The first thing we would say is don’t try to do all the work by yourself! It will help you to work together with others in the community who have lived there longer, and who know the community better than any newcomer could. You could join an existing group, or perhaps help create a new group or new initiative together with others. In either case, involving other local people in creating desired change is not only desirable, but almost always essential.
If Tusayan has few resources, it may also have many needs, perhaps more than you, or even a group, can work on at one time. This suggests four steps:
First, you want to clearly identify what those needs are. Sometimes they are immediately apparent and undoubtable; at other times, and at some point, you might consider conducting some form of survey or assessment of community members to learn more; this also has the advantage of encouraging and motivating people to join together with you.
Second, you want to identify the assets you have available, both currently and potentially. (By “assets” here, we generally mean people, money, and time.) Third, consider some actions you could take, on the basis of your needs and assets. And fourth, prioritize those actions, based on your own motivations and your perceived likelihood of reaching your goals.
Where do you begin? You might first aim to accomplish something modest at the beginning – something you have a good probability of achieving – to give yourself a feeling of success and some momentum going forward. From there you can plan just how you are going to reach that goal.
There’s much more to say, of course. But the Community Tool Box has many materials that can help you as your work continues. We’d recommend you take a look at the different sections in Chapter 19, on Choosing and Adapting Community Interventions, at https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/analyze/choose-and-adapt-community-interventions. You should also benefit from examining Tool Box materials in Chapter 3, Assessing Community Needs and Resources, at https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources.
We hope these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for success as your project work continues.
