One hundred days, 19 teams and one audacious vision

Where did you get the idea of doing the 100-day Challenge? Why did it make sense for the Muskegon CHIR?

We had active engagement from residents through initiatives, including surveys, community meetings and Photovoice, and were seeking ways to better connect the residents with various organizations in order to partake in community-wide decision-making processes. Pennie Foster-Fishman, Michigan State University, came up with the idea of the challenge. While the 100-day Challenge process has been used around the country, it usually has a specific focus; for example, improving high-school graduation rates. As we worked through the feedback, it became clear that the people of Muskegon County weren’t going to settle for a goal that narrow. Understanding that things are interconnected, residents knew that to improve livability, it’s necessary to think big. Business, education, neighborhoods, health and more all needed to be included in this effort. This is a groundbreaking approach.

Tell us about the core team involved in launching the Livability Lab.

The core team represented a cross section of key community leaders in positions to direct resources and influence policy change and residents who were — or wanted to be — active in the community. The buy-in of these individuals was important if we were to generate the type of cross-sector Livability Lab participation that we wanted. While we developed data, the agenda and other elements of the day, we relied upon these leaders for their input and recommendations before any finalization. They really took a major role in this framing. In this way, they were able to take ownership of the process.

We also used their feedback to help us visualize how to sustain the lab past the end of CHIR funding. Did they experience value? Were we hitting the issues that we would never solve without cross-sector discussion? Was this something that our community needed to continue to help us move ahead? We learned through this process that these sectors share many common problems. But, too often, they tried to address them within the confines of their specific sector. By helping them see that these problems emerge across sectors, the ability to get everyone on a common path became easier.

What would you say are the biggest accomplishments of the 100-day Challenge?

Zone work, data collection and social determinants of health leading to a seamless referral process … overall the takeaway from participants was a positive experience and recognition that the cross-sector involvement brought over 300 people together in a room — people who may not ordinarily cross paths. This combination sparked innovation and enthusiasm for moving forward together. We made this infographic representing participant feedback.

What advice would you give to other communities that want to model a similar community development approach?

Make the vision aspirational and reflective of community input. We conducted months of surveys and interviews. Identify root causes that are barriers to the vision and encourage individual team goals to focus on tackling one of those barriers in a manageable action plan that is challenging but not overwhelming. In Muskegon County, we focused the aspirational message on resilience, love, pride of place, finding bright lights, leveraging strengths and building a community legacy of livability. Democratize the process. Set clear benchmarks early on.

You are one year out from the official kickoff of the 100-day Challenge. Looking back, would you change anything about the process?

We’d go back even further and would have started with Livability Lab earlier in the CHIR timeline. Knitting together voices that aren’t typically in the room (from a variety of sectors) and including residents that are not always invited to the table or are often intimidated by the process was critical. We wanted to even out the voices in our community; for example, the chamber of commerce was in the room just as the neighborhood associations were in the room. It’s a very important part of getting to the root causes.

When taking on an audacious goal like this, you are bound to learn a thing or two along the way. What sticks out to you from this experience?

Beyond the data, people need to look at root cause analysis — extend that over time to see what we could do that would be a measurable response to what we’ve found. There’s a piece of this problem that everybody owns. That’s why the cross-sector piece is so important because everybody owns a piece of the solution. A program isn’t the answer for everything. We also learned that when you embrace and respect people’s lived experience as valuable knowledge to be considered in decision making, amazing things can happen.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has impacted local communities in many ways. The Livability Lab team recently resurveyed Muskegon residents who are living — and sometimes struggling — through this health crisis. What did you find?

COVID-19 has exacerbated the disparities we have already been seeing.

We created a short video interviewing the Livability Lab core team regarding past, present and future. It played as part of the Livability Lab 2.0 launch on August 10, 2020.

What’s next for Muskegon County?

We are currently on a 45-day challenge with Livability Lab 2.0. Current funding ends in September, but community enthusiasm encourages us to seek ways to continue this important work.