In short I would like to connect with someone that could advise me on how to advance my desires
to make this a better, more caring, kinder environment for our cultural survival before we blow it
into a "race War". The current political powers have and will continue to make race relations a nationwide civil war if we don't get rid of instigators of hate and superior attitudes toward people of color. My desire is to work on the learned attitudes of HATE, which is the main ingredient in racism. Until last year I taught religious education for 27 years, in all those years I learned that even as early as kindergarden children that came from "so called religious home enviorment)s) were already well "learned" in the word hate.
Hi Mary,
Welcome to the Community Tool Box (CTB) and Ask an Advisor, we’re very glad you chose to visit us and for your excellent questions. We also want to thank you for the work you are doing on behalf of your community and for wanting to improve the lives of everyone who lives there, hopefully I can find you some resources that will help you with financing your center along with resources we have here in the CTB related to racial justice. Before I get into the particulars I think it would be helpful to 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 my 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?
So, what do you need to get a community learning center off the ground? Well, before we tackle funding I think the very first thing you need is a model that will get you thinking about how you want to go about planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining this center. The CTB model provided through the link below is to get you to really focus your thoughts about what you both want to do and how to go about doing it in terms of: assessing what needs to be done, and what’s already available in your community in terms of resources; planning how to get from where you are now (a potential facility) to where you want to go (a fully functional community learning center); acting by mobilizing other people (you really can’t go this alone, all the best community projects have a diversity of partners working together to solve community problems); evaluating whether the community learning center is working as intended; and in sustaining the community learning center in perpetuity. So, all that said, I suggest taking a look at: A Model for Getting Started: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/get-started. I know, there’s a lot to unpack in this model, what with all the toolkits and other resources, but for my money this is absolutely the best place to start, taking it one step at a time. The good news is that you already took a giant step in the right direction by finding a facility; you’re off to a great start. In Chapter 2 – Other Models for Promoting Community Health and Development: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development you’ll find 18 models, or examples if you prefer, but I think the most relevant to what you want to do are found in Section 8 – Communities that Care: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development/communities-that-care/main and Section 16 - Building Compassionate Communities: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development/building-compassionate-communities/main. Between the CTB model and the two other models you’ll have a good idea of what can be done. While the latter two sections won’t tell you how to develop the community learning center once you have secured the facility, they will give you some principles to consider as you put the community learning center together.
To give you a bit of a breather Mary from all that modeling, I found the following link in Chapter 26 - Changing the Physical and Social Environment, Section 8 – Creating Good Places for Interactions: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/implement/physical-social-environment/places-for-interaction/main which will teach you how to create a community environment that promotes community engagement, which in essence is what you are looking to do. After reading through this section have a look at the examples in Section 8 to give you an idea of what others have done: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/implement/physical-social-environment/places-for-interaction/examples. I always find the examples to be very insightful and inspirational, and I hope you find them to be likewise.
So far, I’ve given you a lot to consider. The one thing we haven’t really talked about, and your very first question is how you’re going to fund your community learning center. You have a facility in mind, but I think you should consider putting a clear financial plan in place. So, I’m going to take you to the CTB section entitled Generating, Managing, and Sustaining Financial Resources which will provide you with information on writing grants, preparing an annual budget, and planning for financial sustainability. In this section there are three chapters and one toolkit, but for your purposes the most important chapters are: Chapter 42 - Getting Grants and Financial Resources: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/finances/grants-and-financial-resources, and Chapter 43 - Managing Finances: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/finances/managing-finances. The related toolkit is number 14 – Applying for grants: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/applying-for-grants. Securing funding is, well, a challenge for everybody, and takes a lot of time and effort, but if you have a worthy goal, a solid plan, and are willing to shake the bushes (so to speak) in your community then you should be able to get this community learning center off the ground. Read these chapters and the toolkit with care so you get a complete picture about what you need to do.
The last resource I want to offer you is the Justice Action Toolkit (https://ctb.ku.edu/en/justice-action-toolkit) which provides resources to support community members working towards racial justice and gender equity, and injustice in its many forms. Just click any link of interest and it will tell you all you need to know about that particular action in terms of how to actually go about taking that kind of action. If you want to educate and train community members to take action then this is the toolkit to use. This might not be an exhaustive list, but it will at least get you thinking about what kinds of actions could make up your advocacy campaign. Advocacy and other actions you can take include:
- Developing a Plan for Advocacy
- Registering Voters
- Encouraging Census Participation
- Writing Letters to Elected Officials
- Writing Letters to the Editor
- Seeking Enforcement of Existing Laws or Policies
- Lobbying Decision-makers
- Conducting a Petition Drive
- General Rules for Organizing for Legislative Advocacy
- Developing and Maintaining Ongoing Relationships with Legislators and their Aides
- Organizing Public Demonstrations
- Initiating Legal Action
- Organizing a Boycott
- Using Social Media for Digital Advocacy
- Advocacy Over and For the Long Term
- Building Relationships with People from Different Cultures
- Strategies and Activities for Reducing Racial Prejudice and Racism
- Learning to be an Ally for People from Diverse Groups and Backgrounds
- Creating Opportunities for Members of Groups to Identify Their Similarities, Differences, and Assets
- Multicultural Collaboration
- Building Inclusive Communities
Phew, that’s a lot to get through Mary, but the resources provided will give you a good start. Just remember, you don’t have to do everything all at once, one step at a time. I suggest reading through the CTB resources offered in the order in which they were presented as I think it’s a logical sequence. If the resources provided don’t give you everything you need then do visit the CTB again and I will try and find you more of what you’re looking for; as I said, you have enough at the moment to get you moving in the right direction. With that, on behalf of the CTB thank you so very much for presenting me with an interesting and challenging question, and for what you are attempting to do in your community, it is admirable and inspiring! We wish you the best of success in all your endeavors.
Ask an Advisor
Hope you are fine.
I am planning to do a study on Measuring the intervention of policy into the practise by social innovation ventures in Pakistan. I came across your website. It seems its a right match for what i am looking for and what you have worked on.
I am writing this email for two purposes.
1. My main research objective is to study whether the social ventures team are implementing the research into their policies and practice or not? particularly related to Implementation or alignment of projects to UNSDGs.
