hello emma,
Thank you for contacting us,
We can't help much guiding you toward specific cases. however, if you need more information about developing your own tools, this might help with that: /en/table-of-contents
Good luck,
Hello Peter,
Thank you for reaching out to us and your interest. We have several topics on this site that might be of help to you. Here's a few that I used in the past:Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and ResourcesChapter 5. Choosing Strategies to Promote Community Health and Development2. Assessing Community Needs and ResourcesChapter 7. Encouraging Involvement in Community WorkChapter 17. Analyzing Community Problems and SolutionsChapter 18. Deciding Where to Start
You can also find much more materials in the table of topic, if you are interested: /en/table-of-contents
Please let us know how it goes!
Ramy
Hello Tyra,
Thank you for reaching out to us.
I am glad to hear you are actively taking into consideration the communities needs by engaging them! Unfortunately we do not have any template for this here.
It would be helpful to first identifying the beneficiaries that you would like to serve, research past projects implemented in the area for context, describe your organization (mission, success stories...) explaining to them the process and reasons for the survey (To have their valuable input...). Questions can relate about the challenges that the community is facing, the reasons behind these challenges, how can they be overcome, and the ideal vision they would like to see after the project is implemented/successful.
I realize that you already mentioned that you read some of our materials, however, this toolkit might help you: /en/implement-social-marketing-effort
Good luck with your community engagement,
Let us know how it goes!
Hello Angelo,
Thank you for coming to us with this question.
It would be helpful to begin with assessing what the community needs and challenges are. Here's some links that can help you further investigate that, where to go from there.
/en/table-of-contents/overview/model-for-community-chan...
/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-hea...
/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-ne...
/en/table-of-contents/analyze/analyze-community-problem...
/en/table-of-contents/analyze/where-to-start
Table of Contents: /en/table-of-contents
Best of Luck!
Hello, Steven –
Thank you for writing us at the Community Tool Box. The challenge you describe is an important one, and of course we wish you the best in developing a program that will fit the needs of your youth.
Unfortunately, we are not in a position to provide detailed consultation on the development of your program. We would actually enjoy having a go at it, but we simply have limited resource capability of our own.
In a brief search, we did uncover a few general sources that might be of interest to you; these are noted below.
http://www.aspira.org/sites/default/files/Facilitator%27s%20Guide%202012-V3.pdf
https://extension.purdue.edu/4h/Documents/Volunteer%20Resources/Past%20Congress%20Le sson%20Plans/How%20to%20Start%20a%20Youth%20Leaders
https://www.health.ny.gov/community/youth/development/docs/jphmp_s051-s059.pdf
www.youthonboard.org
Beyond that, what we can recommend at this point, though, is to keep looking online for program models you can borrow from or adapt. Even though it sounds like you have done some searching already, we think continuing that effort is likely to be worth your time, for creating a leadership curriculum from scratch is not the easiest of jobs. Somewhere out there there’s likely to be a model program you can borrow from or adapt, even though we are not yet specifically aware of one.
We hope this much may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing to us, and we wish you every possible success.
Hello! Thank you for submitting your question.
A communications strategy is certainly an important piece of any community work! If you're looking for a resource to help you do some self-guided work on a communications strategy, check out Chapters 6-7 and Toolkits 1 and 8 in the Community Tool Box regarding "Communications to Promote Interest and Participation" (/en/table-of-contents). You might also look at the chapters on Developing a Strategic Plan and the related toolkits because a communication strategy is often a key piece of this type of plan. There are also some resources on social marketing (chapters 45 and 46, toolkits 13 and 16) that you may find helpful.
If you're looking for actual technical assistance in developing a communications strategy, you might contact other organizations across the country that have had success in the same area. Or feel free to contact the Center for Community Health and Development to find out about their capacity building training and consultation (/en/capacity-building-and-participatory-evaluation).
Best wishes in your efforts!
Hello! Thank you so much for your question.
The Community Tool Box has a number of great resources to help you in your advocacy efforts. I’d start by checking out chapters 30 – 35 and the “Advocating for Change” toolkit. You can access these resources through the following link to the Tool Box table of contents (/en/table-of-contents).
You might also find other content on the Tool Box helpful as supplementary information in preparing for advocacy. Specifically, the chapters on developing a strategic plan (Chapters 8-12) and analyzing community problems/designing interventions (chapters 17-19) and the related resources might be helpful…among others.
I hope you find the resources in the Tool Box helpful in getting started and sustaining your advocacy efforts. Even though they may not be specific to your particular topic, they provide some great ideas that can be applied to just about any important social issue. I’d also encourage you to do a web search of similar efforts and connect with those who are involved in this work in other communities.
Hello! Thank you so much for contacting us.
The Youth Entrepreneurship project sounds like a great effort. I’d start by doing a quick search, if you haven’t already, to find out what other communities might be doing in this area. You can often find best practices in many areas through this kind of search. I’d also suggest contacting people involved in any program that seems like a good model for your community.
More specific to your question, check out the following chapters and resources on the Community Tool Box (/en/table-of-contents) for some guidance on fundraising, recruitment and evaluation.
Chapters 6 and 7 (Promoting Interest and Participation); Toolkit 8 (Increasing Participation and Membership)
Chapter 22 (on Youth Mentoring – not exactly what you’re doing…but similar)
Chapters 36 – 39 (Evaluating Programs and Initiatives); Toolkit 12 (Evaluating the Initiative)
Chapters 42-44 (re: Financial Resources); Toolkit 14 (Writing a Grant Application)
All of these activities are critical to developing a successful program and it’s great that you’re thinking in these terms right off the bat.
