I hope you can enlighten me about the neighborhood beautification project process like to start it. My boss is planning to give back to the community by offering free house exterior painting. He will be fully funding the first project and if everything goes well we will look for a non-profit org to help us out for the future project. I would like to know where to start, what papers/ permits we need, basically the process on how to do it. I hope someone can answer and I would highly appreciate it.
Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you!
Thank you for writing to us with your very interesting and challenging question. We certainly appreciate and applaud your boss’s generosity in this planned initiative, and applaud your own involvement in it as well.
In response to your questions more specifically:
* Looking for a nonprofit organization that could assume program leadership later on is an excellent idea, and it is never too early to begin looking.
* Any required papers or permits are likely to be issued and governed by your own locality, and may vary somewhat from community to community; so it would be wise to inquire in the appropriate offices in your local city or town hall. You might also talk informally with any local officials you might know who might have locally-based suggestions for you, and be guided by their advice.
* As for where to start, the Community Tool Box offers some general background materials that might be helpful to you, in particular
the different sections in Chapter 19, on Choosing and Adapting Community Interventions, at https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/analyze/choose-and-a
dapt-community-interventions.) You might take a few moments to review this section, as well as similar nearby sections you can find in our table of contents
In your case, a question that stands out for us is how the program you envision could sustain itself financially into the future. Free exterior housepainting over any period of time would usually be a significant expense; How would you deal with it?
We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thank you again for being in touch with us, and all best wishes for success as your work continues.