2. Please let me know suitable framework so that i can assess social innovation projects contribution/practice level to UNSDGs. how can i use the framework for my study? How to use it? Is this a question based or content analysis method?
Please advise. Anxious to hear from you.
Hi Waqar,
Welcome to the Community Tool Box (CTB) and Ask an Advisor, we’re very glad you chose to visit us, for your interesting questions, and for your enthusiasm in wanting to conduct a research study, kudos to you. I’m afraid I have a bit of bad news in that what you’re asking is a bit outside my realm of expertise as an advisor and the scope of the CTB. However, I do offer some CTB resources (see below) which might be of some assistance to you. Before I get to those, I think a brief primer is in order to explain a bit about the CTB and Ask an Advisor as they relate to what you’re asking of us: the CTB is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change, offering thousands of pages of tips and tools for taking action in communities. The vision behind the Community Tool Box is that people — locally and globally — are better prepared to work together to change conditions that affect their lives. Our mission is to promote community health and development by connecting people, ideas, and resources. With the belief that people can change their communities for the better, and informed by disciplines including applied behavior analysis, public health, and community psychology, partners at the University of Kansas and collaborating organizations developed the Community Tool Box as a public service. 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 my 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?
Although your particular request is, as I said, a bit beyond the scope of what we are able to accommodate because we don’t offer advice on how to conduct research studies directly related to the SDGs or how to develop a monitoring and evaluation framework that will determine the extent to which an intervention aligns with the SDGs, as I mentioned the CTB does have some resources which might prove useful to you. The resources of which I speak include four chapters and one toolkit from our Evaluating Community Programs and Initiatives section which provides information on using evaluation to understand and improve any initiative along with foundational information about evaluation more generally. All you need do is click on the links below and it will take you right where you need to go. I suggest reading through all the sections in chapters 37, 38, and 39, and toolkit 12 to give you an idea as to how to approach your research, which is actually evaluation.
- Chapter 36. Introduction to Evaluation
- Chapter 37. Operations in Evaluating Community Interventions
- Chapter 38. Some Methods for Evaluating Comprehensive Community Initiatives
- Chapter 39. Using Evaluation to Understand and Improve the Initiative
- Toolkit 12. Evaluating the Initiative
Given that I was not able to fully answer your questions, and think that the CTB resources I offered will only be marginally helpful, which I do feel bad about because of the faith you’ve put in us, I do have another suggestion for you: talk with faculty and staff you might know in the Lahore Garrison University’s Development Program of International Relations and Political Science Department, specifically Drs. Esan and Haider who are experts in International Relations and who might point you in a better direction than I am able to do. You might even talk to Dr. Rana in your own department as her expertise is, among others, research. After rooting around in LGU I came up with another, even better idea, finding a monitoring and evaluation expert in Lahore with whom you might connect. That I did. Via LinkedIn I found M. Junaid Akhtar who is a M.Junaid has a account monitoring and evaluation specialist in the Program Implementation Unit, P&D Department Punjab located in Lahore. I couldn’t find his contact information, but I’m sure you know the lay of the land and can easily track down Mr. Akhtar.
With that Waqar, I apologize for not being able to offer you better advice, as I said, a bit out of my depth. Do talk to the faculty members and Mr. Akhtar as I suggested as they will likely be able to point you in a better direction than I. On behalf of the CTB I wish you the best of success in all your endeavors and do hope I’ve been of some use. Be well.
Ask an Advisor
Dear Cherrice,
Welcome to the Community Tool Box! I would like to provide you with a response but needed some clarity from you. What kind of program do you seek to develop or start? Who do you plan to target or serve and where? If you could help me with answering these broad questions, I can direct you to the support you need.
Thank You
Dear Erin,
Welcome to the Community Tool Box! I would like to support you and provide you with the best answers. I am interested in learning more about what you mean by preventive policies. Can you provide me with some additional details? I do not want to make assumptions. What are you all choosing to prevent? If you could provide me with a bit more context, I should be able to answer your question.
Thank you,
Dawn
This is Haile from Ethiopia. first of all i would like to say thank you for all your support and you endeavors to support different community living in crisis in the world . i have benefited many for this page and i have referred many issues while i face challenges in my work time.
currently i am working with INGO serving for African refugees in Ethiopia as protection team leader for mentorship programme. the programme is a refugee lead programme( one refugee mentor for refugee mentee) aiming to contribute for resilience of refugee in time of unsafe and irregular migration. the mentoring course implementing via phone (because of covid19) is highly focused on four area including planning skill, education study skill, protection risks and options and stress management.
Saying this, since the programme is phone based, now we are facing changes on the E-mentoring sessions. One thing we are not able to include for deaf persons in the sessions. and secondly we have doubts on quality of the programme (because we are remotely managing the program). what advice do you have to solve this challenge.? and either any possibility to assign a mentor for me so that i will be able to train strong mentor team in refugee setup.
thank you for understanding my english.
stay safe
Haile
Dear Haile,
Welcome back to the Community Tool Box! When reading your question, it appears you have two questions or challenges. 1) you are interested in how you can adapt your mentoring program for those who may be hearing impaired and 2) you have some doubts about the quality of the mentoring program. First, can you provide some insight into which remote platform you are using for E-mentoring? I know there are options in both Zoom and Google classroom for you to have close caption options (this helps those who are unable to hear). This may help those who are doing the mentoring. If the mentee has a hearing impairment, do they have access to any assistive aids or support on their end? Never want to answer a question with more questions, but I would need some more information to provide you with the best support.
Second, you mentioned "we have doubts on quality of the programme." I wonder if you have been able to get any feedback from the mentee perspective? You can use one of your mentee sessions to ask them how are they feeling about the remote experience, what do they want to see more of and less of? We are all trying to manage this digital space and do our best in this environment. I do not want to be English-centered but here is a resource I found: https://www.mentoring.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/E-Mentoring-Supplem... and see this resource: https://www.mentoring.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Final_Elements_Publ...
I believe if you go several pages into the document, you will find some recommendations to consider and topics. In the checklist they offer items you should always consider in access and monitoring e-mentoring.
