More Information about the CTB

Development of the Community Tool Box has been ongoing since 1994. The CTB Team at the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas, and partners nationally and internationally,continue to identify what people might need to know to be able to do this work of building healthier and more equitable communities.  Through the World Wide Web, we saw prospects for a virtual "tool box" of capacity-building resources.

Our vision is of people—locally and globally—taking action together to change conditions that affect their lives. The purpose of the Community Tool Box is to build capacity for this work: to make it easier for people to bring about change and improvement in their communities. The CTB connects people with resources for learning the many skills required for this work, and applying this knowledge in diverse cultures and contexts.  

The CTB uses the Internet to deliver free information to those doing and supporting community work around the world.  Practical information on building leadership, evaluation, or other topics is a click away.  The CTB provides access to information on demand, not just when a training workshop happens to be scheduled. 

Vision and Mission of the CTB

The aim of the Tool Box: to assure more equitable access to capacity-building resources for those working in diverse communities throughout the world.

The vision guiding the Community Tool Box (CTB) is to:

  • Bring community-based solutions to light
  • Connect community work across issues and contexts
  • Support co-learning within and between initiatives
  • Promote equity through access to resources and support
  • Build capacity for this work

The CTB mission is to promote community health and development by connecting people, ideas, and resources. After over 10 years of development, the CTB has over 7,000 pages of how-to information relevant to 16 core competencies (e.g., building partnerships, assessing community needs and resources, planning, leadership, intervention, advocacy, evaluation, sustaining the work).  To see the list of core competencies, click on Do the Work from the tabs at the top of any page, or from the homepage. [You may also look for particular sections (e.g., lead a meeting or a focus group) by typing keywords in the Search the CTB box at the top of each page.]

Audiences, Learning Format, and Evaluation

The intended audiences or end users for the CTB include:  a) those doing the day-to-day work of promoting community health and development (e.g., community leaders and members), b) those supporting it (e.g., staff of public agencies and intermediary organizations such as community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities), and c) those funding it (e.g., government institutions, foundations).

Our aim was to have a cross-cutting set of tools of use to people (e.g., novices, experienced leaders, students) working in multiple sectors (government, health organizations, faith communities) and in different situations (communities with different assets and resources).  Please click on What Users Say at the bottom of any page to see a sample of the highly diverse group that uses the Community Tool Box.

The focus is on specific practical skills, such as conducting a meeting or participatory evaluation, that help create conditions for health and human development.  We reviewed the literature on related competencies, interviewed community members and practitioners, and examined our collective experience. This resulted in an initial CTB Table of Contents with hundreds of prospective sections organized by Parts or broad themes (e.g., Promoting Interest and Participation in Initiatives; Organizing for Effective Advocacy), Chapters (e.g., Encouraging Involvement in Community Work; Conducting a Direct Action Campaign), and Sections or discrete learning modules (e.g., Involving people most affected by the problem; Writing letters to elected officials).  To view the current contents, you may click on the Table of Contents from the tabs at the top of any page, or from the homepage.

The CTB Team reviewed the literature on effective skill training and behavioral instruction to identify a consistent structure to promote learning and ease of use.  Accordingly, each of the several hundred sections or learning units of the CTB includes: a) a clear description of what the skill involves (i.e., specific how-to steps), b) rationales for why the skill is important, c) examples of applications of the skill in different situations, and d) other learning supports (e.g., checklists, overheads, links to other resources).  Each CTB section uses this consistent learning format to provide a synthesis of practical knowledge for a given topic (e.g., how to develop a community assessment, evaluation plan, or sustainability plan).

There have been several types of informal evaluation of the CTB.  First, to assist in early development and evaluation, representative users (e.g., members of community organizations in diverse communities) were asked to provide informal assessments of particular aspects of the embryonic CTB. They provided comments on key attributes of the CTB including its completeness, clarity, usefulness, user-friendliness, helpfulness, and overall satisfaction. This qualitative information from informal focus groups, and feedback from national and international experts, continues to help guide improvements in the CTB.

