City of Flint Master Plan Implementation VISTA Program

The Department of Planning and Development is committed to ensuring the public safety, health, and well-being of Flint’s residents, businesses and visitors through targeted investment and rational, well-designed and physically integrated land use and development that advances economic prosperity, eliminates blight and stabilizes neighborhoods, protects the environment, and promotes a better quality of life in the City. Read More

• About Us
  The City of Flint Master Plan is a framework outlining goals and strategies to help Flint become a healthier, sustainable and vibrant place to live, work and play. To support this framework the City of Flint AmeriCorps VISTA members implement city-wide master plan goals by engaging the community in thoughtful stakeholder dialogue, facilitating micro-projects, recruiting volunteers to support these efforts and developing media and communication tools to share the story of service. VISTAs serve to implement the Master Plan in areas including parks and green spaces, safety, neighborhood engagement, blight reduction, water crisis recovery and more. Member activities include GIS and mapping, neighborhood planning, organizing events like resource fairs and park clean-ups, supporting blight reduction efforts and building capacity for the Planning Department, Parks Division, blight Division, Recovery Office, Land Bank, and Neighborhood Engagement Hub.
• Our Impact
  VISTA members have engaged in the following activities:
  - developing neighborhood planning strategies and activities
  - tracking the progress of Master Plan implementation and identify areas of future efforts
  - meeting with community groups to build relationships between the City, partners and residents
  - reviewing the Imagine Flint Master Plan and Blight Elimination Framework
  -conducting and providing research and data
  - providing resource management for neighborhood groups
  - developing and managing volunteer recruitment and retention systems for neighborhood planning projects
  
  VISTAs have helped revamp the zoning code, developed fliers, maps and a neighborhood planning kit, facilitated water recovery fairs, planned and implemented improvements in parks and neighborhoods, tracked progress towards blight elimination and supported clean-ups, supported 10 playground builds, helped develop a disc golf course and skate park, and so much more.