A Community Hierarchy of Needs
An approach to ensuring that every resident can live their best life.
The responsibility of every government organization is to invest first in the basic needs of its residents and build on those to achieve greater benefit levels across all communities. For instance, the basics of food, water, shelter, and then communication infrastructure must be in place for there to be truly equity. On that foundation is built a sense of community belonging and pride in where one lives. This hierarchical approach identifies and guides how governing bodies should make investments in their systems, processes, and engagements to strengthen their communities.
The world is changing fast. The biggest global shifts in history are forcing communities to face, and fund, aging infrastructure, and an aging population, as the demand for more economic solutions continues to grow. Disadvantaged communities, especially communities of color, continue to be deprived of equitable access to infrastructure, information, education, and other basic services needed for residents to live their best lives.
WeAccel’s Community Hierarchy of Needs offers communities a new perspective and approach to civic investment and budget prioritization. This new strategy, in concert with the WeAccel Neighborhood and Industry Action Council Community-Engagement Initiatives, provides a community-engagement and investment framework that has been adopted by Global Communities Technology Challenge and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Developed by Deborah Acosta & Ann Marcus, WeAccel / Smart City Diaries (c)
Building Communities - not from technology up - but from PEOPLE up.
As noted in NIST’s Special Publication 1900 / NIST SP 1900-207 ipd “Global Community Technology Challenge (GCTC) Strategic Plan 2024-26 - Smart City Infrastructure Program”, the Community Hierarchy of Needs is a way of “developing a model of community functions….[that recognizes] city needs and aspiration are built on a foundation that provides for the most basic services.”
WeAccel’s Community Hierarchy of Needs, developed on the principles championed by Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, enables your community to prioritize projects and funding based on the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“...[T]he current goal for the GCTC—and for smart city planning in general—is no longer to focus on the integration of new technologies, or even the collection and management of big data, but rather the use of digital resources, information, and capabilities to achieve measurable improvements in security, livability, and quality of life for all residents, and to aid in establishing trusted relationships between government, private sector enterprise, organizations and citizen groups, and the communities that define a smart city.”
