Hester Street worked with the Regional Plan Association (RPA) to guide meaningful and targeted community engagement for RPA’s Fourth Regional Plan (4RP). To ensure a relevant and effective 4RP, HST facilitated a series of conversations with RPA and representatives of community-based organizations from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to make sure recommendations in the 4RP address local concerns and priorities in key subjects such as housing and economic development, transportation and mobility and resiliency. RPA planners together with their community partners strategized about how local issues can be addressed by proposed regional solutions.
In collaboration with RPA and the feedback of community partner staff, HST facilitated three Strategy Sessions and three Solutions Meetings. Community partner staff and local member leaders took leadership on the design and implementation of local engagement, and solicited HST for technical support as needed in the development of engagement tools, data, maps and other materials to gather feedback in each of their communities.
These local engagements were carried out in 15 communities in the tri-state area including Poughkeepsie and Ossining, NY, and Norwalk, Ansonia and New Haven, CT.