Finally, I’d also encourage you to look into information on youth involvement in developing/leading this kind of program. There are a lot of programs that successfully involve youth in leadership/decision-making in these types of efforts and are that much stronger for it!
I wish you the best in your efforts!
Hello! Thanks for submitting your question.
You can find the following example, which I’ve cut and pasted, under the Use Policy for the Community Tool Box (/en/use-policy).
HOW TO CREDIT MATERIAL FROM THE COMMUNITY TOOL BOX
In order to cite the Community Tool Box, we suggest that you use the citation format of the American Psychological Association. Detailed information about their citation format is available in a tutorial at their website. An example citation for a section from the tools appears below.
Example Citation:
Center for Community Health and Development. (2017). Chapter 3, Section 10: Conducting Concerns Surveys. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas. Retrieved January 2, 2017, from the Community Tool Box: /en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/conduct-concerns-surveys/main.
Best wishes in your endeavors!
Hello! Thanks for contacting "Ask an Advisor." I don't really have an answer for your question because I'm not sure what you mean by private vs. public issues. If you'd like to resubmit a question with examples, I could try to find an answer. You might also browse the table of contents of the Community Tool Box (/en/table-of-contents) to see if anything provides an answer. In particular, you might refer to the overview section that provides some general info on models for community change (1-2), the chapters on leadership and management (13-16), and maybe the chapters on organizing for advocacy (30-35). I hope you can find something here that will help give you some ideas. Otherwise, feel free to resubmit your question.
Hello! Thank you for submitting your question!
This sounds like a great project and you have a good plan for making sure everyone stays on the same page as you move forward. One thought is to use a modified theory of change or logic model to graphically represent vision, mission, values and other aspects of your shared efforts. What you’re describing might fit into a theory of change model in that you appear to be trying to illustrate how you believe you’ll achieve your goals – and not just on a programmatic level as would be the case with a traditional logic model.
Check out the section on theory of change/logic models on the Community Tool Box at /en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development/logic-model-development/main
Or, another good resource is the University of Wisconsin – Extension Program Development and Evaluation’s webpage on logic models. It includes several templates that may be helpful. Here’s the link: https://fyi.uwex.edu/programdevelopment/logic-models/
I’m not sure that creating a theory of change or logic model is exactly what you had in mind. But it seems like it might be a starting point for something you could modify to fit your needs.
Hello! Thanks for contacting us.
Check the following link for the GANTT chart template: /en/table-of-contents/finances/grants-and-financial-res...
Good luck in your endeavors!
Greetings! Thanks for your question!
In my experience, the best way to engage practical application of a tool is through case study, presenting a real-world issue to those you wish to use the toolbox and asking them to navigate and apply what's available to the case you've presented. This case may be an issue specific to the stakeholders and community you're engaging or it may be similar but about a different community. The trick is to create an exercise that offers an opportunity to use the tool in a lowered stakes environment so that those using the tool build their confidence in that application. For example, you could present the case of an organization wishing to engage in a strategic planning process but unsure of where to begin. The people you're trying to engage would then use the toolbox to advise this fictional organization.
I hope this helps. Thanks again for your question, and all the best for the future.
Nicole
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for your email. You're certainly not alone in wanting advice about resource development and fundraising. This is one of the more difficult aspects of doing good work: finding the resources to continue doing it. There are a couple of places to start on the Community Tool Box:
Chapter 42: Getting Grants and Financial Resources/en/table-of-contents/finances/grants-and-financial-res...
This chapter covers a wide array of potential strategies for finding the right kind of funding and ways to help you plan it. One part of that chapter is also the "Writing a Grant Application for Funding" Toolkit, which also has a list of potential funders linked in Part 3/en/writing-grant-application
Since each organization is working within a different context, there's no one-size-fits-all way to go about getting the resources you need. Sometimes, it just takes some patient internet research to find the right funder to contact. When you do find that right funder, however, it helps to know how to put into words (email/letter/application) what your organization does and why that funder should send you the funds you need. That's why it helps to look at some of the Toolbox resources available here.
I hope this helps. Thanks again for your note and best of luck!
Hello – Thank you for contacting us with your question. Helping people become informed about their medical care options is a truly important issue. While those of us who assist with “Ask An Advisor” can’t engage in direct advocacy through this forum, we do want to support your efforts to create an informed public. I can direct you to some resources that might help you in your own efforts to get the word out and advocate for patients’ rights to adequate information. Check out the information and toolkits regarding communication and advocacy I’ve listed below. You can access them through the Community Tool Box table of contents at: /en/table-of-contents Specifically, you might find the following chapters and toolkits helpful:
You may find some of the other chapters and toolkits helpful as well. Best wishes in your efforts on this important issue!
Hello - Thank you for contacting us!
I'm not sure to what training curriculum you're referring. However, the good news is that the Community Tool Box is free to anyone to use. Here's the link:/en
There are certain services offered by the Center for Community Health and Development, which created and maintains the Tool Box. You can contact them at toolbox@ku.edu. They'll be happy to provide you with more specific information about what they can do for you.
Hello – Thank you for contacting us!