Thank you
Ross,
Since the content may be updated and frequently and I take it you are planning to cite the content, you can use the date you retrieved or accessed the information. DThere are several ways you can cite this base on your requirements. For example,
Community Tool Box. (2020). Assessing community needs and resources. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/assessing-community-needs-and-resources
I hope this provides you with the information you need.
Dear Medicia,
I am trusting you are well, if you were unable to see my previous response. See the the example below:
American Psychological Association (APA): Community Tool Box. (year). Assessing community needs and resources. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/assessing-community-needs-and-resources
I most familiar with APA but many others would adhere to a similar structure. The citing author, agency, year, title and URL address.
I hope this provides you with the information you need.
Dear Medicia,
The standard rule of thumb for a citation from a website like the Community Tool Box is to either use the publication year (sometimes it is listed at the top or bottom of the document) or use the retrieval year with the noted website. For example: Community Tool Box. (2020). Writing letters to elected officials. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/direct-action/letters-t...
a way that I can reference this community too box? I am just not sure how to
do it
Dear Medicia,
Thank you for sending over that question and an important one it is. Happy to hear you find the website useful to your assignments. If you have to cite or reference the TookBox in your papers or other written documents. There are several ways you can cite this base on your requirements. For example,
American Psychological Association (APA): Community Tool Box. (year). Assessing community needs and resources. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/assessing-community-needs-and-resources
I most familiar with APA but many others would adhere to a similar structure. The citing author, agency, year, title and URL address.
I hope this provides you with the information you need.
Tommy,
I am not sure which document you are referring to but did you visit the website: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/coronavirus-tools?
Thank you..
Celeste,
Thank you for sending over the question. If you have to cite or reference the TookBox in your papers or other written documents. There are several ways you can cite this base on your requirements. For example,
American Psychological Association (APA): Community Tool Box. (year). Assessing community needs and resources. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/assessing-community-needs-and-resources
I am at a point which I am being asked about consumer leadership.
Do you have any info on obtaining info on consumer leadeeship ?
Peter,
Thank you for your thoughtful question. When you are referring to consumer leadership, you may want to read this paper: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/sustain/long-term-sustainability.... It appears this work speaks to the ways in which consumers of mental wellness services lead the decision making/or inform their treatment or provided services. You may want to consider a few items on your assessment that speaks to how individuals who use such or seek such services inform the service design.
I am looking forward to hear about additional details if you have them.
Thank You
I need to develop a proposal for a sustainability intervention that is designed to solve a problem in a community that I live in.
Currently, the community area I live in, I have noticed so many young children roaming the streets now with COVID 19 that is scary with no adult or parental supervision.
The work that I do is working with homeless people, people living on the streets for several years.
I need some advice and guidance on how to start the proposal
Your assistance and guidance would be highly appreciated
Fiona Bosch
(c) : 079 3508251
Fiona,
Thank you for sending over your question and I hope I can provide you with the information you need. I do want to let you know that the Community ToolBox offers you a variety of resources to address your needs. For one, here is a model and resource for social action: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/get-started. You will find specific resources that help you think about how to assess a problem/challenge and then how to develop a model for sustainability. I would encourage you to go through the steps, assess, plan, act, evaluate, and sustain and use the resources provided and tools. Since you mentioned "a sustainability intervention", I would like to point you directly to these resources: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/sustain/long-term-sustainability/sustainability-strategies/mainh. The resources are very specific to strategies that help organizations and other entities think about strategies needed to sustain their work.
Thank you
Greetings Bertha,
Thank you for sending over this question and your interest to start a youth organization. I applaud you for taking this initiative and your interest. There are different approaches to how to begin or start up the organization. I do want to acknowledge that I may be partially bias in how I share this information, because I am U.S. bound. However, let me give it a try. For one, you may want to learn more about what does the South African government require? Can you operate as a not for profit, private, or faith-based organization and what are the reporting standards for that? Then, I think it always important to begin with purpose, what do you aim to accomplish or want to achieve with this organization? For instance, you are starting a youth organization that increases young people's knowledge of the political process in South Africa and how to influence or find their voice in political decisions. I think it is always important to begin with purpose.
Here are a few additional questions you should answer:
- Who will be my primary target group and why?
- Why is there a need for such an organization? What is missing from the community or what gaps will I be able to fill.
- What resources do I need to have in place for basic operations? E.g., people, building space, location, money
- How do I bring youth and community in early on the development of the organization? I believe it is important to think about their perspective of their needs and what they would want this organization to focus on.
This is just the beginning and I am here to provide you with further guidance as you get through these questions.
.
We are planning convenings in various counties in Oregon inviting community stakeholders to 1) identify top priorities for COVID-19 recovery in the next 6-9 months in their local community and 2) to help them determine resources/assets already available and facilitate leveraging existing resources to address those priorities.
What would you recommend in terms of a data collection method? We are looking for a method/database to be used synchronously during the convening and asynchronously post convening. It would would ideally be "owned/accessed" by community members and updated by them once our intervention is over.
Secondly, a huge area will be a focus on vulnerable populations, identifying the needs of certain segments of the population - with specific targeted resources/tactics to address them. Do you have examples of populations/resource asset maps (vs geographical) with this type of focus, including sample questions?
Thank you so much for your guidance.
Greetings Veronique,
Thank you for sending over your questions and congratulations on leading this work. I want to focus the response to you around your two questions:
What would you recommend in terms of a data collection method? There are many ways you can approach this work and here are some resources you may want to review as you think through your approach. Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources (https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/develop-a-plan/main). Of course, you can create a survey (either open-ended or not) online and have people respond live while facilitating a session or begin with a questions "What resources/supports have you relied on during the COVID-19 pandemic? In proximity to where you live/dwell how far or how close are these supports and resources?" (maybe have them drag a cursor or place a dot on a map). You may also want to ask the question 'What are some resources/supports you need of or require during the COVID-19 pandemic?"
You could do some convening afterwards or send themes to folks and have them rank from most important to least important. I also want to send over this read/resource to provide you with some insight: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/COVID-19_CommunityEngagement_130320.pdf
Do you have examples of populations/resource asset maps (vs geographical) with this type of focus, including sample questions? Chapter 3, Section 8: Identifying Community Assets and Resources (https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/identify-community-assets/tools). Here you will find "Tools" "Examples" for support on how to phrase questions and other related content.
