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This chapter summarizes and discusses the planning phase of the community change process that comprised the three Good Neighborhoods phases (planning, readiness, and transformation). The purpose of the planning phase was to engage neighborhood residents and stakeholders in a community-wide planning process that would result in a community goal and action plan that was community-owned and -driven. In this chapter, the authors describe and discuss the process by which engagement of the community, needs assessment, and planning took place. The authors use the Osborn neighborhood as the case, recognizing that, as much as possible, the same process was followed in each of the six neighborhoods.

Urban renewal has been the dominant approach to revitalizing industrialized communities that fall into decline. Detroit, with its vast majority Black population and struggling auto industry, encountered such decline. The Skillman Foundation sought to engage in a joint effort to bring Detroit back to its position of strength. With its mission of enhancing the development and well-being of children, Skillman entered partnerships with six Detroit neighborhoods with the largest concentrations of children whose well-being and development was at risk. The Foundation solicited the technical assistance of the University of Michigan School of Social Work. This book introduces readers to the environment within which the work of technical assistance began. The work is placed within a theoretical and practice context. This includes conducting needs assessments at multiple levels, engaging community members in identifying strategies for problem-solving, assistance in developing community goals for immediate and long-term success, and implementing social work field instruction opportunities. Lessons learned and challenges are described as they played out in the process of creating partnerships for the Foundation with community leaders, engaging and maintaining youth involvement, managing roles and relationships with multiple partners recruited by the Foundation for their specialized expertise, and conducting the work of technical assistance within a context of increasing influence of the city’s surrounding systems (political, economic, educational, and social). Readers will note the role of technical assistance in an evolving theory of change. Case vignettes, case-based discussion questions, and additional resources in each chapter provide an excellent opportunity for classroom use.

This chapter describes how the University of Michigan School of Social Work’s Technical Assistance Center (UMSSW/TAC) developed its theory of change as a partner in the Skillman Foundation-funded Detroit Good Neighborhoods initiative. The definition of a theory of change accepted was of “a specification of what must be done to achieve the desired goals, what other important impacts may also be anticipated, and how these goals and impacts would be generated.” The chapter discusses the processes in the creation of iterations of Foundation and UMSSW/TAC theories of change. The chapter concludes with the benefits, limitations, issues, and challenges of aligning logic models with the varied expectations and goals of residents, funding foundations, and university partners.

Chapter 12 is organized very differently from earlier chapters in this volume. It contains a list of lessons learned from those associated with the University of Michigan School of Social Work/Technical Assistance Center (UMSSW/TAC) and includes observations from those deeply involved in the Good Neighborhoods project. These observations and insights are divided into topical areas, but the list does not reflect a rank order of lessons learned or priorities. They are instead reflections on a multiyear initiative to create better outcomes for children and youth living in an urban context undergoing vast social and economic changes and challenges, some of which were adverse (see Chapter 2).

This chapter focuses on the work the UMSSW/TAC did to support development of neighborhood organizations, especially smaller nonprofits (NPOs) that did not have large budgets. This entailed a variety of strategies including workshops, a leadership academy designed specifically for NPOs, individual and small group consultations, coaching, and personnel resources including placing graduate student interns and VISTA volunteers. The chapter also summarizes initial recommendations for systems development to create a coordinated system of care in each neighborhood, with a focus on youth development programming for those between the ages of 0 and 18. It ends by describing the youth development strategy that the Skillman Foundation ultimately pursued, as well as efforts to support the alignment of youth programming across the domains of youth development, youth employment, and career-themed education.