The Complete List
A Report Team of citizen volunteers spent weeks sifting through the hundreds of ideas submitted in each Envision category, then used an affinity analysis process to organize the ideas into related groupings - 44 in all. This is the complete list of Community Engagement ideas. For the Vision Guide, the Report Team combined and restated the groupings, and selected ideas that inspired interest and action (see also Current Problems and Other Issues).
Neighborhood Groups & Organizations
- Copy Seattle's approach to getting neighborhoods involved [4]
- Create more neighborhood groups (ala Minneapolis neighborhood group model) encourage more neighbor to neighbor activities [2]
- Increased use of neighborhood groups - Watches, Welcome Wagons, child care pools, etc [2]
- Encourage neighborhood groups to get to know police / fire personnel and vice versa
- Provide leadership to neighborhood associations and encourage individual leadership
- If there is an area that is without a local group organized, the city should take the responsibility of at least welcoming new residents and helping them make one or two connections in their neighborhood.
Neighborhood Activities
- Golden Valley would be known by individual neighborhoods, such as North Tyrol, etc. Each neighborhood would develop a contest to determine its name. [3]
- Each neighborhood (or city ward or quadrant) has an annual gathering in one of the neighborhood parks. These gatherings could include food, music, activities paid for via donations and attendance fees. (Annual event supported by the city.) [2]
- Encourage neighborhood meetings to support the council. Make them regular and give them important issues to tackle. [2]
- Ways to link businesses to community; determine common needs / interests
- Monthly seminars for neighborhood leadership - provide resources
- Neighborhoods divided into "Areas," in which perhaps once a month, or four times a year, there is an Area 1/Area 2/ Area 3, etc focus meeting at someone's house. This would be great way to focus on neighborhood issues, get consensus, and actively address concerns - rather than a city council meeting free-for-all.
Multi-Cultural
- Focus on welcoming diversity
- Stated goal / vision for multiculturalism: 1) embrace diversity, 2) create an inclusive community, 3) develop ways to connect folks who have diverse backgrounds
- Sharing the dream to promote inclusivity with multi-cultural community
- Emphasize diversity (efforts to get other cultures represented in Golden Valley)
- City organized means for providing opportunities for all residents (and especially between diverse cultures) to get to know one another
- Celebrate our extended community and its diversity by convening with St Louis Park residents and North Minneapolis residents at an annual parade or music festival through Wirth Park.
- Intercultural bazaars
- Sponsor activities that celebrate our diversity
- Events with neighboring communities
- But if you want to think small and think Golden Valley residents only, we could create our own preferred Golden Valley citizen club in which local Golden Valley businesses would give discounts or incentive to locals just because were Golden Valley citizens.
- Encourage community gathering, provide ideas to groups
- Have frequent, topic-specific focus groups and invite a variety of residents.
- Better utilize / engage with faith community
Relationships
- Community engagement for younger people (Teen nights, sports, art, school support, youth and adult theatre)
- Bridge Golden Valley's 3 different school communities (through service projects)
- Encourage and support youth engagement in the community
- Establish a Brokerage for youth activities and have a Golden Valley Recognition for non-sport youth activities.
- Link between schools and community - empower and engage youth in the community via jobs, volunteer activities, civic and commercial. Don't just keep them busy or entertained and out of trouble. Tap their brains / creative ideas and problem solving abilities.
- Develop links between schools and the community, between young and old.
- All community engagement is important, and needs to be promoted from a grass roots standpoint. [2]
- More intergenerational events
- Have follow-up committees to involve these and other interested people of all ages.
- Make sure community efforts continue to reach a diverse group of new families, established residents, and empty nesters.
- As we engage and empower youth, don't forget that the majority of the population which is middle-aged and aging.
- Schools should encourage parent participation by getting it started instead of waiting around for it to happen.
- Youth empowerment
- More child-focused opportunities
- Planning committees
- Encourage youth interest in lifelong community involvement
- Promoting intergenerational interaction
Supporting Needs
- Encourage a community-wide commitment to 2 or 3 segments of the Golden Valley population (like neighborhood in Boston supported care for the elderly in their own homes); half-way house, or elderly, or at-risk youth or any few groups and focus heavily on Golden Valley committees etc. getting involved, especially young people.
- Support partnerships between Golden Valley residents and residents of retirement home, Courage Center [2]
- Support Trevilla residents
- A food shelf - run by the community for its resident's needs
- Promote "Make A Difference Day" within Golden Valley - service and assistance to elderly, infirm, disabled, - newspaper, cable station
- Engage single parents as a group with needs.
- Support high-quality child care... so that working residents with young children have good choices to make.