I know there is much here and I do trust that you will find the information you need to lean forward with this project.
Thank you Jordan for your submission but I am not sure the question you wish to ask. Can you offer some clarity here so we can point you in the right direction?
Greetings Kigundu,
Thank you for sending your question to the Community ToolBox. I would like to direct you to a resource you may find useful. Chapter 45: Promoting Awareness and Interest (https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/sustain/social-marketing/awareness-through-communication/main). Here you will find tips on crafting your key messages. You should also check out the Advocating for Change page https://ctb.ku.edu/en/advocating-change . There will be examples you can review to provide you with some tangible models and some additional resources.
Good luck,
I'm Ramin Inanloo. am from Iran.
I have a master's degree in sports sociology from a university in Iran.
The title of my dissertation research is on "Cultural Intelligence and Social Capital in Football Players" .
I am interested in continuing my studies in community psychology.
I want do guide me.
thanks a lot.
Ramin,
Thank you for your question and interest in community psychology. I would like to provide you with several resources where you can learn about more programs offered in this field of study:
- Society for Community Research and Action https://www.scra27.org/what-we-do/education/academic-programs/ (most are U.S. base and some our international)
- Victoria University (Australia) https://www.vu.edu.au/courses/master-of-applied-psychology-community-psychology-amac
- University of Barcelona (Spain) https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/estudis/oferta_formativa/masters_propis/fitxa/C/201911932/index.html
Joanna,
Thank you for sending over your question to the Community ToolBox. There are several things to think about when you say increase family engagement. Who are the families? Do they represent groups who are learning a new language as their second language, groups who have been traditionally marginalized, etc? I would suggest you consider some of these questions to think through some ways that you can provide resources to the families. What are their needs and what value will they obtain if they were to become more engaged in your programming? Also, you may need to bring in someone who represents their community and someone they deem as an active member in their community and work through them to invite families. These are some initial questions and suggestions for you to consider.
The Community ToolBox also has a resource to help guide you and to increase participation and engagement across groups: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/increasing-participation-and-membership.
I hope this helps you and thank you.
Thank you!
Greetings Rita,
Thank you for your question and so happy to hear how the Community ToolBox is a great resource. Without knowing your format requirements, I am not sure if I can provide you with a complete answer. However, if you are using APA format you will need to use the following format.
Community ToolBox. (n.d.). Title of page or reference (e.g., Assessing community needs and resources). https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-n...
E.g., Author or Group name. (n.d.). Title of page. Site name (if applicable). URL
my name is shafiq, i am a social work student at the university of Regina(CA). i am currently working on a grant proposal assignment for my class. I am using the Logic model approach to reduce racial and cultural segregation in Saskatoon through sports and recreation. my questions are:
1. Describe the people who could potentially help address the problem or goal, the assets they could contribute, and how they
will be engaged in the project.
2. Describe material resources (e.g., money, equipment) which could potentially help address the problem or goal, the assets
that could be contributed, and how they will be used.
3. Identify the key stakeholders (those who have something to gain or lose by the efforts to address the problem or goal) and
how they will be involved in the project.
4. Describe potential sources of resistance to the project, the forms it might take, and how resistance could be reduced.
proposed interventions
a. Components of the Intervention (for example)
Specific Elements of the Intervention
b. Providing Information and Enhancing Skills (e.g., workshops to train skills on…)
c. Enhancing Services and Support
d. Modifying Access, Barriers, and Opportunities
e. Changing the Consequences (e.g., incentives)
f. Modifying Policies and Broader Systems
Greetings Kikobero,
Thank you for sending over your questions to the Community ToolBox and there is much information you seek. In reviewing your questions, I wonder if it would be far simpler to approach them one by one.
1. Describe the people who could potentially help address the problem or goal, the assets they could contribute, and how they
will be engaged in the project. There is no direct answer for you; however, I believe you want to think about who will be your target audience in designing your sports and recreational program and who will you need to rely on to help you develop this program. Will there be local organizations that currently sponsor or provide similar activities or those who may have access to a certain population? While I do not want to answer a question with another question, you will need to be clear about the organizations or individuals in your community of interest you will need to work with or access to develop and offer the sports and recreational program.
2. Describe material resources (e.g., money, equipment) which could potentially help address the problem or goal, the assets
that could be contributed, and how they will be used. Not sure if I can provide you with an answer here without knowing all the details about your project. However, you should identify what types of resources you will need to develop and offer the sports and recreational program.
3. Identify the key stakeholders (those who have something to gain or lose by the efforts to address the problem or goal) and
how they will be involved in the project. See my previous note. You should be able to identify who will be your target group, who will you seek to serve through the sports and recreational program, then other groups who may benefit from such programming. You want to think through this using some of the tools on the Community ToolBox (Chapter 14: Applying for Grants https://ctb.ku.edu/en/applying-for-grants/examples). You will be able to access some examples of grants that identify their target groups.
I believe the questions you pose will require you to really think about your target group, why such programming could reduce racial and cultural segregation, etc. In just thinking about your questions, I think you primary argument is "when individuals come together to achieve a common goal through sports then the racial and cultural differences are removed"
Dear Michael,
Thank you so much for contacting the Community Tool Box and congratulations on completing your degree and your interest in starting an organization. If I may direct you to some specific resources, there is the Developing a Strategic Plan and Organization Structure and beginning with a strategic plan: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/strategic-planning. There are also some useful tools in Chapter 20 on the Community Tool Box, Establishing Youth Organizations https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/implement/provide-information-enhance-skills/youth-organizations/main. In drafting your objectives, I would suggest that you would want your objectives to align with your mission and that you take into consideration how do these objectives speak to what I want to achieve, what I want to measure as a sign of success, what will be doable given my resources, and how can I achieve them given any time parameters.
It sounds as if you have the ideas already and you just need to think through them a bit more.
Good luck,
Dear Mussa,
Thank you for sending over your question to the Community Tool Box. I want to be able to offer you some additional insight and wonder if you could provide me with a bit more information?
Here is the link: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/building-relationships/main
Thank you
Greetings Jala,
Thank you for sending forward your question and it is good to hear that you are finding value on the Community Tool Box page. It is important that we lift up the author of this work; however, the page does not list the individual as the main author and does not provide a publication date. If you are using a more recent APA version of the citation you call look at the example here:
Community ToolBox. (n.d.). Title of page or reference (for example, Building relationships with people from different cultures). https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-n....
