Communities are often faced with the challenge of evaluating the impacts of development opportunities. More than that, communities must decide what is important (creating jobs, earning revenue, plugging leaks in the local economy) and how to balance these competing demands.
This model provides a simple illustration of a model to do just that. In this scenario, a community has come up with three investment options:
- Start a Green building company
- Create a landscaping company
- Invest in job skills training
Success will be measured by the number of jobs created, the amount of annual revenue and the number of community members receiving job training. By changing assumptions about how much revenue and how many jobs are generated by each option, the community can see the impact on goals.
More importantly, the model surfaces the goals for discussion. Community members are forced to consider the relative importance of each goal, the balance between the goals and also the assumptions behind the enterprise options.
Note: click on the image to load the interactive model (wordpress.com will not embed Flash)
Constructive Public Engagement 