- More support, variety for seniors
- A city known for great attention to family and health issues
- More activities for seniors Examples armchair travel (large gather place, small fee, local seniors provide dinner), variety show
- Engage disabled members of the community, enhance physical facilities
Technology / Communication
- Community kiosk with community information and recreation opportunities, bulletin boards, volunteer opportunities
- Ways to engage city staff and government with resident
- Establish email network for sharing news and services [2]
- Golden Valley provides group email through city's domain
- Email community link to non-resident employees
- City keeps roster of community groups, provides this information to new residents.
- Have meetings of all city and other committees in various locations, move around. Can the City Council meet at Piazza's one month, Spirit of Hope Methodist Church the next? Move around, get people interested.
Private Promotion
- Welcome Wagon [4]
- Community network for sharing expertise in gardening
- Golden Valley must work on the concept of community. For example, if I live in Golden Valley and work in downtown Minneapolis, which do I identify with? Where do I go for entertainment, restaurants? What city do I list in my return address: Minneapolis or Golden Valley?
- An on-going welcoming program for new residents providing at residence presentation of city map, city coffee mug, city program description materials, etc, by Golden Valley police officers
- Formalize neighborhood identity
- Golden Valley has to work to attract the attention of even its own citizens.
Public Promotion
- Promote "Golden Valley Identity" with our KARE 11 [2]
- Create identity for the community (such as "Green Space Capital of the Twin Cities" or "Ethnic Food Capital of the West Metro")
- Entrance monument/signage (not the tiny highway signs) at our major entrances (not just freeways and highways), see: St. Louis Park, Prior Lake for example [2]
- Welcoming signs as you enter Golden Valley (more identity)
- A reader board or gateway sign welcoming those who enter its limits and also flashing information of current activities
- Efforts like this "envision" process are great
- Perpich Center becomes a cultural gathering place
- Develop city strategies to promote and realize "location, specific community engagement."
- Being able to view and participate in Council meetings via the internet
- Encourage citizens and businesses to use Golden Valley as their primary address
- Provide incentives to use Golden Valley as primary address
- Find a dynamic leader to champion Golden Valley city spirit
- More communication with Perpich Center
- Golden Valley has to market itself as if it were a product. Perhaps the Golden Valley Council would like to try to describe and define what kind of product Golden Valley is or could be.
- Take advantage of the Minneapolis offerings rather than trying to compete with them.
- Establish an Internet community engagement bulletin Board.
- A short commercial promoting Golden Valley
- Public TV specifically for Golden Valley
- Public electronic bulletin board for events
- Engage local businesses to partner with Golden Valley
- More collaboration with sister cities (Crystal, New Hope, St Louis Park) - reciprocity
- Host metro events to encourage others to "discover" Golden Valley
Other
- Engage non-resident employees in various ways [2]
- Survey how many current businesses use Minneapolis instead of Golden Valley in their address.
- Use utility bills to promote community engagement.
- Pictorial business guide with special offers
- Define a focal point (mascot or other) that all members of the community can identify with for the purpose of generating and maintaining public ownership and pride
- There seems to be a decreasing overlap between those who work in Golden Valley and those who live in Golden Valley.
- Need identity (like "Halloween Capital of World") for community fair or picnic
Community Supporting
- Food co-op located in Golden Valley [3]
- A community square to allow for a farmer's market (year round, both indoor and outdoor)
- Establish a farmers market [2]
- Community gardens and garden tour [2]
- The owner of the ugly Golden Valley shopping center could at least add huge pots of plants and flowers.
- An attractive downtown for folks to identity with in the city
- Co-op (complete) Grocery/Deli/Coffee house for performances
- Neighborhood bartering co-op
Community Engaging
- Gathering place with community theater, music, arts, parks, restaurants, amphitheater etc) [6]
- Develop community gathering points (arts, theater, pool) [5]
- Gathering place with community swimming pool [5]
- Cultural center with classes, events, and educate about cultures (maybe more of a community center) [3]
- Provide more chemical-free gathering places, especially for youth. [3]
- Use 40 open acres at 169 and 55 as a community gathering green space
- Location specific (community engagement)
- Community Center for all ages (possibly at Winnetka and Highway 55)
- Use Perpich for community connection
- Use parks (Wirth and Golden Valley parks) to link the community (annual celebrations, fireworks, bandstand, out door amphitheater)
- Spaces where both seniors and children connect and have recreational activities
- Develop a community center - with residents in mind - as a place to gather for recreation and arts.
- Create a city center: a place to celebrate cultures and art; a place to invite cultures, cross-generational place to gather; auditorium/stage; constant flow throughout the year of events and gatherings.