Depending on where you are (i.e., in or outside of U.S.), the laws and tax codes about what constitutes a foundation vs. a true non-profit differ and are almost always complex. Consequently, your question is a great one - but it's outside of the scope of what I can answer. It would be best to consult an attorney who specializes in helping organizations gain non-profit status. Not all attorneys are familiar with the specifics of rules regarding non-profits. So, I’d make sure whomever you consult has done this kind of work before.
Hi - Thanks for contacting us!
That's great that you're planning to use the diagram! Just contact the Center for Community Health and Development to get specific permission. Here's the contact info:
E-mail: communityhealth@ku.edu Phone: (785) 864-0533
You can see the full use policy at: /en/use-policy.
Hello – Thanks for contacting us with your question!
This is a common issue for people who are trying to make a difference in their communities but don’t have the luxury of being independently wealthy or paid for their efforts! I’m taking a page from the Kansas Leadership Center (http://kansasleadershipcenter.org/) because they have some pretty good guidance on how to be civically engaged. One thing to do is stay focused on your purpose. Why is it that you have to be involved in whatever community effort you are? That’s not a snarky question – but a way to think about how your efforts fit with your larger purpose and what you want to accomplish. I know that doesn’t take away the need to pay the bills. But it can provide some motivation to keep going.
Also, the Kansas Leadership Center suggests that you find ways to “give the work back.” This means to be clear about your role and don’t do things that are the responsibility (or right) of others. Also, find ways to energize others to help in your efforts. I’m paraphrasing all of this. But the point being that civic leadership is a combination of managing yourself and energizing others, among other things (i.e., diagnosing the issue and intervening skillfully) according to the Kansas Leadership Center. You can check out some of their publications if you want to learn more about their model (http://kansasleadershipcenter.org/klcpress/).
Finally, it might help to keep in mind that “small wins” can build to big things. Check out an article by Karl Weick regarding “Redefining the Scale of Social Problems” (http://bit.ly/2zSt0Qv). It might help provide some encouragement for the gains that come from your involvement…even if your time is limited.
Even if you can’t be as involved as you’d like, I’m sure your efforts are meaningful. Good luck in your endeavors!
Tara
Hello – Thank you for your question! This sounds like a great endeavor as peer support is a very relevant and well-supported approach for mental health and addictions. Two issues immediately come to mind as places to start: getting 501(c)3 status and using best practices for peer support. However, before addressing either of these, you might want to start by checking out the resources on the Community Tool Box related to developing a strategic plan and organizational structure. You can access this information (chapters 8 – 12) and related tool kits (5 and 15) through the table of contents at /en/table-of-contents. Re: 501(c)3 status: Obtaining non-profit (501(c)3) status is the way to go if you want to solicit grant funding. There’s a lot involved in gaining non-profit status and it’s typically recommended to consult an attorney that specializes in this process to assist you. If you’re in the US, you can check the IRS website for more information: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations. Re: best practices for peer support: There are a number of resources that address best practices in mentoring/peer support. Check out the webinar on peer support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at https://knowledge.samhsa.gov/resources/peer-support-and-peer-recovery-coaching. You can also contact Brittany Brest at Wichita State University Center for Applied Research and Evaluation for more resources on best practices for peer support (bxbrest@shockers.wichita.edu). She can provide a number of articles I can’t upload here. This is a greatly needed service and I hope the resources provided here can help you get started in making your program a reality. Best wishes in your efforts! Tara
Edit: Here are a few more resources another expert on peer support just provided to me:
From Doors to Wellbeing: https://www.doorstowellbeing.org/copy-of-peer-info-1
From the Center on Integrated Health Care: https://www.center4healthandsdc.org/
BRSS-TACS (another SAMHSA initiative): https://www.samhsa.gov/brss-tacs
Hi Monique,
Thanks for your message. Finding the right community issue is certainly a challenge if you're not already entrenched in something going on in your neighborhood. One of the easiest ways to get involved in an issue of importance is to start going to meetings: city council meetings, community group meetings, school/PTO meetings, and even sometimes faith-based meetings have issues on their agendas that need energetic people like you to get involved and carry the ideas for solutions up to local and state governments. Finding organizations that match your interests might be as simple as visiting https://www.volunteermatch.org/, but for policy-specific issues, it will likely take some digging on your part.
If finding meetings you can attend doesn't help get you focused, then you may need to do some basic needs assessment/resource mapping yourself to help focus your efforts. The Community Tool Box has some great resources for getting started: /en/get-started. You mentioned wanting to work with youth and schools, so you might look at some of the policies in your local school district or state department of education and see if there are any issues there that deserve more investigation or refinement.
The long and the short is, finding the right work for you is going to be a you-decision based on what needs to be done where you live, work, and play. I hope you're able to find the thing that really keeps you energized and allows you to feel like you're contributing.
Hope that helps, Nicole
Dear Amanda,
I'm so sorry to hear about your frustration and difficulty. Your description of your situation certainly sounds dispiriting, but I'm sure many could learn from your obvious resilience. Unfortunately, I can't comment as to why you're struggling to get connected to the right organizations or people within the right organizations. Programs and processes tend to be very community-specific. If you've not already tried it, you might look into http://www.thehotline.org/, which is a national program to help women, men, and families in domestic violence situations. They may be able to better direct you and to connect you with local groups with whom you can see about working as an advocate as well.
I certainly wish you success in your endeavors and continued safety.
Take care, Nicole
Hello – Thanks for your question.
