Building and Engaging the Asian Community in the Cleveland Area

By Jocelyn Eikenburg and Jun Yu

Our Opportunity:

 The city of Cleveland wants to encourage growth and economic development in the area

 Asian community somewhat fractured/underground – lacks a unified voice

 The city does not sufficiently understand the community, and their needs/opinions

 No interactive website exists that represents the entire community or acts as a clearinghouse for resources

 Large proportion of technology and medical professionals in the Asian community – engaging them could help slow “brain drain”

Larger Goal:

 To build up the Asian community

Specific Goals:

 Link communities/resources to encourage collaboration and facilitate better communication within the community

 Determine the community’s opinions and ideas about the community as a whole to provide guidelines for development

 Identify emerging community leaders who can promote and sustain changes and growth in the community as well as act as conduits of information

 Provide opportunities and forums where the Asian community can interact with the greater region and voice their concerns

 Set guidelines for further research/development

Implementation Process:

 Build a website that will be a clearinghouse for information and resources about the Asian community and provide interactive tools to communicate/share ideas

 Administer a comprehensive survey regarding the community’s opinions/ideas about the community as a whole, and statistically analyze the results

 Do social mapping to identify the major community leaders

 Organize ongoing forums/events to provide opportunities for the Asian community to speak up and get involved – invite the community to current events (according to their preferences)

Deliverables:

 Website

 Report detailing results of statistical analysis of survey

 Actual social map of the community

 Forums/events geared specifically to engaging the community

Timeline:

Launch: September 5, 2006

Survey:

 First phase: four months to survey 30 individuals

 Second phase: two months to survey an unlimited amount of individuals (online and paper)

Tallying survey results: 1 month

Website development: 1 month

Available resources:

 Voice recorder

 Paper

 Printer

Needed resources:

 Survey participants

 Statistical analysis software

 Donated survey incentives (something given away to reward/thank participants for their time)

We want to hear from you!

Do you have some ideas about what we should address in this initiative? Contact Jocelyn Eikenburg at jocelyn@championcopy.com.