A Guest Post by Calah Young, AICP, Terrell Ellis & Associates:

As a practicing planner and consultant in West Virginia I often find myself playing the role of social worker to communities in trouble.  According to Wikipedia the main tasks of social workers are

“casework (linking clients with agencies and programs that will meet their …needs), counseling, human services management, social welfare policy analysis, community organizing, advocacy, teaching, and social science research”. 

This direct connection to social policy should not be surprising to most people.  In West Virginia so much of what our towns and counties face in terms of planning issues, such as the decline of our population, job loss, and limited investment, can in many ways be linked to other broader social issues.

The parts of this analogy that I find most captivating are the case management and counseling aspects.  I find that even in the most proactive areas of our state, where development is occurring and planning efforts are practiced there is still a lack of local capacity.  Planning commissions operating without trained memberships or staff and the absence of local leaders who are knowledgeable about land use issues make it difficult to generate well-thought out long range decisions for our communities.  Even worse are those communities who are trying to improve upon how they make decisions and their future sustainability yet find themselves often left with visions of their potential and no discrete directions to get there.  What is needed in those cases is a sort of planning case manager who can guide communities through the steps they need to reach their goals.  This is a role I am currently taking on in Wyoming County. 

The process there began with an economic development strategic plan that identified a need for concentrated decision making in areas related to development.  What arose from that will become the first planning commission for the county.  My role is to help them develop this body from the ground up, provide training to the new members in order to educate them about their roles, responsibilities, and give them some general information about the practice of planning.  In my mind though this project is much more than concrete deliverables, it as about working closely with a community to help them understand and take ownership of their issues.  It is about providing them with access to resources that can assist them in meeting their goals.  Most importantly it is as much about counseling them through this process and enabling them to create change.  Creating the capacity from within should be the goal of any planning project in this state – even if it has to be done one community at a time.