conduct outreach to neighborhood residents to inform them about and involve them in the effort
Go door-to-door and/or make presentations in public housing.
Visit homeless shelters, particularly family shelters.
Contact probation officers.
Work with schools, Scouts, clubs, gangs, etc. to get youth involved.
Make presentations to ethnic churches, service clubs, and organizations.
Contact ethnic businesses both through associations (e.g., Chamber of Commerce) and individually.

13. Phase Two: Developing a plan for neighborhood beautification
Assemble a participatory planning group
Conduct a neighborhood assessment
Develop a vision for the neighborhood
Develop goals
Develop an overall strategy to realize your goals and, ultimately, your vision
Develop an action plan for each goal
Develop a maintenance plan
Devise a way to monitor and evaluate your effort

14. Phase Three: Presenting the plan to the neighborhood, gaining approval, and implementing the first step
Present the plan to the neighborhood
Collect feedback
Incorporate feedback to the extent possible
Present the final plan and ask for neighborhood support
Implement the first stage of the plan
Start working on the next stage of the plan
Keep the program going for the life of the neighborhood

15. In Summary
A neighborhood beautification program should do more than just make the neighborhood look better. It can certainly produce a profound improvement in residents’ surroundings; but it can also lead to economic development, cultural opportunities, and the building of a truly inclusive community held together by a strong web of social capital. A neighborhood with those characteristics is more than a place to live: it’s home.