Hi Sue,
Welcome to the Community Tool Box (CTB) and Ask an Advisor. You raise an interesting, complex issue, one that is affecting so many communities around our country and I applaud you for taking on this challenge in the times in which we find ourselves. There are many ways to go about creating change, and people have been asking how to do so for time immemorial, but I think the first thing we need to look at is getting people in your community to really care about People of Color, then we can layer on specific strategies. Before we get down to business, let me explain how Ask an Advisor works. The advisor, in this case me, finds resources within the CTB in the form of chapters rich with information, toolkits with nuts and bolts how to get stuff done information with examples, and community stories from people just like you who have done what you want to do, while drawing upon her/his own community building work to help you come up with the answers you're looking for. In short, the advisor provides links to information in the CTB or from elsewhere if necessary, it is then up to you to sort through and determine the information likely to be the most relevant and helpful. If the advisor thinks her/his own experience might be helpful too then that's added into the mix. Make sense? I am going to provide you with a lot of resources so bear with me, I'll do my best to distill the resources down to the basics. Then, after you review them and extract what you think is most relevant you can come back the the CTB and I can add more resources according to your more specific needs.
Okay, let's get going. The first resource I think will be helpful to you is Chapter 6 - Communications to Promote Interest: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/promoting-interest. Although all of the sections will ultimately be useful to you, I think for right now Section 2 - Using Principles of Persuasion: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/promoting-interest... will get you thinking about the tactics you need to use to get the community interested in this issue. To my way of thinking, this is the first step to creating change, persuading people who are either unaware of the issues or who are change resistant to actually want to engage in a change process. Reading through this section will help you understand the psycho-emotional factors involved in persuasion and give you some valuable, hands-on strategies. So, the first step is persuasion. The next step is developing a communication plan.
So, the second resource I'd like you to consider, also found in Chapter 6 is Section 1 - Developing a Plan for Communication: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/promoting-interest.... It seems a bit out of sequence to read Chapter 6, Section 2 first, but I think it makes sense to understand what you want to communicate before you actually do said communicating; you need to know the underlying principles. In the same vein, the third resource I suggest reading through is Chapter 7 - Encouraging Involvement in Community Work: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involv.... After reading through Section 2 of Chapter 6 you should have a pretty good grasp on the powers of persuasion. What good is knowing about persuasion if you can't actually persuade your community to care about People of Color? Chapter 7 will help you kick your powers of persuasion up a notch so that you can encourage the community to become involved in community work toward sustainable change. There is some overlap between Chapters 6 and 7, even so, I suggest reading through all eight sections, paying closest attention to sections 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8. This is not to say the other sections aren't important, but I want to focus your attention on what I think are the most relevant aspects of Chapter 7, the sections that will be of most use.
The next wo resources I suggest you consider are toolkits related to Chapters 6 and 7. As you might recall, toolkits provide the nuts and bolts, hands on, how to get things done information you need for applying what you've been reading in the chapters. The first toolkit I offer is Toolkit 1 - Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/creating-and-maintaining-coalitions-and-partnerships. Make sure you look carefully at both the main section and the examples. You understand persuasion, you understand what it takes to encourage community involvement, but to foment sustainable change you need a coalition of community members to actually get the work done. This toolkit will show you how to bring people together and put them to work for the greater good. However, just bringing people together isn't enough, you need to both keep them engaged and increase the number of community members so the work is sustained on into perpetuity or until the problem is solved. Toolkit 8 - Increasing Participation and Membership: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/increasing-participation-and-membership. Again, read both the main section and examples - examples are total money!
The last resource is what I think of as a "capstone" resource, Chapter 27 - Working Together for Racial Justice and Inclusion: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/racial-injustice-and-inc.... Now Sue, you might think, and you wouldn't be wrong in thinking that Chapter 27 could have/should have been the first resource provided, but I thought it best to give you background material related to persuasion, communications, engaging the community, building coalitions, and engaging coalitions, etc. before providing a resource specific to racial justice and inclusion. Sure, Chapter 27 offers great strategies, but I think they will be more effective when you understand everything else that goes into a sustainable change effort; I sure do hope that makes sense.
With that Sue, I think you've got plenty of resources to start you down the road to sustainable community change. If, for any reason you don't find what you're looking for in these myriad resources do drop by the CTB again and I'll work with you until you have exactly what you need. To reiterate, I think Chapters 6, 7, and 27 along with Toolkits 1 and 8 will take you where you want to go. On behalf of the CTB thank you so much for coming to us for advice and more important, for the work you want to do on behalf of People of Color in your larger community; the very best of success to you in all of your endeavors.
Ask an Advisor
