Since this Advisor does not know the answer to your question, I googled "methodology of community health programmes in India". That generated a number of relevant possibilities that might be helpful. Also, the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/en/) may be a helpful portal.
Hello there. Is it possible for you to provide me with more contextual information?
Thanks for your question. Smoking cessation is an important public health issue. Based on your question, I'm not sure where you are in the process here. Has this problem been identified by a group or only you? If only you, you might want to think first about who else might be interested in this issue. To get started in conducting a more broad-based assessment, check out: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/index.aspx. Another thing that would probably be helpful to do would be to find out if there are churches or other community spaces where there are bicultural (which means Spanish speaking and having cultural competency) people who are already working with primarily Spanish-speaking men. Brining this group together with public health people in your community might be a good place to start. If, on the other hand, you already have a group together and you are now looking for an empirically-validated and culturally competent intervention, then I'd suggest asking someone in public health who is on your team to do a literature search (or, you may be able to do one yourself) on smoking cessation and Spanish-speaking men. Also, look here: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/section_1140.aspx and here: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/promisingapproach/databases_best_practices.aspx Best of luck!
Hello, can you provide a little more information? Who are the students? What class is this for, or is it an afterschool program? What concepts are you looking to explore? What is your goal?
This sounds like a great project! I would recommend that you get in touch with the local group that you decide to focus on and ask people there what you should focus on. You might give them some ideas about the topics that you have expertise in and see if you can jointly determine a topic area. You could also start out with a brief questionnaire about the possible topics you think you could teach on and ask the kids in the program to fill it out and then focus on what they ask you to teach them about. Good luck!
Sorry, but no formal online courses or continuing education credit is offered at this time. However, if you do undertake a project that is eligible for continuing education credit from another source, please feel free to use (and cite, of course) any of the CTB resources that you find helpful in planning and carrying out your project.
This is some important work! It sounds like you need to start with an organizational assessment. A good place to start is with Chapter 3 of the toolbox: Assessing community needs and resources: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/chapter_1003.aspx Although these pages are designed for a broader community assessment, with some modifications, you can use these pages to think about an organizational assessment. Depending on what issues arise, you might find these pages helpful when figuring out what to do: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/solveproblem/index.aspx Good luck with this project!
We suggest that you take a look at the extensive list of resources under "Connect With Others." That listing will include resources devoted to chemical dependence and to environmental factors. Thanks for asking and best wishes for your project.
Thanks for raising this question. The best place to look for answers within the Toolbox is under the "Use Promising Approaches" tab, and then to enter Diabetes in the Search field at upper right. You might also explore the "Connect With Others" tab for leads to others working on this same issue. Thanks for asking.
Community Toolbox does not maintain such a list, and we do not know of such a list. Most of the time, the key words are are either obvious or very difficult to discern because each grant/contract source has its own jargon. Read the grant guidelines carefully and don't hesitate to ask the organization offering the grant (or contract) for clarification of any priority statements that you do not understand. That will help not only you but all applicants, because most grant processes require that all applicants be informed of any additional information the granting organization gives out as a result of questions it receives.
Sorry, but no. We do not have a file of Excel spreadsheet templates.We suggest you contact a local community college or ask a friend who knows how to decide what you need in a spreadsheet and can help you set it up. You might also go to Microsoft.com and search for relevant templates there, but our first suggestion might work better for you since you say you have limited knowledge about using Excel
This Advisor was not familiar with "The Art of Hosting" paradigm, but is familiar with some of the recommended processes (World Cafe, appreciative inquiry). I looked at "The Art of Hosting" homepages, and I find the overall paradigm interesting. I suspect that the best approach to using those methodologies is to participate in training about the overall paradigm and processes before you try to apply them.
We do not have any direct leads for you. You might want to peruse our Connect With Others pages to see if any of those resources fit your needs. If so, they can share practical ideas. Probably the best way to get suggestions, however, is to talk with someone in one or more of your local TV stations and/or with your cable TV provider. They are familiar with production of PSAs. Another possibility might be a local vocational school, if they teach video production. I have checked three topic boxes that might be helpful in your needs assessment, planning and marketing processes. Thanks for contacting us and best wishes for success in finding appropriate resources.
Out of the Box is open to "any group." You are welcome to apply. Thanks for your interest!