Good luck on your work,
Greetings Kim,
It is always exciting to hear about individuals and their leading change. I am not sure we can offer much insight. Do you have an HOA (Homeowners Association) in your neighborhood? Is this something you can bring up during a virtual city council meeting? It may be a good strategy to go through these avenues first to see if there is a protocol you could follow.
A few questions to think about: If you were to start a petition, where would you send the signatures? Who would have the authority to request the individual remove the flag? I would like to support you however you need and these are some questions for you to consider.
If you want to move forward with the petition you may want to consider the following:
- A petition should begin with a request, followed by well researched reasons for making the request. Each petition should provide a description of relevant circumstances and links to documentation or facts that support that description. Importantly, a petition should contain information that suggests its request is feasible.
- Ultimately a petition will request specific action or a call for someone (or some group or organization) to refrain from specific action(s).
- I think if you are interesting in wording, you may want to start off with: We live in a neighborhood that values free thinking, expression, and we want to make sure our children and other community residents live in a neighborhood where they...
Source: https://www.gopetition.com/info/how-to-create-a-winning-petition-campaign
Greetings,
I will send forward your email and provide you with a direct contact.
what the next step to make sure about the money (winning or losing) ??
Greetings Amr,
Thank you for sending your email and apologize about the delayed response. I wonder if you could send forward a bit more specifics about your question. I am not sure I understand what you mean about the money. I wanted to be able to offer you some support, but just need to know a bit more.
Looking forward to hearing back from you,
Thanks for your question. I am not a legal expert, but my sense is that if you are doing work that is consistent with the values, skills, and approaches of community psychology, then it is appropriate to refer to yourself as a community psychologist.
Hi,
Thanks for your question. To get started, you would need to understand the needs of your community, and to develop a strategic plan, that includes
There is a chapter on Assessing Community Needs and Resources (Chapter 3) that you can find here.
There is a chapter on Strategic Planning (Chapters 8) that you can find here. You may also be interested in Chapters 9-12.
I hope you find these resources useful. Thanks for coming to Ask and Advisor! Good luck.
Hello Ms. Levy-Peck,
For practical information on social-justice based community partner coalition building, I highly recommend you read our thorough, step-by-step guide to creating and maintaining coalitions and partnerships. We also have a whole chapter devoted to the development of community health initiatives like yours, but that provides a much broader set of background information.
I am not sure if we have resources specifically on tackling organizational cultural differences per-se, but we do have resources on adapting programs to different cultural contexts and on enhancing culture competence.
For writing your blueprint, you might consider our guide to developing strategic and action plans.
Best of luck in this endeavour.
Could you provide a needs assessment template (Word doc) that can be used to begin to build out a needs assessment project?
I have mined through all of the information available, however, at this point, I am seeking a quality template to drop in detailed information.
Hello Ms. Houston,
I am glad you have found our resources to be useful. Unfortunately, I cannot provide you a needs assessment template because they very so drammaticaly based on the particular estimated needs of the community and how you might assess them. Chapter 3 on Needs Assessment has links to examples, such as in its Section 7 on conducting needs assessment surveys; for one such example, see this very thorough guide from an education context.
If you are having trouble writing your own needs assessment plan and measures, then I recommend conducting a targeted search for needs assessment templates specific to your content area and devised method of assessment (e.g., survey, interview, focus group, observation, etc.). You might find tested and standardized tools on Google Scholar in particular.
Best wishes with your endeavour.
Your site is incredibly detailed, but I can’t find an example of a survey tool (literally, a checklist) that neighborhoods, small communities, HOAs, etc. can use to gather intelligence about the natural assets on their properties. This is the fairly granular level, like documenting footpaths, park benches, ponds, waste barrels, and the like.
Any and all advice would be much appreciated!
This is a great question! It think you'll find Chapter 25, Section 2 of the toolbox to be helpful in thinking overall about the process of assessing your neighborhood/community.
For a specific tool/checklist, you might look into work in the area of public health that seeks to understand the impact of the "built environment" on health. I did a quick search for "neighborhood observation" and came across a couple of things you might find helpful:
http://www.hepdetroit.org/37-hep/data-collection-activities/262-neighbor...
- This one had lots of information, but the link to the actual checklist didn't work when I tried it. You might try contacting the organization for more information.
https://activelivingresearch.org/active-neighborhood-checklist
If these don't fit exactly what you're looking for, they might at least give you an idea of how to develop your own tool, tailored to your needs.
Good luck!
Many groups are working to help alleviate the present climate crisis, and there appears to be a great duplication of effort, at the expense of limited resources. This is most noticeable with such initiatives as individual petition mailings.
Yes, this question regarding finding the 'magic balance' between individual work and/or collaboration is a challenge to achieving timely and effective results in all areas of social/environmental justice work. There are only so many dollars available in the 'donation pool', and protecting an NGO's claimed 'turf' may also be a factor which impedes collaboration.
I have encountered challenges in promoting petition sharing, in order that the receiving politicians or public servants may 'hear' as loud a 'voice' as possible.
Do any of the good folk at the Community Tool Box have any thoughts to share personally or any research work in this area to suggest that I read in order to broaden my understanding about effective collaboration?
Hello Mr. Gibb,
While we cannot provide any specific advise or research, we can recommend our Toolkit on Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships to help thoroughly and systematically consider all of the elements involved in organization coalition building, including some of the issues you raise.
I have participated in many community advocacy projects but have limited leadership experience, so could use some advice. I am trying to organize community and parent activists within our small Montana town, to fight a recent school board decision to abolish mask requirements (and other other COVID-prevention measures) within our public school. Somehow our board has been infiltrated by an anti-science group of pandemic-denying conspiracy theorists. We are not too far from a university town, so I have already assembled a group of pro-science, progressive community members to advocate for the health and safety of our kids, teachers, and community at large. However, I am struggling to know where to begin in terms of this public health advocacy. I am drafting an op-ed for our local newspapers, which we'll all sign, but I'd appreciate any advice/ resources you can provide re: next steps in advocacy/ community organizing. Thank you so much!