I’m not completely sure what baseline information you’re seeking. Baseline data is normally collected prior to or at the beginning of a project as an anchor to determine change over time. So, it would depend on what type of issue or program you’re interested in if you’re actually requesting baseline data. However, I’m guessing you might be interested in HOW to gather the data through a community assessment, rather than specific data itself. So…that’s how I’m going to answer this. I hope I’m on the right track!
A community assessment is a great place to start when you want to establish a baseline metric against which change will be measured over time for a particular issue or set of issues. There are a number of methods to use for a community assessment including compiling archival data (publicly available population-level data such as the census, data on incidence/prevalence of health or social issues, etc.), doing community or target group surveys, focus groups/community forums, interviews, and various participatory methods, such as Photovoice. Check out chapters 3-5 and toolkit 2 on the Community Tool Box (/en/table-of-contents). This information should help get you started if a community assessment is what you need.
Depending on what kind of information you collect through a community assessment, you should be able to update it from time to time to show the effects of programs to address whatever issue you target. But some data/indicators won’t change quickly – particularly those that you can usually find through archival data. That’s OK – keep those in mind as long-term indicators of population-level success and find short-term indicators to show changes due more directly to whatever programs/initiatives are implemented. You might also look at chapters 36-39 and toolkit 12 to find ideas on evaluating the effects of an initiative (see the link to the Table of Contents above).
I hope this helped answer your question. If not, feel free to ask another question!
Best wishes in your efforts for your community!
The information about how to cite the Community Tool Box can be found at the following link:/en/use-policy
I'm also including it here:
Best wishes in your studies! It's always exciting to know people all around the world are using the Tool Box!
Hello - This sounds like a great and beneficial organization! Unfortunately, your question is beyond the scope of what I can address. I'd suggest contacting an accountant...or maybe an attorney with experience with similar organizations. I think you may need guidance on tax codes or similar issues.
Dear Atanas,
Thank you so much for your question. A quick search brought me to this website: https://www.globalcrafts.org/ which purports to do just what you are seeking to do. I obviously can't vouch for this organization, but you might be able to do some research about how they work and see if it's something you can duplicate. Another option would be to find programs that seem to do the things you'd like to do and reach out to those programs to see how they have accomplished what you'd like to do. I don't believe there's a magic, one-stop solution, so it will likely just take some time to dig into how others have done this work and see what you can duplicate or how you can form partnerships.
Best of luck in pursuing your degree and in this endeavor.
Kind regards, Nicole
Hi Stacey, A quick Google Scholar search provides the following resources: Fawcett, S. B., Francisco, V. T., Schultz, J. A., Berkowitz, B., Wolff, T. J., & Nagy, G. (2000). The Community Tool Box: a Web-based resource for building healthier communities. Public health reports, 115(2-3), 274. Francisco, V. T., Fawcett, S. B., Schultz, J. A., Berkowitz, B., Wolff, T. J., & Nagy, G. (2001). Using Internet‐Based Resources to Build Community Capacity: The Community Tool Box [http://ctb. ukans. edu/]. American Journal of Community Psychology, 29(2), 293-300. And I happen to know that the Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice has published an article about the Toolbox as well: Holt, C. M., Fawcett, S. B., Schultz, J. A., Berkowitz, B., Wolff, T. J. Francisco, V. T. (2013). Building Community Practice Competencies Globally through the Community Tool Box. Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, 4(4), 1-8. Retrieved Day/Month/Year, from (http://www.gjcpp.org/). These will certainly get you started. I think if you have additional questions, you should feel free to email the folks at the Toolbox with additional questions: toolbox@ku.edu Hope this helps! Thanks for your interest in the Community Tool Box! Nicole
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hello Nancy,
Thank you for your very thoughtful questions about the Community Tool Box, and please excuse our belated reply.
Steve Fawcett and I have tried to respond to them briefly. Since there was a team that created the Community Tool Box, we are responding as founding team members who were there from the beginning, We have a sense of our origins and the thinking behind them.
Note that there are background readings that offer a fuller picture of the origins and design of the CTB and subsequent applications. Several reprints will be emailed to you following this updated response.
Was a framework/ model/ theory used to guide the development and evaluation of the toolbox/ toolkit? I don't mean the conceptual framework described in Francisco et al 2001, as this appears to refer to the content.
In our formation, theories, models, and frameworks were secondary considerations. Our main goal was and is to provide information on community health and development that readers can apply directly in their own community settings to improve community outcomes. In an effort to be ecumenical—to leave space for people to use their own frameworks for action—we did not tout a single framework for action. However, we did have a general framework in mind: /en/get-started
Did the authors utilized an adult educational theory when developing the content?
We used elements of behavioral instruction to structure content for each section: intro, rationale, how-to steps, rationales, examples, checklist or task analyses.
Were any behaviour change theories used? i.e., the authors are trying to change audience behaviour. Was this measured?
Not explicitly. We were trying to change audience behavior, in the sense that we wanted readers to use information derived in practice. But we did not attempt to measure behavior change directly.
How were stakeholders chosen? Was a consensus method applied to choices made? Was there a Steering/ Advisory Group?
At the beginning, we formed an Advisory Group of perhaps 15 members. These were well-regarded professionals in the community health and development field who we knew personally, or at least knew of. We dialogued with them by e-mail and met with them in conference call quarterly for a few years.
