Habitat is in the Loop

HABITAT PARTICIPATES IN A PILOT PROGRAM CALLED FEEDBACK LOOP:

By: Melissa Adler, Community Outreach Development Associate, HFHS

“You are pioneers,” she tells a room of Habitat staff. “You are trying something that we want to implement nationwide.”  Rebecca Hix, Neighborhood Revitalization Director at Habitat for Humanity International, told us this during a rousing and inspirational talk at a training conference in Atlanta.

I couldn’t help but feel special. Habitat for Humanity of Springfield, MO is one of twelve affiliates taking part in a pilot program called Feedback Loop. I attended the training, along with Demita Gookin, who is a resident leader from our focus neighborhood Woodland Heights.

Feedback Loop is a way to survey residents that builds relationships and encourages engagement. Then it closes the loop by sharing feedback with residents. What are my neighbors saying? Do they feel the same way I do? Instead of one-way delivery of information (residents give opinions in a survey), Feedback Loop creates a two-way conversation by returning everyone’s responses to a public forum.

For this pilot prototype, Habitat affiliates are asked to conduct three community conversations. In the fall nearly 80 Woodland Heights residents completed a survey. A second conversation will take place later this month. Residents will suggest ideas for a community project and choose something that can be completed in six months.

By the end of the year, a third community conversation will ask residents if they feel more connected to each other. Connections and a sense of community are keys to the success of neighborhood revitalization.

For more information about Habitat for Humanity of Springfield, MO’s partnership with Woodland Heights, contact Melissa Adler at 417-829-4001 x 116.