Please take a look at our information on building leadership. That may help you come up with processes for teaching leadership skills. You will need to adapt some of the suggestions to fit the ages and cultural expectations of the girls with whom you are working. Beyond that consider whether there are potential partners within your community and region that may join you in enhancing the opportunities for girls. Are there potential mentors who can provide continuing encouragement and behavioral modeling to their mentees? Are their any NGOs or school missions focused upon teaching girls, that can assist your effort? What suggestions do the leaders of your community offer, and can they actively assist in any ways? What relevant resources can you find on our "Connect With Others" tab and elsewhere on the internet? We suggest that you begin to include the teaching of leadership skills and provide opportunities to practice those skills, perhaps in planning and carrying out small community projects. Build a network of others who also hope for the best for the girls in your community. Expect that the latter effort will take time. Thanks for contacting us, and feel free to ask again. Best wishes for success - for you and for your girls!
This is the first time the competition for an "Out of the Box" prize has been conducted, so we have no past winners to make available for your review. We encourage you to apply and wish you good luck.
Thank you for your note. Details about the Out of the Box prize and application materials can be found by clicking the Out of the Box logo at the top of the Tool Box home page. After reviewing these, if you have further questions, I'd be glad to try to answer them. You can write me directly at Bill_Berkowitz@uml.edu.
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. Especially since we are living in a time of limited public funding, we interpret community health support services broadly, and believe that many of them can be provided outside of formal health care organizations. For example: Many such "services" are preventive, such as walking clubs, or exercise groups. Walking or biking to work, and in general, helps improve general health. There's also good evidence that citizen-led self-help groups can be helpful in giving support for a variety of health-related conditions. In schools, citizens and parents can advocate for sound nutrition programs to build health and reduce obesity. Training and utilization of health care practitioners on a given block, as in the Block Nurse program started in St. Paul, Minnesota, or in a church, as in various parish nursing programs across the country, are excellent ways of maximizing available resources. There's also much evidence that having friends and a good support system in one's community provides actual health benefits for people. For those with Internet access, we also encourage use of Web sites such as WebMD and NetWellness. All of these options are of course available to everyone, but can be targeted more specifically to the uninsured or underinsured. None of this is meant to be a substitute for direct health care; policy change is clearly needed here. But these supports can be helpful while advocacy for such change is going on. We hope this may give you some ideas that you can develop further on your own. Thank you again for writing, and all best wishes for continued success in your community work.
...Thank you for your note; we very much appreciate hearing from you. There are many ways you can participate in the work of the Community Tool Box: You can suggest materials to be included on our blog (posted on the home page). You can share materials, resources, or ideas with us. You can create a link to the Tool Box on your own home page. You can publicize the Tool Box to those in your own networks, so that others can know more about it. You can sign our Guest Book, and add your comments. You can sign up to receive our E-Newsletter. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter! And by browsing the Tool Box site (see in particular "About Us"), you may find other ideas, and ways you can participate as well. We warmly welcome your participation in any ways that work for you. If you have more specific questions, or suggestions for ways you can contribute, please write us directly at toolbox@kuedu. Thank you!
Hello and thank you for utilizing the Community Toolbox. To begin with, it sounds like your project is specific to the geographical town in which you reside. So, you might start by contacting local hospitals and/or cancer treatment centers to find informants knowledgeable on the subject. Additionally, there are some organizations on-line that may be useful in gaining cancer rates and statistics. For instance the National Cancer Center has a website that includes many statistics: http://www.cancer.gov/statistics. Also The American Cancer Society website might be informative as well: http://www.cancer.org/. Good luck with your project !
Since empowerment ultimately means access to and control over resources, the extent to which the community actually obtains more power is what should be measured. However, if you're looking for "psychological" empowerment at the individual level, you should look at work by M. Zimmerman. Use the terms "measure" and "empowerment" in your search of the literature.
Your perception of clinical-community programs is accurate, most are primarily clinical with a bit of community thrown in. However, some provide additional community training through non-course related options such as research with faculty and community placements. You should contact the programs and ask to speak with both faculty and students about the ways in which students do get sufficient training in community psychology practice competencies, such as those described in the tool box.
http://ctb.ku.edu/en/processes-change#.Ul2m09JJMru
I can't find anything on the 12 processes now as a collective (I can still find them individually), but sheets like "identification of promising processes from research/practice sources" and the page that models these processes on your prevention model with links seem to all be gone. Any suggestions?
Hi Greg,
Thank you so much for your question! While we are thrilled to have our new, redesigned site up and running, it isn't without its glitches, one of which is that the pages that housed the Processes did not transfer over, so we will have to rebuild them. We are working on this, along with a couple other similar issues, and we hope to have all of that taken care of by the end of the week. We apologize for the inconvenience, and will let you know as soon as we have those pages back up.
