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.
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