Table of Contents
1. Program Overview
2. Government Leaders
Speak About the Program
3. Workbook Introduction
4. Workbook
Table of Contents
5. Workbook Sample Action
6. Newspaper Articles
about Livable
Neighborhood Program
7. Order
Livable Neighborhood
workbook

Program Overview

Why A Livable Neighborhood Program?

Much has been written about neighborhoods as the organizing principle in community development. This is where concerns about quality of life are tangible and a sense of pride is easily established. As a consequence, initiatives designed to work at the neighborhood level have great potential to capture peoples’ imagination and sustain participation. Neighborhood initiatives are also attractive because they awaken a sense of community.

The Livable Neighborhood Program is designed to coalesce these different strands into an effective neighborhood empowerment tool to assist local government and non-profits in delivering services and improving the overall livability of the community. The program concept is simple and builds directly on Empowerment Institute's two decades of experience in designing and delivering citizen and neighborhood empowerment programs for municipalities throughout the United States.

About Making Life Better on the Street Where You Live...

This program uses the mysterious power of numbers. If you think about it, community "social problems" are caused by a lot of little causes. These causes add up to big effects that are too large for us to manage alone. When we work together, however, things change. The greater our cooperation, the greater the impact of our efforts. This is a formula for taking the leverage away from problems and giving it to people, one neighborhood at a time.

While the Livable Neighborhood Program will help communities fix what’s broken at the grassroots level, more than that it will help neighbors create their neighborhood into the kind of place they’d like it to be.

Too often, neighborhoods wait for the appropriate government agency to show up and fix what ails them. Meanwhile, government at every level is being stressed because we the people demand that more be done with less. The backbone of the Livable Neighborhood Program is a detailed menu of actions that everyone can take in any neighborhood setting — urban, suburban or rural. Its purpose is to help citizens take the steps they can on their own while at the same time interacting with local government as efficiently as possible. It is designed so that any level of activity will produce benefits, but also so that success snowballs. Clearly, the ideal situation combines energetic grassroots initiative with strong partnerships with government, community service organizations and businesses.

It is the premise of this program that livable neighborhoods come from we the people. The kind of neighborhood we all want to live in has an endless number of potential supporters and partners, because everyone benefits from them. But the primary responsibility for creating them rests with neighbors.

The driver of the program is Empowerment Institute’s state-of-the-art knowledge of what it takes to motivate group action. The secret: clear incentive, immediate reward. This proven methodology incorporates a structured format linking grassroots effort with government services and civic and business leadership. It’s easy to implement. It’s enjoyable to take part in. Neighborhoods that follow the simple instructions will become: safer, healthier, quieter, prettier, friendlier, more entertaining, more economical, better places to raise kids and kinder to the environment.


How The Program Works

  1. The program is divided into four topic areas: health and safety, beautification and greening, resource sharing and neighborhood-building.
  2. Neighbors form a team and meet five times, approximately every 2 weeks taking actions to improve the livability of their neighborhood. Some actions will be done in this timeframe, others will extend into the future.
  3. In each topic area, the team chooses the actions it wishes to pursue, divides up responsibilities, creates a plan and takes action.
  4. Each topic area has an assessment to gauge the livability of that aspect of the neighborhood and carefully crafted actions to maximize the team’s effectiveness.
  5. The program includes an easy-to-use meeting format and planning guide for taking actions.

For more information about the Livable Neighborhood Program please contact:

Empowerment Institute
PO Box 428
Woodstock, New York 12498
Tel: (845) 246-6290 Fax: (845) 246-6291


Government and Community Leaders Speak About The Livable Neighborhood Program:

“Through Livable Neighborhood neighbors are taking specific actions to make their homes and their blocks better places to live. The City is re-inventing itself through my Neighborhood Transformation Initiative and Livable Neighborhood fits perfectly. Transformation is not merely about building new houses and offices, because those structures will crumble and fall if not maintained, transformation is not just getting the City to clean vacant lots, for lots can be filled all over again with trash if the City and its citizens cannot work with one another. Livable Neighborhood serves to enlighten citizens on how to better maintain their homes and neighborhood blocks to improve the quality of life. Simply said: Livable Neighborhood is a winner.”

John Street, Mayor, City of Philadelphia


“I have been personally struck by the remarkable effectiveness of Livable Neighborhood’s ability to engage neighbors and empower them to take and sustain action on a block level. Through our work with Livable Neighborhood, I have become absolutely convinced that the program’s state-of-the-art “social technology” has immense potential here in Philadelphia, throughout the Commonwealth, and across the country to transform individual behavior and neighborhoods.”

Christopher Patusky, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer,
Fels School of Government, University of Pennsylvania


“Livable Neighborhood is a cutting edge tool for municipal officials and neighborhood organizers. It is comprehensive, easy to use, and provides a common sense approach to building stronger and more livable neighborhoods. The hands-on exercises will help neighbors translate their needs and visions into practical and tangible results.”

Elton Gatewood, President, Neighborhood, USA (NUSA),
Coordinator, Neighborhood Council Office, City of Tacoma, WA


“Livable Neighborhood is an excellent tool for local municipalities. It empowers neighbors and puts them in control of creating their neighborhood into a connected and safe community. There are activities in the program that fit the needs of almost any type of neighborhood and that is really appealing to us as a city!”

John Stufflebean, Director, Kansas City Department of Environmental
Management, Kansas City, MO


“The Livable Neighborhood program serves to empower people by providing them tools to successfully improve their neighborhoods. The program creates accountability between the city and its citizens, creating a win-win civic compact. In today’s world it is so hopeful to find a program like this… a great service to our communities.”

Kathleen A. McGinty, Secretary,
Department of Environmental Protection, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania


"I reviewed the Livable Neighborhood Program with community organizers in Madison. They were unanimously enthusiastic about it’s action-oriented grassroots approach. They saw it as a low cost and effective blueprint for neighborhood empowerment. We used an almost identical blueprint to develop and grow Empowerment Institute’s very successful EcoTeam movement in the Madison area. Everyone who reviewed the Livable Neighborhood Program is eager to get it started in our community. They really liked it!"

Mark Miller, State Representative, State of Wisconsin


"I like it…I like the fact that you have set down in one place many of the things that a neighborhood can do together that can have so many benefits."

Karl Bren, Non-Profit Affairs Director
Virginia Housing Development Authority,, State of Virginia


"I like the topic groupings, the format and the writing style. Collectively the actions in each section fit together as a whole. Overall it is a very strong and effective program."

Dana Warner, Health Education Program Planner
Columbus Health Department, Columbus, Ohio


"I see the Livable Neighborhood Program as a blueprint to bring measurable improvement to households, neighborhoods and our environment – city wide. What is great about the program is that everyone, neighbor-to-neighbor is working together and taking responsibility to keep the environment not only beautiful but clean and safe for each new generation."

State Senator Shirley Kitchen, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania


"The Livable Neighborhood Program empowers citizens to take personal responsibility for the communities in which they live. It makes a real difference in the lives of many. I am pleased that the program is serving as a model for other cities and proud EPA is part of such an important and worthy program."

Donald S. Welsh, Regional Administrator, US EPA Region III


News Articles about
Livable Neighborhood Program

"New Program Aims for ‘Livable Neighborhoods’ in Nicetown"
Germantown Courier, Philadelphia, PA – 11/13/02

"Making Neighborhoods ‘Livable’ "
Philadelphia Tribune, Philadelphia, PA – 4/2/04


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