Was feasibility, usability, etc evaluated?
Feasibility and usability were measured largely through measures of traffic on the site (e.g., unique sessions, bounce rate, time on site, use by individual section). For the past decade or so, we have been using Google Analytics to obtain more refined measures; we go over such feedback together on an (approximately) quarterly basis.
In addition, we have conducted and continue to conduct approximately-yearly surveys of the nearly 1000 users on our e-mail distribution list. The feedback on those surveys helps us to evaluate and sometimes modify our work. We are also guided by comments received in our Guest Book, a link to which has always been on our home page, as well as by comments directed to us at tookbox@ku.edu
Was a process and/or outcome evaluation conducted?
See response to question above
There is some use of 'toolbox' and 'toolkit'. Are these seen as interchangeable? What definition is used?
The terms overlap, but are not interchangeable. “Tool Box” refers to the entire Community Tool Box site. “Toolkit” for us refers to one of 16 sets of specific instructional materials associated with a key community topic (assessment, planning, etc.) The “Toolkits” include task analyses and examples for practice routines that are common to multiple disciplines involved in community health and development (e.g., public health, community development, community psychology, international development).
When material / literature was collected, was systematic review methodology used? or something else.
I’m not sure I would say we used “systematic review methodology,” but in creating different content on the site, we looked for the best available sources at the time, and cited them as references.
Was there guidance from a specific dissemination theory?
Somewhat. Much of our training and experience as community development professionals does involve dissemination, and we have always attempted to apply that knowledge in publicizing our work. Ev Rogers’ diffusion theory and social marketing are two sources of influence: e.g., listen to audiences about their interests, design content that has relative advantage, make it easier and more rewarding to access and use the CTB, use examples to align to meet needs of those working on different issues, etc. See more on social marketing in the CTB: /en/implement-social-marketing-effort
I hope these responses may be helpful to you. We surely appreciate your being in touch with us, and send best wishes for continued success in all the work you do.
Sincerely,
Bill Berkowitz and Steve Fawcett for the Community Tool Box team
Hi Stacey, Please see the answers to your questions from the CTB team below Kind Regards, Nicole --------------------------------------- Hello, Stacey – … Thank you for your very thoughtful questions about the Community Tool Box, and please excuse our belated reply. I’ll try to respond to them briefly. I was not a creator of the Community Tool Box, and am responding here for myself; but as a founding team member who was there from the beginning, I think I may have a sense of our origins and the thinking behind them. Was a framework/ model/ theory used to guide the development and evaluation of the toolbox/ toolkit? I don't mean the conceptual framework described in Francisco et al 2001, as this appears to refer to the content. In our formation, theories, models, and frameworks were secondary considerations. Our main goal was and is to provide information on community health and development that readers can apply directly in their own community settings to improve community outcomes. Did the authors utilized an adult educational theory when developing the content? No Were any behaviour change theories used? i.e., the authors are trying to change audience behaviour. Was this measured? Not explicitly. We were trying to change audience behavior, in the sense that we wanted readers to use information derived in practice. But we did not attempt to measure behavior change directly. How were stakeholders chosen? Was a consensus method applied to choices made? Was there a Steering/ Advisory Group? At the beginning, we formed an Advisory Group of perhaps 15 members. These were well-regarded professionals in the community health and development field who we knew personally, or at least knew of. We dialogued with them by e-mail and met with them in conference call quarterly for a few years. Was feasibility, usability, etc evaluated? Feasibility and usability were measured largely through measures of traffic on the site (e.g., unique sessions, bounce rate, time on site, use by individual section). For the past decade or so, we have been using Google Analytics to obtain more refined measures; we go over such feedback together on an (approximately) quarterly basis. In addition, we have conducted and continue to conduct approximately-yearly surveys of the nearly 1000 users on our e-mail distribution list. The feedback on those surveys helps us to evaluate and sometimes modify our work. We are also guided by comments received in our Guest Book, a link to which has always been on our home page, as well as by comments directed to us at tookbox@ku.edu Was a process and/or outcome evaluation conducted? See response to question above There is some use of 'toolbox' and 'toolkit'. Are these seen as interchangeable? What definition is used? The terms overlap, but are not interchangeable. “Tool Box” refers to the entire Community Tool Box site. “Toolkit” for us refers to one of 16 sets of specific instructional materials associated with a key community topic (assessment, planning, etc.) When material / literature was collected, was systematic review methodology used? or something else. I’m not sure I would say we used “systematic review methodology,” but in creating different content on the site, we looked for the best available sources at the time, and cited them as references. Was there guidance from a specific dissemination theory? Not as such. Much of our training and experience as community development professionals does involve dissemination, and we have always attempted to apply that knowledge in publicizing our work. I hope these responses may be helpful to you. We surely appreciate your being in touch with us, and send best wishes for continued success in all the work you do. Sincerely, Bill Berkowitz for the Community Tool Box team
Hello – Thank you for contacting us! That’s great to hear that you’re working on a project for your Master’s. It sounds like you might need to do some sort of needs assessment, if just for your own purposes, to determine what project might be helpful to your community. Since you’re not being commissioned to conduct a formal needs assessment, this can be fairly informal to help you figure out what your focus may be. Check out the following chapters and toolkits regarding needs assessment on the Community Tool Box. They should give you some ideas of where to start. In particular, I’d start by looking at any publicly available data on topics that interest you (e.g., poverty, substance abuse, crime, housing, etc.) and see where there’s either a trend in the wrong direction or your community is out of line with a comparison area (i.e., state, region, country). Here are the tools from the Community Tool Box. You can access them through the Table of Contents at /en/table-of-contents:
I hope this information helps. Best wishes in your efforts!
