Southern accomplishes comprehensive community engagement by facilitating the creation of strategic community plans that address the five pillars of rural development in Southern’s model: economic development, education, health care, housing, and leadership development. These fundamental pillars of community development—both social and economic—are dealt with by engaging citizens in the process of community planning and then empowering the community to effect its priorities.

The comprehensive development sought by Southern is fundamentally a local institution-building process that requires the emergence of community organizations with sufficient capacity and structure to provide for (i) a broad and inclusive vision for community change, (ii) creation of sufficient planning systems and structure that ensure sustainability of the community vision and development of reasonable action steps, (iii) financial capacity, and (iv) staff talent to manage long-term and multi-faceted development processes.

The process of strategic planning allows residents to come together, communicate with each other, identify common needs and priorities and then agree to implement them together.  If used properly, the process also stimulates social change.  Southern believes that genuine social change evolves through hands-on experience, shared program achievements, and personal interaction between people of different backgrounds.

Once strategic community plans are adopted, Southern begins a concentrated effort to obtain local, state, and national endorsements for the plan.  These endorsements, in conjunction with Southern’s own resources and Southern’s existing relationships with various philanthropic foundations, corporations, and state and federal government agencies, allow Southern to assist the community to realize the action steps listed in the strategic community plan.  The totality of this process is designed to produce results—tangible results that revitalize communities.