Second, responses to periodic user surveys provided additional information about the use of the CTB. For instance, in August 2007, we conducted an e-survey in which over 150 users responded and gave us meaningful feedback. Respondents indicated that they used the CTB to: a) “Explore best processes and practices” (47%), b) “To do the work” (14%), and c) “To learn a skill” (12%).  Other uses included teaching and learning as part of university courses or other trainings.

Users made suggestions for how to make the site more user-friendly, and those recommendations helped guide the redesign of the CTB which was launched in September of 2007.  Thirty-six percent of CTB users reported being involved in community work in multiple roles, and others reported being primarily involved in community work in the following ways: a) Consultant (19%), b) Community member (16%), c) Teacher/ educator (12%).  Skilled and frequent users reported using the CTB routinely to, for example, conduct a community assessment or prepare a grant application.

Narrative comments from users, such as through the Guestbook or other correspondence, provides us with additional feedback on the CTB.  To see selected comments from CTB Users, click on What Users Say at the bottom of any page. Please enter your own comments using the Guestbook (also at the bottom of any page).  

Users and Uses of the Community Tool Box

Use of the Community Tool Box is widespread, and growing nearly exponentially: over 17,187 user sessions in 1997; over 33,789 in 1998; over 122,901 in 2000; over 258,515 in 2003; over 573,142 in 2005, and over 1,068,878 user sessions in 2006.

CTB users represent a wide variety of: a) Sectors (e.g., public health, education, health care, faith-based, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, international organizations); b) Settings (e.g., urban neighborhoods, rural communities; indigenous communities), c) Issues (urban and rural development; public health; education; prevention of violence and drug use; child health and development; access to health care; promoting health equity); d) Roles (as community members, professionals, students, professors, and elected and appointed officials), and e) Places (e.g., throughout the U.S.; countries throughout the world).

Some current uses of the CTB include:

Instantly available guidance for community work .  Many thousands of people working in communities come to the Community Tool Box for help in addressing a community issue, or when they are struggling with a problem in their local work. CTB users report its benefits in providing just-in-time prompts or reminders for how to do a particular task.  For instance, a community member might print the section and checklists on conducting a public forum or focus group to be reminded of particular steps to be implemented at that night’s meeting.

Training.  CTB materials—individual sections free from the website, and the related CTB Curriculum—are used widely for training those engaged in the work of community health and development.

Technical assistance. The CTB has been used extensively as a resource for technical assistance; that is, in supporting people who are implementing key processes, such as building leadership or action planning, in diverse contexts. Staff of governmental organizations, such as ministries of health or education, and intermediary organizations, such as NGOs and university-based centers, have used CTB resources to support a variety of efforts to promote health and human development.

University instruction.  Feedback from a variety of students and instructors suggests that the CTB is being used as a source of readings by a number of different colleges and universities nationally and internationally.  A quick perusal of the CTB Guestbook indicates that the CTB is being used as an online text for a variety of disciplines including public health, social welfare, community psychology, anthropology, nursing, public administration, education, journalism, and medicine.

Certification. To enhance benefits for those learning core competencies related to this work, certificate programs have been developed. For example, the Work Group for Community Health and Development team uses the CTB curriculum and practicum opportunities as part of a Certificate in Community Health and Development that is awarded by the GraduateSchool at the University of Kansas.

Building capacity for funded initiatives. CTB resources have been used to enhance capabilities within community initiatives funded by a number of governmental agencies and private foundations. For instance, the KU Work Group has used the CTB to support the work of the different funded initiatives including those to prevent adolescent substance abuse, adolescent pregnancy, and violence; promote physical activity, healthy nutrition, and caring adult-youth relationships; and support urban development and global health initiatives throughout the U.S. and internationally.

 

 

Ongoing and Future Development of the CTB

In addition to ongoing writing of new content sections, there are three particularly prominent areas of CTB development.