Hello – thanks for contacting us!
The Community Tool Box team definitely encourages people to use the resources! You can see the entire use policy at this link: /en/use-policy. But the most relevant part is this:
CONDITIONS OF USE OF MATERIALS FROM THE CTB
Hello Fadhilla! I'm so glad you found the Tool Box useful. Here is the recommended way to cite it, keeping in mind, obviously, that "Chapter 3, Section 10: Conducting Concerns Surveys." would be replaced with the section you're citing and you would use the date on which you you actually retrieved the information. The full details are found here: /en/use-policy
I hope this helps. Best of luck with the the thesis! Nicole
Hello - thank you for contacting us.
The Community Tool Box is oriented toward helping people become effective participants in community change. So, we don't offer or have information on specific resources such as wheel chair ramps. However, I'd encourage you to check with your local United Way. Check the following link to find a United Way near you. Even though they may not provide resources like a wheel chair ramp, they can refer you to an organization that can help.
https://www.unitedway.org/find-your-united-way/
I hope this helps!
Hello – Thank you for your question!
This is a topic that’s really important to me personally because my career for many years was working with a youth-led community activism organization. So, I know well that there are relatively few truly organic youth-adult partnerships that aren’t “owned” by a larger organization or that don’t view youth as recipients of adult knowledge rather than valuable participants in community change. It’s exciting to hear you’re working on something that breaks this mold.
I don’t have a quick answer regarding good examples of programs that fit all of your criteria. But I’ll give you some resources and names of community psychologists who do a lot of research in this area. One caveat is that these resources and people are in the U.S. But at least one of the researchers has done multinational studies. The organization and people I’ve listed below may be able to give you better answers regarding specific programs they know that will fit what you need.
Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing – This organization provides a lot of resources to promote youth organizing for community change, including an interactive map of youth organizing programs. https://fcyo.org/programs/youth-organizing-landscape-map
Here are a couple of community psychologists who do a lot of work related to youth-adult partnerships and youth activism. I’ve cited a few of their articles and their contact info.
Shepherd Zeldin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, shep.zeldin@wisc.edu
Zeldin, S., Christens, B. D., & Powers, J. L. (2013). The Psychology and Practice of Youth‐Adult Partnership: Bridging Generations for Youth Development and Community Change. American journal of community psychology, 51(3-4), 385-397.
Zeldin, S., Gauley, J., Krauss, S. E., Kornbluh, M., & Collura, J. (2017). Youth–adult partnership and youth civic development: Cross-national analyses for scholars and field professionals. Youth & Society, 49(7), 851-878.
Katie Richards-Schuster, University of Michigan, kers@umich.edu
Richards-Schuster, K., & Timmermans, R. (2017). Conceptualizing the role of adults within youth-adult partnerships: An example from practice. Children and Youth Services Review, 81, 284-292.
Tom Akiva, University of Pittsburgh, tomakiva@pitt.edu
Akiva, T., Carey, R. L., Cross, A. B., Delale-O'Connor, L., & Brown, M. R. (2017). Reasons youth engage in activism programs: Social justice or sanctuary?. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 53, 20-30.
And feel free to contact me directly at tara.gregory@wichita.edu. I’d be interested to hear more about your project and could share info about an evaluation we’re doing re: youth-adult partnerships focusing on mental health programs.
Hi Steven,
Thanks for your email. Your work sounds very ambitious and important. Since there is no specific question in your submission, I assume you're looking to connect with funders. The Community Tool Box is not a funding organization, but it does have resources to help you find and work with funders. You might look specifically at the following sections:
/en/writing-grant-application
/en/table-of-contents/finances/grants-and-financial-res...
I hope this helps. Best of luck with your program!
Dear Khalid,
Thanks very much for your email. I have forwarded your inquiry to other members of the Community Tool Box team for appropriate response. Best of luck in your good work.
Kind Regards, Nicole
Hi Cynthia,
Thank you so much for your email and for your work in the community. As I am not a HIPAA expert, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to provide you with any guidance about workarounds or other strategies. Your best bet is to contact an attorney in your community who understands HIPAA and can advise you (ideally pro bono, or without charge) on the ways you can maintain compliance and still feel you're being as effective as possible. According to FindLaw (a respected legal directory) the kind of attorney most likely to be able to assist you is one who practices with expertise in ERISA (here is the link: http://healthcare.findlaw.com/patient-rights/hipaa-the-health-insurance-... ; at the bottom of this page is a link to a directory) Many large firms encourage their attorneys to bill a percentage of their time to pro bono projects as part of their community service efforts. It may take some time to research attorneys or firms in your area, but that would be your best bet in terms of learning what you can and need to do to both protect the information you need to protect and also do the work you want to do. I hope this is helpful and that you quickly and easily find a workable solution.
---------------------------
Since my last post here, a colleague offered another idea that I wanted to be sure to share with you. He recommended you contact your state’s disability rights center which would be able to give some solid advice. Contact info can be found here by searching by state: http://www.ndrn.org/index.php
This colleague also suggested that there are accommodations in the HIPAA regs for marketing, but due caution must always be taken. Here’s a good place to look that stuff up: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/faq
I hope these additional resources are useful for you as you continue to work through your concerns. Best of luck!
