A Community Conversation, Grand Forks, ND 1995
Partners:
Grand Forks Herald
WDAZ-TV (ABC)
Northern LightsPublic Radio
The partners held a series of “Community Conversations” via coffee klatches, focus groups and polls, assessing quality-of-life issues and forging a vision for the future of Grand Forks, a city of 60,000. The partners kicked the project off by driving a van to various public places around the city for a month. They interviewed some 120 people in coffee shops, bowling alleys, shopping malls and a U.S. Air Force base. They used comments from these conversations to devise a poll of 400 residents. The surprise consensus, reported by the partners on June 2, 1995, was that people believed Grand Forks officials could make the city a better place by fixing the streets.
Through the summer and fall, the partners held and reported on a series of focus groups, during which four issues emerged as key to the town’s future: crime, jobs, family activities and, of course, better streets. The finale of the project was a public hearing and citywide block party at which citizens discussed the city’s future and generated possible solutions for the city to study.
The paper felt the community impact was so positive, it returned to the community conversation model in 1998, involving some 1,500 people in conversations about how to revive community spirit after a devastating flood wiped out parts of the city and left residents divided about how to rebuild.
Contacts:
Mike Jacobs
Editor
Grand Forks Herald
120 N. 4th St.
Grand Forks, ND 58206
Phone: (701) 780-1103
Email: gfherald@grandforks.polaristel.net