CTB Curriculum Development.  In a related effort, the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas developed a 16-module CTB Curriculum that prepares learners in each of the core competencies (e.g., building partnerships, community assessment, planning, intervention, evaluation, planning for sustainability). Each module includes a Participant’s Guide (e.g., key learnings, practical steps, experiential activities), adaptable Facilitator’s Guide and PowerPoint presentation, and a competence assessment or guided opportunity to put together a plan related to the particular skill (e.g., develop a strategic plan, develop an evaluation plan). Selected readings from the Community Tool Box serve as a supplemental textbook and ongoing reference after training. If you wish, you can find more information about purchasing the CTB Curriculum.

Customized CTB Workstations for building capacity and evaluation.  Based on the infrastructure of the CTB, the KU Work Group develops tailored online Workstations for particular national, state, and community efforts (e.g., a multi-site effort to prevent substance abuse, address violence, or reduce risk for chronic diseases). Each unique CTB Workstation has integrated capabilities to support: 1) Building capacity: By offering links to appropriate sections in the CTB, access to specialized materials and resources and illustrative stories and examples of success doing this work; 2) Co-learning and adjustments: By linking to other online resources for best practices in a particular area, arranging for opportunities to connect with others or to ask a question of an advisor, and seeing how this work fits together through logic models and customized links to CTB resources; and 3) Documentation, evaluation, and analysis of the initiative's contribution: By providing supports for: a) Online documentation of community and system change and other important events; b) Entering or seeing community-level indicators (e.g., rates of childhood immunizations); c) Displaying trends and discontinuities in events to see what factors may be associated with increases/decreases in the pace of change; d) Analysis of contribution of how the initiative is aiding population-level improvement (online pie charts, online time series graphs, etc.);  and e) Online and print reporting about the initiative and its impact. If you wish, you can find more information about features and costs of design and ongoing use of Customized Workstations for Capacity Building and Evaluation.  

Translation and Cultural Adaptation of the CTB.  As part of its role as a designated World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre, the KU Work Group, and national and global partners, are building global capacity using the CTB.  As financial and human resources become available, we translate and culturally adapt CTB sections, and new sections are added to reflect the diverse approaches to community problem solving that have emerged throughout the world. Anticipated cultural and language adaptations of tools to be disseminated through the CTB include those for: the Americas (Spanish language and Portuguese), Africa (French, English, native languages), Russia and its former Republics (Russian), the Middle East (Arabic), and East Asia (e.g., Mandarin Chinese, Hindi). 

Eventually, we envision a common well through which a global community can share its practical wisdom about how to create conditions that promote community health and development. [For access to CTB content currently available in other languages, click on the desired language (e.g., Espanol) at the upper right corner of each page.]

We Welcome Partners

We welcome the contributions of partners to the further development of the CTB. This might include offering additional content for the CTB, support for translation and cultural adaptation (e.g., into Arabic), and access to funding to assure further development and widespread use. Should you wish to offer your gifts of time or resources to the CTB, please Contact Us. 

Selected References

Fawcett, S. B., Schultz, J. A., Francisco, V. T., Berkowitz, B., Wolff, T., Rabinotitz, P. W., and Oliverius, R. W. (in press). Using Internet technology for capacity development in communities: The case of the Community Tool Box.  In J. Rothman, et al., (Eds.) Strategies of community intervention.  (7th Ed.).  Eddie Bowers Publishing.

Fawcett, S. B., Francisco, V. T., Schultz, J., Berkowitz, B., Wolff, T. J., and Nagy, G.  (2000).The Community Tool Box: A Web-based resource for building healthier communities. Public Health Reports, 115, 274-278.

Fawcett, S. B., Schultz, J. A., Carson, V. L., Renault, V. A., and Francisco, V. T. (2003). Using Internet-based tools to build capacity for community-based participatory research and other efforts to promote community health and development. In M. Minkler and N. Wallerstein (Eds.), Community-based participatory research for health. (Pp. 155-178). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the support of many people in the development of the Community Tool Box, especially the CTB Advisory Board and our colleagues at the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas.  This ongoing work has been funded, in part, by an initial grant from the Kansas Health Foundation, critical multi-year support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and supplemental support from many other funding partners.

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