Engagement Ready Roanoke

Title of Project: Engagement Ready Roanoke

Project Period: 2025

Locality: City of Roanoke, VA

Funding Source(s): American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA); City of Roanoke

Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs): David Moore, Associate Director for Strategic Partnerships, VTIPG; Brad Stephens, PhD student and Graduate Research Assistant, VTIPG

Co-Investigators: Max Stephenson, Director, VTIPG; Lara Nagle, Community-based Research Manager, VTIPG; Andy Morikawa, Senior Fellow, VTIPG; Marcy Schnitzer, Senior Fellow, VTIPG; Amin Farzaneh, PhD student and Graduate Research Assistant, VTIPG

Key Community Partners: Molly Hunter, Neighborhood Services Coordinator, City of Roanoke Office of Neighborhood Services; Helen Ferguson, Strategic Coordinator, City Manager’s Office

Description of Project:

VTIPG and the City of Roanoke will provide nonprofit and local government capacity-building programs in order to help create a thriving community where collaborative efforts lead to more effective public and civil society programs and enhanced democratic processes.

Led by a cross-sector steering committee, the project will begin with listening sessions with key stakeholders to foster the development of a supportive ecosystem for increased collaboration. These sessions will inform the subsequent design and delivery of two tracks of capacity building efforts, one for nonprofits and community-based organizations to position them for success in accomplishing their missions and organizational development and a second to inform and refine Roanoke’s approach to community-engaged and community-responsive program development.

Project Goals:

• Enhance the potential for effective and sustainable cross-sector collaborations in Roanoke by generating the necessary conditions essential to do so, including:
  • Trust – In order to accept the vulnerability inherent in collaboration and to navigate uncertainty, participants must manifest a degree of trust in one another.
  • Leadership Support - Both formal and informal leaders engaged in a collaboration must go beyond merely consenting to the arrangement to support its success actively.
  • Valuing Collaboration – All participants in collaboration must have a strong understanding of the benefits that can be gained by successful achievement.
  • Structured Communication – Collaborative partners must invest the necessary time and resources to secure consistent and effective communication.
  • Organizational and Individual Capacities and Competencies – The partners must have the skills and abilities necessary to contribute meaningfully to the process for it to succeed, including a groundwork in community engagement methods and best practices.
• This project aims to provide Roanoke’s Office of Neighborhood Services with wherewithal and curricular infrastructure to offer annual capacity building programs to City government and nonprofit community entities.

Project Materials:

Engagement Ready Roanoke Website: https://roanoke-va.civilspace.io/en/projects/engagement-ready-roanoke