Thank you for your feedback, and we hope that you will continue to find the Community Tool Box helpful.
Thanks
Thank you for writing us at the Community Tool Box, and please excuse our delay in getting back to you. To refer to the Community Tool Box in APA style, you would utilize the basic form for electronic resources described in the APA Publication Manual. In most cases, this would be
Community Tool Box. (n.d.). [insert title of Tool Box document, including Chapter ad Section numbers if available]. Retrieved on [insert date] from [insert specific URL or URLs].
We hope this may be helpful to you. Thank you again for writing to us, and all best wishes for continued success in your work.
Thank you for writing us at the Community Tool Box with your important question, and please excuse our delay in getting back to you. It’s excellent that you want to develop and further strengthen relationships and partnerships in your community, and the type of luncheon you describe could be an excellent way to do this.
What will best attract community vendors to a luncheon? While the details may vary somewhat from community to community, in most cases some of the major incentives will be good food, the promise of a good time, the opportunity to network with their peers, and the promise of some beneficial outcome from the meeting. We should also include implicit peer pressure – i.e., their colleagues will be attending, so they probably should attend too.
In other words, people generally act in a certain way if they think they’ll gain benefits from so doing, which means you want to provide as many benefits as you reasonably can, and to make sure those benefits are well communicated. So in your place, we would want to make the event as special as we could within the resources we had. It may be worth investing some money to do this, if you have it.
For example, you could serve better-than-usual food, or find a distinguished keynote speaker, or maybe there’s some appropriate and fun local entertainment that could fit somewhere into the program. You could also make personal appeals when you can, suggest that their colleagues will be coming (if they are likely to), tell them space is limited, and give them a response deadline. It will also help you to be clear in advance on what specific outcomes you would want from such a meeting, and to plan the luncheon so that those outcomes are achieved. What follow-up activities would you want, and how could you structure the luncheon to ensure that those follow-ups take place? ,
We hope some of these comments may be helpful to you. Thank you again for writing to us, and all best wishes for a successful luncheon and continued success in your work.
I am currently conducting a needs assessment of our community in Stevens Point, WI for expanded environmental educational programming at a natural area called Schmeeckle Reserve. The reserve is owned and operated by the University of WI- Stevens Point, but it is open to the public and very much a community center as far as recreation, use of our meeting room, etc. We currently offer naturalist programs that are presented to the public as a part of our undergraduate capstone course, but are interesting in expanding programming if the need is there. I am wondering if you have experience or know of locations that have done similar types of assessment (i.e. assessing if there is a need for a specific program or concept)?
Your website has been tremendously helpful, and I would appreciate any resources that the workgroup might think of. Thank you!
Thank you for writing us at the Community Tool Box with your important question, and please excuse our delay in getting back to you. Though we are not experts in environmental programming, we certainly do understand your interest in finding out more about potential needs or desires for expansion.
How can this best be determined? You may not have the resources to do a random-sample survey of Stevens Point area residents, but you can make your best approximations with the resources you do have. This might include surveying your current and visitors (perhaps with some incentive for response); identifying your most likely potential visitors (e.g., students at all levels, those already belonging to local organizations [can you get mailing lists from these organizations?]; surveying those visitors; publicizing your interests in local print and electronic media; holding an environmental event for the community, and/or piggybacking onto an existing one, and including a survey with it.
In other words, spread your net as widely as you can, and include all potential stakeholders. Chances are you are doing some of these things already, but there may be other options not yet fully developed. Another thing you can do in your needs assessment is to ask those responding about their potential interest in getting involved in actual program development – i.e., your assessment can do double duty in helping to recruit volunteers.
You may also benefit from reviewing several of the instructional Sections in the Tool Box found in Chapter 3, “Assessing Community Needs and Resources.”
We hope these comments may be helpful to you. Thank you again for writing to us, and all best wishes for continued success in your work.
How do I avoid tax penalties and issues?
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box, and please excuse our delay in getting back to you. You will find more detailed information on this topic in our Tool Box Chapter 43, Section 4, “Understanding Nonprofit Status and Tax Exemption.”
All best wishes for continued success in your work.
First, I would like to introduce myself. I am member of a Buddhist Youth Association.
My organization is a Buddhist Scout organization for youth. Other adults members and I are all volunteers. We teach a group of about 200 Vietnamese children from 7 to 17 years of age on every Sunday after the worship from 9 AM to 2 PM.
Our mission is to educate the children to become productive Buddhist citizens who would be able to contribute to the growth and thrive of the United States in the future.
Our activities are similar to Boys and Girls Scout, except Buddhism is the association's philosophy.