Hi, What a great question! It sounds like you have already pulled together many of the elements of an effective initiative. There are several tools in the Community Toolbox that I think you will find helpful. Most to your point is the section on "Principles of Advocacy" (chapter 30). Really the whole section on Organizing for Advocacy (Chapters 30-36) and Toolbox 10 should have helpfu resources for you. Toolbox 11 on influencing Policy Development can also be useful. I would also recommend reading through Chapter 1 (the model of change), and especially, section 3 on building capacity. Another suggestion would be to find community organizing resources in your area. I have been impressed with the work of a national organization called Faith in Action, which is a network of grassroots organizing from a faith based perspective. I noticed that there is a chapter of the organization in Missoula, Montana, called Faith and Climate Action. I don't know if they are anywhere near you, but may be able to offer some advice and/or resources. You can also search other community organizing groups in your area and reach out to them for suggestions. You are doing such important and difficult work! I've learned that it really helps to supplement the kinds of resources you'll find on the Community Toolbox with as much local wisdom as possible, Best of luck!
Great question! I'm no expert myself, but would suggest this section of the Community Toolbox (in Chapter 33) to help you think strategically about all the who, what, why, when, where, and how questions related to building an effective social media presence. Among the many things to think about -- what are the social media platforms that your audience uses? Emphasize the social part of social media -- don't think you're going to post some messages and the word will just get out -- you have to cultivate a following, so that you get word out to people and organizations that will re-post what you have to say and multiply your reach. That also means being willing to reciprocate. Just a couple of thoughts. Good luck!
GOOD GOVERNANCE PARTY, Nigeria(In-Formation) | Facebook
Increasing public participation can be a complex process that involves articulating a clear message and organizing people to participate. You might find the section of the Community Toolbox on organizing an effective advocacy campaign (chapters 30-35) to be useful. Good luck!
Hello Ms. Lindsey,
That is so exciting that you are interested in grounding your peer support groups in research for a population that has not gotten much research attention! I highly recommend that you reach out to the researchers who have published the few studies you can find* on this population (or similar popations) and/or stigma reduction generally; they will likely be able to point you towards more resources, and may be willing to partner with you to conduct research on the population you work with or evaluation of your own programs.
*GoogleScholar is a great starting place, if you were not already using it! If a lot of research papers are hidden behind paywalls, then I highly recommend reaching out to your local universities to ask whether you could use their library resources (e.g., academic journal access) to find papers. You could also simply make targeted Google searches for researchers such as professors and ask them directly for copies of their papers.
Best wishes,
-Mr. Ari Fodeman
There are some easy to use resources on the internet for help with citing sources. One useful one is the citation machine: https://www.citationmachine.net/. The exact way to cite depends on the style you are using. Good luck
Hello Ms. Leederman,
We are so glad that you have found our resources helpful! Our chapters are updated from time to time, so exact publication dates are hard to pin down. I recommend using your retrieval date as the publication date. You could also go directly to the sources we cite, read and cite them instead.
Good luck with your assignment,
-Mr. Ari Fodeman
You can also look in the "Revisions" tab -- the latest date that an entry in the toolbox was revised is often listed there. Good luck,
Gabe Kuperminc
My role is to inform the community of the construction phases and promote art-based and educational strategies to foster a sense of place. However, I am now facing a lot of outrage and opposition and I am unable to regain the community's trust. Any ideas of how I can improve the work with the community?
Hi,
It sounds like you are in a difficult spot. It's hard to say exactly what to do step by step, but my sense from what you describe is that people in the community may feel that trust has been broken, and you are caught in the middle. A few thoughts I have center around the importance of reestablishing that trust and bringing community partners together around regrouping and shaping the project in a way that makes the best of the circumstances and ultimately has a chance of benefiting the community. First, is there a small number of community partners that have been strong allies over time -- people that you could start the conversation with and brainstorm next steps? Second, I think now is probably a good time to listen - when people are upset, they may be able to articulate why they are disappointed and what they would like to see happen. That could be the starting point for re-shaping what the project does next. It is also a critical moment for people in the community to better understand your role in this and the predicament you find yourself in. I hope this helps. You might find Chapter 3 (on assessing community needs) and Chapter 17 (on problem solving) in the toolbox especially helpful.
Gabe Kuperminc
I'm a teen who's interested in building social coexistence among youngsters, through tech!
My idea is to develop an AI-based app, which makes music(plays the respective notes of the instrument), whilst/as the user sings(gives input).
Might sound crazy, but it's an alternative/supplementary tool to physical instruments.
The majority of the funds raised(through premium plans, etc) will be donated to organisations actively involved in creating social impact.
There will also be activities incorporated into the app on a regular basis, which foster the spirit of social responsibility in various categories.
Basically, it's a merging of PASSION and PURPOSE! Yes, it does not directly address the problem but is sort of tailored towards the interests of the younger generation.
What's your say on this idea?
Any suggestions/recommendations to improvise on? How will I need to plan further? How do you think the stakeholders, such as the government will react to this? What are the pros and cons of this? How do I smartly arouse the interest of young people in a topic like this? I'd love for an adult to expand on this easy-peasy goal, (and maybe connect me to some like-minded people?!)as soon as possible. Thank you for considering my request.
Hi,
I admire your creativity and passion for promoting social responsibility. I love the idea of capitalizing on young people's interests in technology and music as a hook to increase engagement in the community. I'm not sure I understand your project exactly, but I think you might find some of the tools in the Community Toolbox useful as you think through ways to get others engaged in what you are trying to promote. For example, Chapter 7 on Encouraging Involvement in community work and Chapter 8 on developing a strategic plan might have some useful tips for you. You might also look in your local area to see what programs might exist to support youth entrepreneurship or developing new technologies. You might be able to find a class in a community college or a foundation that provides grants to help get your project off the ground and help with moving your creative ideas to reality. Another idea is to search for grants specifically for supporting teen entrepreneurs, or for "social entrepreneurship." A librarian in your school or public library might be a good person to go to for help getting started. Best of luck getting started!
Gabe Kuperminc
I have been assigned to create a tool-box. Purposely, limited information has been given for the project. Can someone help me? Thank you.