Dear Lennox, Thank you so much for your email. I'm unsure what question you're asking of an advisor, but I can point you to a resource on leadership development since you mention having many executive members and a leadership plan may be useful for you: /en/table-of-contents/leadership/leadership-ideas/plan-... You may also consider reviewing the Creating and Maintaining Partnerships Toolkit: /en/creating-and-maintaining-partnerships. This may assist you in finding other like-minded organizations who do similar work. Of course, if you'd like to email the Community Tool Box team directly, you may certainly do so: toolbox@ku.edu Best of luck in your very important work! Kind Regards, Nicole
Hi Ashleigh and Andrew,
It sounds like you're starting an ambitious and worthy endeavor! Based on what you've described, I think what will help you the most is the Assessing Community Needs Toolkit: /en/assessing-community-needs-and-resources. This toolkit describes and provides examples for a number of different ways to collect information from the folks that you need to understand. There are some specific examples for surveys that should help you craft the kinds of questions you want to ask, but there are also other methods that may ultimately be more useful for you. You'll want to look at the benefits of each before deciding how you want to collect data, and while there's no "template" as such, there are plenty of examples to get you started.
One thing to keep firmly in mind, of course, is the privacy and protection of the people you want to gather for this endeavor. It's best practice not to ask questions you don't absolutely have to for decision-making purposes (try to leave the "it would be nice to know" questions off and ask only the "we have to know this to move forward" questions). This will also help you with getting people to respond - they are more likely to do so if the questions don't make them feel vulnerable.
If you do want to do a survey, you'll also want to think about whether that survey is on paper or online. Even if you choose to distribute the survey on paper, it is much easier to get the data into a format you can analyze if you use a form or a survey tool. While you can certainly enter answers from a paper survey into a spreadsheet directly, using an online tool allows you to simply answer the questions and the tool formats the spreadsheet for you when you download the data. It cuts down on human error and makes it much easier to organize the data. SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com) has some free options and so does Google Forms. You can use these tools for other types of data too if it helps you organize your thoughts. For example, if you decide to conduct focus groups, you can put your questions into a survey format with an open response and type up your notes as the answers.
I hope this is helpful as you continue on your journey. Best of luck to you!
Be well, Nicole
Dear Maja,
Thanks so much for your email! The Community Tool Box isn't designed, necessarily, for new business ventures. However, strategic planning can be used in a number of contexts. I encourage you to look at those materials and hope they are useful in developing your idea.
/en/table-of-contents/structure/strategic-planning
Thanks, Nicole
Dear Jai,
Thank you so much for your work in your community and for being willing to train others like you. You may obviously use any training materials you find in the Community Tool Box free of charge, but I'm uncertain what other training materials you need. If you would like to seek funding for specific training, I recommend you review this toolkit: /en/writing-grant-application. This will help guide you in requesting resources from funders and other organizations.
I hope this helps.
Be Well, Nicole
Hi Harold, Thanks so much for your email. This sounds like really important work, and I'm glad that your organization is undertaking it. Within the Community Tool Box, there are specific tool kits that can guide you to building successful collaborations:
/en/creating-and-maintaining-partnerships
/en/community-tool-box-toc/community-assessment/chapter...
/en/community-tool-box-toc/community-assessment/chapter...
Additionally, there are a number of community psychologists and health professionals across the country who have dedicated their careers to building and sustaining collaboratives, partnerships, and coalitions. Should you choose to look into this work, a great number of scholarly publications might interest you if you search Google Scholar. In terms of "wrap around services," there is a specific body of work dedicated to that framework that might help inform your approach. Portland State University in their National Wraparound Initiative does a good job of outlining wraparound work in their resource guide (https://nwi.pdx.edu/NWI-book/), but there are a lot of other states working on wraparound initiatives that pop up in a "wraparound best practices" search. SAMHSA also has some resources dedicated to wraparound services. I would encourage you to explore these so that you can guide how your organization would like to implement this in Texas. I hope this is helpful and wish you all the best in your work with the children in Texas. Be Well, Nicole
Dear Salamatu,
Thank you for your email and dedication to community health! While the Community Tool Box is not a funder, it does offer a toolkit that provides some guidance for developing resources and applying for grants. You can access that information here:
Under "related resources" there is a list of potential funders that you might consider: /en/table-of-contents/finances/grants-and-financial-res...
I hope this helps. Best of luck in your endeavors and a Happy 2018 to you.
Dear Megan,
Thanks for your email. The Community Tool Box is not a funder, but it does have a tool kit prepared that helps you find funders and submit applications to them. This tool kit may be found at: /en/writing-grant-application
In terms of other advice for next steps, I would highly recommend you build a logic model for your organization if you haven't done so already. This is simply a more formal way to outline the impact you hope to make and it will offer you a blueprint for programs and evaluation of your work in the future. Some tips to begin this work may be found here: /en/4-developing-framework-or-model-change
I hope this helps as you begin to really dig in to your work in Philadelphia. Best of luck in 2018!
Happy New Year to you as well!
Thank you for writing to us at Ask an Advisor with your important question.
It’s great that you want to start a community outreach program for abused women and children in your community. Your enthusiasm and passion shine through in your letter, and we definitely believe that these in themselves are two of the most important starting ingredients!
