Community engagement done well requires groundwork, and that groundwork is rarely visible. Phase One of the Washington Street Project, funded by the Foundation for a Healthy High Point, was precisely that kind of work: aligning the primary partners serving High Point’s historic Washington Street neighborhoods before residents are asked to invest their own time in shaping what comes next. The Phase One analysis report, From Assets to Action, is now complete, and this post summarizes what the phase accomplished between June 2 and August 25, 2026.
Working with D-UP Inc. as the neighborhood backbone organization, IRI put the 2025 Washington Street District Needs Assessment in front of the partners as a shared evidence base, convened the Foundation with Guilford County’s Coalition of Anchors, and completed thirteen recorded leadership asset sprints with organizational leaders across seven sectors: one-on-one working sessions that surfaced what each partner has changed since 2025, what each is prepared to contribute, and what each needs from the others. The phase also produced the groundwork for what follows, including the subaward that allows Phase Two resident engagement to begin without a gap.
The report pairs two kinds of evidence. The first is a quantitative profile of the neighborhood’s two census tracts, built from the Guilford County Neighborhood Vitality Index, covering sociodemographic composition, economic position, housing and property conditions, business activity and capital access, civic participation, health and environmental conditions, and safety. The second is what the people already invested in Washington Street said. Reading the two together, the report maps proposed solutions across seven domains, from housing and land to youth and two-generation strategies, food and the neighborhood economy, corridor development and anchor procurement, and culture, legacy, and narrative.
A distinctive feature of the analysis is its convergence scan: a systematic look at where partners’ commitments already align, where tensions will need to be managed, and, most importantly, which needs no partner currently owns. Naming unowned gaps before engagement begins is what keeps community input from becoming a wish list with no addressee.
Phase One has a limitation the report states plainly: institutional voices dominate its interviews. That is by design, and it is exactly why Phase Two matters. From Assets to Action: Washington Street Community-Led Planning and Shared Action, now underway with support from the Foundation for a Healthy High Point, centers residents through learning circles designed in Phase One, pairing each circle with data prepared in advance so that residents deliberate from evidence rather than from scratch. The Foundation’s feature on the neighborhood-driven case for revitalization in 27260, Restoring Hope, offers additional background on the effort.
IRI provides needs assessment, partner alignment, and community-led planning facilitation for place-based initiatives. To learn more, visit our Consulting Services page or contact us.