- Stage
- City strategies to promote and realize "location specific community engagement" (e.g., city parks and facilities designed for community) [3]
- Youth hostel [2]
- Better out door concert facilities and promotion [2]
- "Mini-parks" to encourage neighbors to gather
- A wading pool
- By encouraging interaction and a rec center or entertainment venues, more people will get to know each other and be more active.
- Build a playhouse / concert hall
- Public gathering places that invite people in with areas to sit, lots of outdoor cafes, better and more fountains than the one we have.
- A place for sharing personal talents like cooking, events
- A public place for concerts (small groups)
- Increase shared year-round "green" space for community gatherings
- Several winter friendly and child welcoming community gathering points
- More reciprocity between abutting communities / theatre, pool, etc
- Playgrounds
- Ice arena
Pedestrian Friendly
- Cross country skiing
- Consider elevated walkway to marry areas of downtown and citizens.
- Our Golden Valley city center can grow and become more pedestrian friendly.
- Sidewalk design to promote gathering
- Continue to develop opportunities to engage others in pedestrian-oriented downtown area.
Engaging Events
- Festivals - including Lilac Festival [4]
- Art / sports [3]
- An art fair of sorts, with food and music maybe hold in Brookview Park (or Perpich Center) a one or two day affair [2]
- Establish a Golden Valley Book Club [2]
- Appealing/meaningful/variety of community center programs - arts, music, concerts, noontime activities, etc.
- Marathons
- Kids walking
- Summer park/rec leadership on healthful lifestyles
- Parades - also recreate Lilac parade [5]
- Big/Main community event (parade, fireworks, food, annual celebration of some sort like Robbinsdale and New Hope have) - use collaboration - more groups to make it happen [3]
- Community events [3]
- Golden Valley Art Fair [2]
- Fireworks on the 4th of July [2]
- A weekly free music series in the summer might help bring people out and build a sense of community. [2]
- Annual awards for gardens and home decorations, perhaps in conjunction with an architectural tour [2]
- Holiday celebrations
- 4th of July picnics
- Neighborhood floats in a parade
- Other events, both formal and informal
- More city get-togethers
- Revive ice cream social
- Special events
- City sponsored / coordinated public events like - street dances - at the commons
- An activity each season, city-wide
- Create summer and winter community events such as parades, bonfire festival with night cross country skiing
- School parades / a big city festival like Hopkins and New Hope
- We really should have a community "carnival" or street dance with fireworks.
- Work parties
- A community celebration or open house where local groups would provide information may interest younger people in groups.
- A city known for significant and regular cultural events / attractions
- Each neighborhood would host an annual community event supported by the city
- More arts activities
- Out door movies in the parks at dusk in the summer
- Partner with music departments from high school, colleges to provide summer concerts
- A band booster group in the high schools and junior highs would promote the bands and orchestra which take second place to sports
- More venues for music, gatherings, theater, etc. Leverage existing resources to create these opportunities.
- Music events - bands / orchestra performances with holidays, etc
- Civic music groups
- Promote national night out - or similar activities
- Activities that build neighborhoods
- Provide worthwhile, entertaining or interesting events
- New ways of people engagement - festivals, neighborhood activities
- Bike tours of Golden Valley (or tours)
- Encourage people to get out (to parks, on trails, etc)
- More town meetings
- Public art, sculpture, and varied landscaping for all seasons
Individual Volunteers
- Formalize volunteer coordination for various efforts, including beautification (artwork, plantings, etc) [2]
- Schools should encourage the participation of all citizens, including older adults for volunteering, tutoring, etc. [2]
- Create a Golden Valley volunteer coordinator position, volunteer hub
- The city could work as a hub to link a need with a group of willing volunteers.
- Community groups could work to support their local schools, volunteer to help with grounds maintenance, volunteer to tutor kids, etc.
- People are drawn to volunteer
- Create a community project menu for volunteers to tackle
- Beautify the city with volunteers. Let's get creative! Let's have a Golden Valley filled with yellow daffodils in public places that will draw visitors. Could add yellow mums for fall, but let's get going with a spring explosion of color.
- People could volunteer time to clean up the city or maintain parks or at least their general neighborhood, organized by the city.
- A city known for its volunteerism at all ages
Institutional Volunteers
- Engagement opportunities to volunteer or join civic / service class, Historical Society, Rotary, Optimists, Kiwanis [4]
- Tap and focus Breck's commitment to community service within the Golden Valley community [2]
- A strong, recognized volunteer corps
- Expand internship opportunities between Breck students and Golden Valley employers and organizations
- More civic and service clubs