DVRPC Supporting Communities Program
The purpose of DVRPC's Supporting Communities program is to better connect the transportation infrastructure needs of disadvantaged communities with available funding for planning and implementation. We will do this by:
- Listening to community residents' and leaders' preferences and needs for transportation improvements, in collaboration with trusted local partners.
- Developing planning or capital projects based on what we hear from residents and local leaders, and informed by relevant transportation data (such as asset condition or crash history) as appropriate.
- Following through on those projects by providing assistance to deliver them through available funding programs.
- Adapting what we learn through these targeted efforts with specific communities, to benefit other communities across our full portfolio of work.
Program Structure
This program is intended to support communities in different ways across the planning and project development pipeline. There are three tiers of work, which we expect will continue to evolve over time.
- Tier 1 - Listen:
Baseline outreach and listening to communities we haven’t generally heard from before, similar to the Mobility Choices study from 2022.
- Tier 2 - Develop:
Work with communities to develop next steps and solutions for problems and priorities that we hear about during Tier 1 outreach, on an ongoing basis. The nature of solutions will differ depending on the nature of the problems shared by communities. In many cases, this will include some level of study or technical assistance to develop proposed solutions. In other cases, it may be possible to program projects to address identified needs. - Tier 3 - Deliver:
Work to fund and deliver projects developed through Tier 1 and 2 work. This may include prioritization for established formula funding programs, assistance in preparing applications for discretionary grant programs, and other similar assistance.
One intent of the program is to create a pipeline of transportation projects that can be further developed in subsequent fiscal years, so that a community which has Tier 1 outreach will then have Tier 2 assistance and Tier 3 follow through. Supporting Communities will be an evolving, collaborative program, incorporating lessons learned each fiscal year to enhance the program and further embed the principles of this program throughout DVRPC’s work portfolio.
Reports and related work