Forming A Planning Committee
The role of the planning committee
The purpose of a project planning committee is to ensure that major stakeholders are consulted and have input into the project vision, goals, objectives, design, timelines, budgets and outcomes. It will also oversee and participate in the planning and execution of the project. Its role may include:
- Defining the project
- Hiring project staff and expertise as needed
- Gathering information about community need
- Developing the project vision and model
- Developing the action plan and guiding its execution
- Ensuring resources are secured
- Making and documenting decisions
- Facilitating communication among stakeholders
Healthy Functioning
Ground rules and processes should be established that help ensure all members can fully participate and feel ownership in the project and its outcome. Everyone’s opinion should be respected and valued! You may wish to have a designated chair or facilitator and a recorder for meetings. If you have a project manager, you may wish to designate this responsibility to her/him.
Considerations when forming a planning committee
No one individual will possess all the skills, knowledge and time to successfully develop a new program. Regardless of the size of the project, you will need a project committee to participate in the various phases of the project and to have input into the various decisions that will need to be made. Membership on the planning committee will depend in part upon the scope of the project and where the initial project impetus is coming from. A planning committee should be representative of a variety of stakeholders with an interest in the successful implementation of the program. It is important, however, that there be a lead staff person to work with the architect and project manager to coordinate the many activities of the project.
A core group of 5-10 individuals is a manageable size, with others involved on sub-committees as necessary.
Who are the stakeholders? Consider the broad range of interests and demographics in the community, as well as community leaders and parents, and ensure they are adequately represented at the table. Possibilities include:
- Child-serving organizations in the community, including education, recreation, social services, parenting programs/family resource programs and child care
- A representative from a local planning committee
- The developer, if you are part of a new development project
- Local organizations serving refugee and immigrant families
- Groups with whom you may be sharing the building
- The supervisor/director of an ELCC program
- The school principal
- A faculty member from an ECE program at your local community college
- Other leaders in the community who may have particular expertise or access to useful resources
- Municipal planning staff (if applicable)
- A potential user of the new service, or a parent with previous experience in ELCC development
- The ELCC licensing official in your community and relevant health officials. Not only may they be able to offer useful advice and solutions along the way, they can help ensure that your plans and designs will meet licensing requirements.
Involve the Users!
If you are expanding an existing program, and your program includes older preschool-age or school age children, consider ways to include their input. Discuss what they like about their environment and what they would like to change, and the kinds of spaces they would like to have in their new environment. Some examples of how children have been involved in the design process can be found in the following:
- Projects FLaT: Design for Learning: 21st Century Schools
- More on Projects FLaT
- Spaces: Room Layout for Early Childhood Education - Your guide to space planning and room layout
- Making Spaces for Children website and pdf leaflet
- Children in Scotland -Issue 54; December 2005 Design priorities: Children and young people tell architects what's important to them
For a short informative paper on involving children in a more general way in ELCC programs see Exploring the field of listening to and consulting with young children by Alison Clark, Susan McQuail and Peter Moss of the Thomas Coram Research Unit