HLRP: What is it?

What is the Healthy Lakes and Rivers Partnership Program?

(Lifted right from the website: http://www.ifound.org/environmental_faq.php).

A small group of Beebe Lake Association members have started training with The Healthy Lakes and Rivers Partnership Program (HLRP). The HLRP builds the capacity of citizen leaders to develop and implement lake or river management plans. Over two sessions, participating lake and river advocacy groups will be trained to develop a locally shared vision and plan, set measurable goals and report on their progress and outcomes, all of which are conditions of entering the program. The program is designed to:

• Improve leadership skills of key lake/river association members. Provide a forum for shoreline property owners to plan for the future of their watershed.
• Provide opportunities for shoreline property owners to network, work cooperatively and learn from each other and create a voice for healthy waters in central Minnesota
• Establish visions, missions, goals, and management plans for their watershed, using a template developed by the HLRP program and modeled after the State Interagency Lakes Coordinating Committee guide.
• Establish indicators to measure the success of each association’s efforts.
• Provide training, technical assistance and support to associations as they go through the process of planning and project implementation.

What is "citizen-based" planning?

Historically, most communities have relied on government to address environmental problems such as factory discharges, siting of solid or hazardous waste disposal facilities, or treatment of concentrated wastewater. To a large degree this approach was successful; large pipes discharging industrial waste or sewage are virtually unknown today. Increasingly the remaining problems are best addressed on the local level through education and zoning choices. Even in situations where regulatory solutions are necessary, they tend to be most successful when identified, developed and supported by the affected community.

The program emphasizes four principals of citizen- (or asset-) based planning and community development:
Inside Out -- community change is best made by concerned citizens who can gain a sense of ownership and empowerment;
Relationships -- communities are built on relationships; professional systems should not be substituted for local resident or organization involvement.
Assets -- Focus on the gifts and capacities of local individuals, associations, institutions, and other built or natural resources.
Participatory Democracy -- Voting in not enough; democracy is built upon citizen volunteers and civic participation.


Does the program work?

Perhaps the best measure of success is when the technical assistance initially requested from the Initiative Foundation is no longer needed; as the various citizen groups mature they each develop an expertise in the issues that are most pressing in their community. Because of the relationships established in the common training that each group receives they are able to contact one another, and share practical experiences on sources of assistance or funding, situations or "solutions" to avoid, and sources of further guidance at regulatory agencies or academic institutions. Another measure of the success of the program is the amount of financial or technical assistance the groups have successfully leveraged from regulatory agencies. While the HLRP program cannot take exclusive credit for these new collaborations or sources of support, most regulatory agencies will readily admit that working with a well-organized, knowledgeable citizen group is far more likely to lead to successful implementation than in a community with divided or polarized goals and objectives. Likewise, many "graduates" have used their prioritized actions to successfully pursue grants or other support from local, regional, and even national nonprofit funders.


How can shoreline organizations apply for training and funding?

The training sessions are offered to eight lake or river groups from the same watershed, county or region. Usually the host (and grant administrator) is a County's Environmental Services Department or Water Plan Administrator, a nonprofit such as a Coalition of Lake Associations (COLA), or a watershed district. The Initiative Foundation encourages inquiries from individual associations, but will likely refer interest back to these local coordination vehicles. Participating river groups or lake associations are eligible to earn three grants during the initial training; $800 when five or more (of the same) people attend both training sessions and subsequently host a facilitated community visioning/planning session; $800 when a draft Lake Management Plan is submitted to the foundation for review, and $800 when implementation of one of the goals identified in the plan is begun. A limited number of grants (above and beyond the $2,400 earned in the training, plan development and initial implementation) of up to $5,000 are available to groups whose goals address "causes, not symptoms" or otherwise pursue actions that should result in lasting protection or improvement of local conditions.