Beyond that, some key questions that arise in a project such as this would include:
What specific form would your outreach program take? For example, would it be face-to-face? Might part of it be online, or use social media? Or both? Would there be groups, or 1-on-1 counseling, or both?
How, specifically, would you publicize the program? What’s your plan for getting the word out?
Who in your community would you want to get on board with the program, so that they can support and help you – or at least not oppose you?
What kind of financial resources might you need to pay for this program, and how you would you generate them?
All of this calls for a good deal of careful thinking before you actually begin. That’s natural for any program such as this. It does realistically some take thoughtful planning work in advance, but if you are committed, it is definitely doable.
One more thought: What you have in mind seems like a pretty big idea, which suggests you might not want to carry it out all by yourself. So can you find a small group of people who think as you do, and who could work with you on the project? By sharing your collective energies and wisdom, you can both support each other, share the work, and minimize the likelihood of making mistakes along the way.
For further information, you might want to consult some relevant materials in the Tool Box, such as Chapters 18 and 19 on community interventions. Section 18-1 and 19-1 may be particularly helpful to you.
We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all very best wishes for success in your work!
Thank you, Beth, for writing to us at Ask an Advisor. We applaud your work with people with disabilities, and especially your interest in training them in leadership skills.
As to the specifics of your question, we do not sell printed modules of our materials. On the other hand, under certain conditions (e.g., for workshops) you can download whatever modules you want and duplicate them for local use, without charge.
We have a “Use Policy” on our website that gives the details of how this works, at /en/use-policy. We suggest you read it, determine how it relates to your situation, and proceed accordingly. If you have more particular questions, please let us know.
We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks very much again for being in touch, and all best wishes for continued success in your work.
Thank you, Julie, for writing to us at Ask an Advisor with your important question. It is excellent that you are interested in surveying your community.
We should say at the outset that there are many ways to do this. Here are some points to consider that will help you determine the best way for you:
A good place to start is to check on past history. What surveys in your community have already been done? Normally, you don’t want to duplicate previous work.
And are you sure there is a need for another survey at this time? This is another good starting question, because you would want to ensure that your survey fills some type of community need.
Then, if you proceed, what is the goal of your survey? What do you want to accomplish? And what do you want to do with the results?
Next, what resources do you have to conduct the survey? That is, do you have a budget, or some dollars to spend in design, execution, and analysis? How much time do you have? And are there others who could help you, by being part of a survey team?
Also, have others in the community expressed the need for as survey like the one you have in mind? If so, some community members could join your study team and help out. If not, can you convince them that your survey is needed? – for as mentioned, a community survey should fulfill a community need of some sort.
Then, what form will your survey take? Who will you be surveying? How can you obtain an accurate and representative sample? And what kind of questions will you ask?
The answers to this and the above questions will likely take some careful thinking and planning; but that is very natural in a project such as this. It can be done! And when you are clear on the answers to these starting questions, we think you will be also clearer on how best to proceed, in a way that works best for you and your community.
For further information, you might want to consult some relevant materials in the Tool Box, such as Chapter 3, which focuses on assessment. Chapter 3, Section 7, on surveys, may be particularly useful. .
We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all very best wishes for success in your work.
Thank you, Martin, for writing to us at Ask an Advisor with your important question. We definitely agree that an organization’s vision and mission are important factors in its community work.
How might you adjust yours? One basic criterion for a vision and mission is that it should be clear to your organizational members and to potential future members, so that people can easily understand what your organization does and what it wants to do. In your case, I’m not sure your current vision as stated is as clear or specific as it could be. What do you think?
A second criterion is that the vision in particular should be “big” – that is, it should do some stretching of the imagination, so that people will feel motivated even inspired by your hopes and dreams.
Beyond that, the specifics of a vision andmission depend on your particular organization and its goals. For example, if your organization now collects donations and pays tuition for disadvantaged students, then it makes sense that your vision and mission should be related to those activities, and also that it should help stimulate donations. Your vision and mission can do some real work for you!
One further point, which is if you revise your vision and mission, it’s good to test it out on your members and ask for feedback. It’s okay and natural that your vision and mission go through several different drafts before you arrive at the one you like best. In this sense, it’s like any other piece of creative writing.
For further information, you might benefit from consulting some relevant materials in the Tool Box, such as Chapter 8 on Planning. Chapter 8, Section 1, which deals specifically with visions and missions, may be especially valuable to you.
We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for continued success in your work.
Thanks for writing to us at Ask an Advisor, Simmi. In referring to this section, you can use 2001 as the date of publication. We may ourselves be off by a year or so, but this comes as close as we can determine at the moment. We continue to like this section a lot, though! All best wishes.
... Thank you for writing to us, Tracee, but unfortunately we have no such positions available and would not post position availabilities through this site.
You have chosen a great field to go into, though! In your place, we would consider doing some research on some key organizations in your area that do conflict resolution work, and/or some graduate programs that offer degrees in this field. Perhaps there are also newsletters or list-servs you could subscribe to. That way, you could learn more specifics about the hiring situation in your field, and more about where the jobs are.
We hope this much might be helpful. We send all best wishes in finding the right job for you.
... Thanks for writing to us, but unfortunately your question lies outside our area of expertise. Our best suggestion would be to contact local insurance agents in the Hamden area, and/or to be in touch with local nonprofits similar to yours and be guided by what they have done in similar situations, All best wishes for a good outcome!