Sorry we cannot provide a detailed consultation, but it sounds like you first need more information to go on. [You need to know whether your assigner has a nail before you can be sure to add a hammer to your toolbox.] The Community Toolbox at this site provides a lot of detailed information you can draw from once you know the needs of the client.
Providing compensation for community participants is a great idea. I'm not exactly sure what the workshops entail, but you may be able to find grants through a local community foundation or other foundations focused on equity, empowerment, and community organizing. Would it be possible to expand the workshops to include leadership training or training in community organizing, so that community members come away with their involvement with meaningful skills that they can use in the future to improve their communities? That might be a way to attract funding to the work you are doing. Good luck.
Gabe Kuperminc
Hello Dr. Scott,
Thank you for your email and your question. In developing an accountability structure for your collective impact initiative, there are a number of decision making structures you can consider. From the Community Tool Box, here are a few relevant chapters for you to consider:
- https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/organizational-structure/group-to-run-initiative/main - this article provides an overview of potential governing structures, ways these groups might function, and what these groups can do for your organization.
- https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/leadership/leadership-functions/make-decisions/main - this article is more of a general guide to decision making structures that might be helpful. It may help you think through the types of decisions your leadership council might make, to best decide on different options available.
In thinking about accountability, issues of equity and inclusion are also important to consider. Chapter 27 in the toolkit also provides a number of resources for thinking about equity and inclusion: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/racial-injustice-and-inclusion, and ways to make your accountability structures reflect these values.
I hope these resources are helpful, and please let us know if you have additional questions.
Warmly,
Hasina Mohyuddin
2ndly
Do you have a template for a community NEEDS survey?
community= ethnic organization
Hello,
I am assuming your two questions are related, meaning that you are considering conducting a needs assessment in order to understand what your community needs that you can provide via a social enterprise?
First of all, if your goal is to cover your operating costs, set a revenue (and net profit) goal for your enterprise that will match them. Think about how much monthly revenue you will need - this will give you an idea of the scale of the social enterprise you need to run.
Then, analyze your assets and opportunities. What kind of skills, resources, talents, opportunities do you have in your organization or your community. If you build the enterprise on something you already know or are strong at, you will be off to an easier and faster start. For example, do you have access to productive land you can grow on? Do you have a key location where you can sell your merchandise? You should also think about whether some of your partners or friends have some assets and whether you can cooperate to combine resources.
And third, and this is to your last question, you can also think about your community's needs and whether you can build an enterprise that serves those needs and makes some profit. This is a little tricky because often communities need something but cannot afford to have so you might not have customers with a lot of purchase power. It is a decision you need to make - whether your buyers are from the community or a wealthier outsiders.
With regard to the needs assessment - it is difficult to provide a template because the assessment must be very specific to the community in question. Please look at Chapter 3 on Needs Assessment - there are links to examples there, including a lot of practical advice on surveys in Section 7. You can also find there many links to guides and examples.
I happen to know a very successful social enterprise in Nashville, Tennessee: https://thistlefarms.org/. You can look at their website and see how their work is organized.
There is also a whole universe of social enterprise resource networks that you can look for if you want to connect with existing enterprises or get advice. Here is one of them: https://www.the-sse.org/resources/starting/start-social-enterprise-10-steps/. And here is another: https://turnerfamilycenter.com/social-enterprise-resources/.
I hope this is useful as a starting point.
Kind regards,
The CTB Team.
Thank you for Consulting the Community Toolbox Ask an Advisor. I hope this response helps you with your community survey needs. Feel free to follow up if this response is unclear to you or not exactly what you were seeking.
There are a few main concerns for you to think through when conducting a survey when you want to truly represent the community you are working within. First, you want to make sure that the questions you are asking are relevant to the community and its needs. Second, you want to make sure that community members understand the questions in the same way that you do when asking them. Third, you need to make sure that the sample of people that you get surveys from are a good representation of the entire community. Fourth, it is a good idea to work with the community when interpreting the survey results, so that the findings are as closely tied to the reality of community member's lives as possible. Of course, there are many technical aspects of survey creation and collection to attend to, but since you did not ask about those specifically, I am focusing on making sure responses accurately represent community perspective.
Before the survey process begins, it is good to either reflect on and/or embark upon a process of determining whether or not the focus of your survey is relevant to the community you will be surveying. Ideally, the survey springs from a longer-term working relationship with the community and the survey is a cooperative enterprise. You will be asking community members to devote their time and energy to this process; it is very important to make sure that it is a worthy investment for them. This can be done by attending public meetings, through formal and informal conversations with community members and community leaders, reading local news sources, and more. The bottom line is that you should only be surveying a community when your findings will very likely improve the lives of the people within that community.
When conducting a survey you are either using an existing survey instrument, a modified existing survey instrument, or you are creating a new instrument. No matter which you use, I highly suggest conducting cognitive interviews to make sure that the content and wording are relevant and make sense to people from the community with which you are working. Here is a good resource for cognitive interviews: https://www.hkr.se/contentassets/9ed7b1b3997e4bf4baa8d4eceed5cd87/gordonwillis.pdf . The basic idea is that you will walk through the survey with community members and have them explain to you what each item means to them. This will let you know if they understand the concepts and the words used in the survey questions. This also gives you further insight into the relevance of the questions.
In the survey section of the Community Toolbox (https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/conduct-surveys/main), which would be a great section for you to consult, there is a subsection on sampling. Proper sampling helps ensure that the group of people who return questionnaires represent the entire community. I suggest you use the linked survey size calculator to figure out how many completed questionnaires you will need. Remember that it isn't just about numbers; it's also about reaching a representative group. This means reaching out beyond the usual suspects that come to meetings and are easily accessible. Making connections in the community and earning enough trust to get such a representative sample is not always easy. In many communities, it is advisable to establish positive, lasting connections with trusted community leaders who can help you gain access to your potential respondents. It is a good idea to make sure you are as inclusive as you can be with your sampling and associated cognitive interviews, in particular, attending to youth residents. Though your time and resources may be limited, please consider including a youth version of your survey (assuming you are referring to adults when you wrote "residents".) Talk to community members about including youth and then follow a similar process as outlined above so that you have representation among youth residents. Define your age range for that particular survey and make sure that a sampling of youth from your age range understand the wording, concepts, and survey instructions.
