Role of Social Capital
The community development process strives to stabilize economic conditions, increase quantity and quality of housing to support development and improve quality of life, improve commercial functions of the community, improve physical aspects and attractiveness of the community, and provide a variety of public services to support quality development outcomes.  Social capital refers to the social ties and networks in the community development process.  Community development literature generally refers to social capital as the catalyst that leads or facilitates the community development process. 
Source: Adapted from Phillips, Rhonda and Robert H. Pittman.  2009. An Introduction to Community Development. Routledge.  New York, NY.
However, social capital alone cannot revitalize communities; there are other forms of community capital needed, such as human capital, physical capital, financial capital, and environmental capital. Along with social capital these four types of community capital are necessary for community development to occur.
Source: Greene, Gary and Anna Haines. 2007.  Asset Building and Community Development.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
According to Saegert and Winkel (1998), those using social capital strategies to combat neighborhood distress need to consider all levels of social capital, including bridging and linking social capital. Saegart and Winkel contend that bridging social capital establishes horizontal ties between associative organizations and supports the formation of alliances and coalitions across communities (i.e., across local institutions, between different communities, between poor and affluent communities).  In contrast, linking social capital refers to vertical relations between individuals and groups in different social strata in a hierarchy whereby power, social status and wealth are accessed by different groups.
Source: Author, 2012.
The building and development of social capital is critical in developing and leveraging resources for the implementation of neighborhood improvement plans. By establishing and strengthening bridging and linking ties with local and regional outside institutions, local government officials and administrators have expanded their organizational capacity and have built upon their existing community capital (e.g., physical, financial, human) to further accomplish their goal of slowing or halting decline and encouraging the implementation of improvement projects in their communities.
Building Strategic Relationships and Enhancing Program Delivery and Impact

Stellar nurtured partnerships and increased social capital as well as other forms of community capital for both the community partners and state agencies. State agencies and community partners were able to increase their organizational capacities, particularly in building strategic relationships, organizational program delivery and impact, and financial impacts. The partnerships have also proven favorable on several fronts. First, the partnerships incited “buy-in” of comprehensive planning projects. Second, the partnerships stimulated sharing of public and private resources to complete improvement projects. Third, the partnerships established with outside stakeholders through implementation of a targeted neighborhood improvement model brought together complementary strengths of the various community institutions and neighborhood groups. Finally, the implementation of a targeted neighborhood improvement model has pushed Stellar towards becoming a replicable and scalable model.
Nurturing Partnerships = Increased Community Capital and Leveraging of Resources.
In the absence of Stellar, the communities had many pieces and stakeholders to accomplish improvements, but lacked the financial resources to accomplish them. As an outcome of Stellar, respondents identified the program as a mechanism to leverage opportunities and obtain other investments.

Increased Communication between State Agencies, and among State Agencies and Partner Communities.
Respondents stated that improved levels of communication significantly increased cooperation amongst state agencies and between state agencies and the designated communities.

Increased Community Capacity. Respondents noted that the ISCP process promotes for increased community capacity by providing cities the means to complete a large amount of projects in a short time span.

Challenge to State Agencies to Expand their Roles. Respondents stated that the program motivated each agency to expand outside of its traditional role of community development and to become more creative in its use of resources.
Data analyzed from the pilot communities indicate it is not necessarily the level, but the presence of social capital that is critical for neighborhood revitalization to occur. The illustrations demonstrate the role and function of social capital in the ISCP-designated communities is that of change agent and a catalyst for action and sharing of resources among community members, local officials, public agencies, private institutions, and non-profit organizations.  In each case study, social capital is mobilized to address neighborhood problems associated with housing, downtown revitalization, and overall quality of life by strategically building relationships through nurturing partnerships, improving communication, and the expansion of traditional roles or frameworks of  both the state agencies  and community partners.

In Greencastle, there exist resilient bridging and linking ties between the city, county, the university, and state agencies.  The City of Greencastle Mayor’s Office, partnered with DePauw University, the Greencastle - Putnam County Development Center, Greencastle Chamber of Commerce to put the proposal together. For example, DePauw paid for a portion of the engineering out of their own pocket for the Anderson Street project leveraging the funding from the state agencies within the Stellar target areas, while local businesses have provided a portion of the match for façade improvements.
In North Vernon, there exist strong bridging and linking ties between the city, county, and state agencies. For example, the City of North Vernon’s Mayor’s Office, partnered with Muscatatuck Urban Training Facility, the Jennings County Community Foundation, and the North Vernon Redevelopment Commission along with Southern Indiana Housing Community Development Corporation (SIHCDC) and ARa  to put the proposal together.  In addition SIHCDC/ARa administers the owner-occupied housing program for the city.
In Delphi, there exist solid bridging and linking ties between the city, county, local volunteer groups, and state agencies.  For instance, the City of Delphi Mayor’s Office, partnered with the Carroll County Economic Development Center, the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, the Delphi Preservation Society, the Kankakee-Iroquois Regional Planning Commission (KIRPC), the Delphi Main Street program, the Wabash Erie Canal Association, and HWC Engineering to put the proposal together.      In addition, KIRPC acts as the grant administrators for the OCRA funded projects and the IHCDA funded projects.  While the Delphi Preservation Society owns the opera house and is involved in the planning and implementation of the facility.   Moreover, the Carroll County Economic Development office, during the application process was responsible for gathering local support along with the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce. The group of stakeholders also meets regularly to bring their ideas, skills, and expertise to the implementation of the strategic investment initiatives. 
In Princeton, the ties of bridging and linking between the city, county, local volunteer groups, private institutions, and state agencies appear to be resilient. For example, by developing strong relationships with local and regional stakeholders (such as Toyota, OnSite OHS, Gibson County, local business development entities, and financial institutions), Princeton’s mayor was able to leverage the city’s local and state investments into larger forms of community investments.

In each case, the group of stakeholders met regularly to bring their ideas, skills, and expertise to the implementation of the strategic investment initiatives.   Respondents noted that trust and good communication between partners and stakeholders were vital to the process and building social capital. By opening up the lines of communication trust was established and strengthened.  This allowed for the cities, state agencies, and other stakeholders discuss boundaries, perimeters, and expectations of all parties.  Slowly, all groups were able to build and establish trust, which resulted in partnerships.  These partnerships have helped each city to leverage local and state investments, increased community capacity, and build additional community capital.

“I think one of the key lessons is one of trust….Trust your team. I mean your total team. Trust your team from the state, your consultant, and the people at the table locally.  Keep the communication lines open.  Keep community involvement.  So you have got to learn how to manage expectation in a community and expectation on the team.”

“I think it has been very important to building those relationships…. I think that Stellar had definitely helped us improve our relationship…. I think it's improved our relationship with the state.  It's very important to the process to get those relationships established….It does help that we have had a good relationship to move these projects forward.”