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 Overview & Introduction

The City of Eugene has hired Jeanne Lawson Associates, Inc. (JLA), a public involvement consulting firm, to provide an assessment of the neighborhood services program. JLA will build on the Neighborhood Empowerment Action Plan and the Neighborhood Summit results by collecting input from the broad community, neighborhood associations and city staff.

JLA will also research exemplary programs across the country in an effort to make recommendations to the City for appropriate programmatic changes and staff resources that better support the goals and objectives of the Neighborhood Empowerment Initiative. The recommended changes will focus on opportunities to better serve the needs of neighborhood associations, creating efficiencies and streamlining operations.

In order to provide guidance to the consultant team, a steering committee made up of four neighborhood representatives and four City of Eugene staff representatives will meet up to five times during the course of the project.

Three focus areas are detailed below that will be the framework for the project scope of work and specific tasks to be performed by JLA.

Focus Area 1 - Internal & External Assessment

JLA will research and review Neighborhood Services programs and public information materials and conduct a stakeholder assessment utilizing the following tools:

• Interview Neighborhood services staff.
• Interview Staff from other city departments, including the City Manager, Planning & Development, Public Works, Parks & Recreation, Library & Cultural, and Police.
• Interview 5 Neighborhood Leaders
• Interview 5 Neighborhood Board members
• Interview 5 Neighborhood General members
• Attend 3 Neighborhood meetings
• Conduct 5 community sidewalk surveys
• Canvass neighborhoods with low participation rates
• Host an online survey
• Conduct up to two (2) interviews with UO community relations director (Greg Rikhoff)

Focus Area 2 – Catalog of successful neighborhood programs

JLA will research and develop a “Best Programs/Practices” catalog for recommendations on new programming, communication/outreach and education tools for Neighborhood Services.

Focus Area 3 – Report of Recommendations and Findings

JLA will work closely with the Steering Committee to submit a draft report for public comment and a final report for public presentations. The draft report will include recommendations addressing programming, structure, staffing, organization and performance measures for the Neighborhood Service Program. The report will also summarize what was heard by the consultant team through the internal and external assessment process.