After you have gathered your results from a survey, it is time to analyze and interpret. Assuming the technical aspects of analysis are not an issue, we move on to interpretation. This is best done with community members that will understand the responses through the context of their community. They are the local experts and will have insights into the meaning of the responses and their application. This process could start with a few community leaders and then move to a more public forum. It should work to keep the focus on the meaning and utility for the community itself, rather only than some larger research goal.
Let's say Melissa is on the Income Tax Board. Her three-year term is scheduled as 01-01-2020 to 12-31-2022. However, she has decided to resign as of 03-25-2021. It is decided that Nick will replace Melissa on this board today, 04-06-2021.
Since Nick is replacing her in the middle of an existing term, how should Nick's Certificate of Appointment effective date read? Should his appointment paper be in effect as of today, 04-06-2021 with an expiration date of 12-31-2022? Or is his term backdated in order to use the original appointment of 01-01-2020 to 12-31-2022?
Similar to Robert's Rules, is there, by any chance, a specific website or rule book I can follow for board terms?
Hi Melissa: Thanks for your questions!
Regarding the board member who resigns and another takes over:
This procedure should be spelled out in the bylaws for the board. If it is not, it needs to be taken care of ASAP (because boards have to follow their bylaws that have been filed with their state and the federal government). Whatever you decide to do with your bylaws, “Nick’s” replacement should absolutely NOT be backdated to 01-01-20 because he could then be held legally accountable for decisions of which he was not a part. His term should officially go on record as starting 04-06-21. Once his appointed term expires on 12-31-22, and if an exception is allowed in the bylaws (if board members can only serve three years), he could then run for a three-year term as a board member, and those 21 months would not count against him.
Regarding Robert’s Rules:
As a non-profit board member, and according to a board expert I consulted for this query, Robert’s Rules is not favored by boards because it is too rigid and time consuming to follow during board meetings, so it is a good idea that you are searching for another source for procedural guidelines. Boards need flexible but clear procedural rules. There are several published options for you to consult (like Robert’s Rules) for non-profit boards, so you’ll need to spend a little time searching for what fits your board best. It may be worth paying for books or documents so you aren’t reinventing the wheel when creating your board’s procedural rules.
This is a useful FAQ about running board meetings: https://boardsource.org/resources/board-meetings-faqs/
Here is another basic but helpful guideline that directs you to some published works for you to consider (please note that as an advisor I am not connected to any of these paid published works referenced in this link): http://literacybasics.ca/board-governance/effective-board-meetings/
Finally, hopefully you will find some helpful information about boards in general from this chapter in our toolkit: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/organizational-structure (especially sections 4-8).
My name is Chas Damo. I’m a new Grants Specialist for the Tribal Education Department within the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona (30 minutes south of Phoenix). I am in charge of a grant that is looking to expand the capacity of our department and am interested in how the Community Checklist could play a role in helping us attain our goals. I would like to present this tool as a option for consideration to my Director within the next week or so and could use a saleskit or presentation that could explain in brief what the Checklist does.
Specifically, we are working to unify our various school districts, which comprise of public, parochial, charter, and tribally controlled Bureau of Indian Education funded schools. It is important that our department be as transparent as possible during this process and I see the Checklist as a way to create a more visible working process towards this new era in our education system.
Has the Checklist been applied to work such as the unification of local school districts into unified school districts? Collaboration would include many education stakeholders including, but not limited to, our Tribal Education Department, local school boards, an Education Standing Committee of locally elected officials, Community Council, school principals and administrators, etc.
… Thank you for writing to us, and for your question about the Community Checklist. (We call it the Community Check Box.) For our readers, the Community Check Box is a tool developed by the Community Tool Box to help community groups better evaluate their own programs. (or, "to measure what you treasure.") More information about it can be found at https://checkbox.ctb.ku.edu.
In this case, we have referred your particular question to our Tool Box staff for a more detailed response. You should be hearing from us (outside of the Ask an Advisor system) shortly. In the meantime, all best wishes for great success in your new position.
Dear Rosemary,
Thanks for your question! It is great that you are creating a guide with a university partner about engaging in research with newcomer communities. When considering requests to engage in research with newcomer communities, it would be important to ensure that the interests and needs of newcomers are central to the research agenda of prospective researchers. Ideally, having members of the newcomer communities themselves plus service providers from your agency at the table during these discussions about research partnerships would help ensure that the needs and interests of those directly affected by the research are central to how the study is designed and conducted. In terms of an agenda for such meetings, it can be helpful to pose a number of questions to the students and researchers interested in pursuing these partnerships to ensure that the research projects are in alignment with the needs of the affected newcomer communities. Here are some questions you could use to engage prospective researchers in a discussion about the purpose, benefits, and relevance of the research partnerships that students and researchers are seeking with your agency:
- What inspired you to engage in research with this specific community?
- What is the purpose of this research project? Why is this project necessary?
- What do you expect will be the benefits of this research for members of this specific community?
- How have you engaged in relationship building with any members of the community already?
- How will members of the community be engaged in the research process, if at all? If you do not anticipate involving community members in the research process, please explain the rationale and benefits of doing so.
- How will the research findings be shared with members of the community?
Hopefully you will find that asking prospective researchers a series of questions such as those listed above will help foster meaningful and honest dialogue about the relevance and utility of the proposed projects to your agency and the newcomer communities you serve.
If you are interested in outside researchers offering to help your organization evaluate any of its services, this page of the Community Toolbox may be helpful: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/evaluate/evaluation/choose-evaluators/main. A more generally helpful resource on participation in research can be found here [including the link on Questions to Ask]: https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/education-and-outreach/about-research-participation/index.html
We hope this answers your question, but please feel free to follow up if you have any more questions!
Infected neighbor released today, 4/19/2021 for 6th time since Oct 2020 for the above @ [DELETED] 66614.
Dear Ms. Horton, Based on your zip code, it appears you are in Topeka, KS. The team responding to questions from April-June this year are based in several other states and countries, to respond to more general questions. But from the information you provided, I suggest you contact the Kansas Department of Health & Environment in Topeka at https://www.kdheks.gov/contact.html or call (785) 296-1500. Good luck!