Rockmart kicks off GICH with opening meeting
The Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH) in Rockmart has begun for local team members who plan to attend their first retreat in Dublin on Feb. 23-24.
Since Rockmart has been selected for GICH assistance, the City will receive help in creating and launching the locally based housing plan. This will involve technical assistance, collaboration, expert presenters, trainers, facilitation, and consensus building, networking and mentoring.
During the program of technical assistance and cross-sharing the community housing team will: attend two retreats a year with other participating communities, identify issues and needs, available resources and potential objectives, develop new ideas, learn about best practices and available resources and funding for housing and community development, produce a housing plan with objectives and goals and begin implementation of a program of action.
On Jan. 28, housing team members met with Karen Tinsley, GICH program director, and Malisa Thompson, Housing Outreach Coordinator, Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
They gave an overview of the retreat, which is scheduled in Dublin. There, group will meet with representatives from Athens- Clark County, Evans County, Millen and Monroe.
During the first day, local housing team members will hear comments from Lamar Norton, Executive Director, Georgia Municipal Association, Cathy Williams, Executive Director, Columbus Neighborhoods, Tiffany Walraven, City of Pembroke, Skipper StipeMaas, Director, Georgia Heirs Property Law Center, and Cam Jordan, Community Development Director, City of Pembroke.
Highlighting the second day will be presentations by a group of panelists who will address the topic of housing challenges and possible solutions for addressing blight or housing demolition. Additionally, they will hear Jim Elliott, city attorney, Warner Robins. He will present facts about housing issues.
Rockmart GICH team members will be given opportunity to network with other participants – freshmen and sophomores – that can share problem-solving skills.
“This will be a great opportunity for each of you to develop contacts and resources you can utilize during the next 3 years,” Tinsley said.
She also encouraged those planning to attend the retreat to learn about other communities and plan possible visits to these cities. The idea is to schedule field trips to communities that have participated GICH and how goals were set and reached.
“It is the time to think about your plan and ways to develop and accomplish your vision of the future,” she said.
Tinsley also gave information on the responsibility of the team to provide accurate information, photos and other facts that would be used in a power point presentation during September and a final report due in November 2016.
The following tips for GICH team members were:
Reframe community - housing challenges into opportunities.
Ultimate success and sustainability of team initiatives are directly related to commitment of members.
Rockmart must have a plan to utilizing funding opportunities.
Remember your community is unique. Learn about best practices and solutions and adapt them to your situation.
Keep team members informed and engaged, including those who will not attend the retreat.
Take a team tour of the community and schedule monthly meetings to ensure the local work program moves forward.
Development recruitment opportunities and continue to seek out new members. Provide orientation to individuals who join the team later.
Learn about the housing component of your local comprehensive plan and urban redevelopment plan, if appropriate.
Ensure that the local housing plan – developed during the GICH process – is consistent with (or becomes the housing portion of) the local comprehensive plan.
During the January meeting, Sherman Ross, city council member, and Stacey Smith, director of Rockmart’s Department of Community Development, met with housing team members and guest speakers.
Ross informed those present that he is in favor of “getting the ball rolling” with projects that can be accomplished in the near future.
“There are things we, as a community team, can accomplish by working with local partners with similar visions of best use of resources,” he said.
He mentioned utilizing contacts with churches and other organizations such as Keep Polk Beautiful and Habitat for Humanity that could become partners in short term projects.
“We don’t plan to sit back and way for things to develop,” Ross said. “We are motivated to implement new ideas as quickly as possible.”