Secondly, I would like to ask for an advice. Recently, there are 2 different opinions/trends in my group:
1) Should we apply for a non-profit organization with tax-exempt status with State and Federal governments?
2) Should we only apply for a non-profit organization at the State level because we do not call for or apply for any governmental fund/grant ?
(Financial source: every youth members contributes $150.00/year ($12.50/month) for all the year-round activities including youth activities such as studying, leadership training, field trips, outdoor activities, cultural activities, camping, awards, and every Sunday meals).
On behalf of the organization, I would like to ask there is a mandatory to apply our organization at the federal level or not? Or it would be OK if we just maintain at the state level? Please help ! Your opinion, advice, and time are appreciated.
Wish you a joyful and peaceful holiday season.
Best Regards,
When to seek nonprofit status and tax exemption
Thank you for writing us at the Community Tool Box. It is good that you are planning a community health assessment. In choosing groups to be included in such as assessment, it’s helpful to include those groups that would be most affected by the results of the assessment when it is completed. Who might those groups be? Health affects everyone, but in most communities the it would include those most likely to be consumers of local health services, which would mean seniors and children, as well as those with known illness or disabilities, Another key group would be those most likely to affect health policy decisions in the future, such as heads of local health agencies. And a third key group would of course those who are providing health services themselves.
You may also benefit from reviewing several of the instructional Sections in the Tool Box found in Chapter 3, “Assessing Community Needs and Resources.”
We hope these comments may be helpful to you. Thank you again for writing to us, and all best wishes for continued success in your work.
Thank you for writing us at the Community Tool Box with your important question. To be successful in community work, we believe one of the most important qualities for the community worker is credibility. The community members must be believe in and trust the community worker, and ideally do so on a personal level.
Given this, to have expertise and take on the role of “expert” can be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, community members are often looking for expertise, and may themselves not know the best answers, which in many cases is why they contracted the community worker in the first place. On the other hand, if the community worker acts in a patronizing or condescending way, or if he or she does not show respect for the community members, the community worker is less likely to develop good relationships with the community members, and recommendations are less likely to be accepted. In addition, relying too much on an outsider’s expertise can prevent community members from developing their own solutions and taking responsibility for them.
In sum, expertise can have real value in community work. But a community worker who has expertise must be careful in displaying it, so as to best influence and empower the community members, and help them in developing their own solutions.
We hope these comments may be helpful to you. Thank you again for writing to us, and all best wishes for continued success in your work.
This may sound like a bit of silly question but I'm keen to use to use a few bits from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement/identify-stakeholders/main this particular page in one of my assignments for university and would like to know who the author was and when the article was written please? Obviously I need to quote it and would love to know who the wise and wonderful person was that wrote about stakeholders.
Any information would be most useful.
Many thanks,
Rebecca McCabe
Hi, Rebecca --
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. The section you mention on Identifying Stakeholders was written by Phil Rabinowitz, and I would certainly agree with you that he is both wise and wonderful. (In general, the names of contributors are given at the very end of each Tool Box section.)
Unfortunately, Phil is no longer working at the Tool Box, but he can be reached at prabinow45@gmail.com, in case you would like to contact him directly. I’m also copying him with this note. I do not have a publication date for this section, though Phil may.
We hope this may be helpful to you. Thanks again for bring in touch, and all best wishes for continued success in your studies and in your own work.
Bill Berkowitz
For the Community Tool Box team
Thank you for writing us at the Community Tool Box with your important question.
If we understand your question correctly, among the most important skills in any group facilitation – including but not limited to the community development setting you mention – would be (1) listening carefully to what is being said; (2) drawing group members out so that their views get heard; and (3) helping the group carefully consider different points of view before making decisions. You may find additional useful ideas in Chapter 16 of the Tool Box, which has a number of sections dealing with facilitation.
We hope these comments may be helpful to you. Thank you again for writing to us, and all best wishes for continued success in your work.
Thank you for writing us at the Community Tool Box – and congratulations on having completed your strategic plan! It is natural that forming a work group would be part of such a plan. To help do so, Chapter 2 in the Tool Box may be helpful, as you suggest; but we would especially recommend the Tool Box chapters on leadership and management (Chapters. 13-16), in particular the sections in Chapter 16, on group facilitation. The sections in Ch. 18, on deciding when to start, may be useful as well.
Some general thoughts in addition: As you begin to form your group, some key questions to keep in mind are who will be the group members?; who will lead or facilitate the group?; what will be the guidelines for how the group actually operates in practice, both formal and informal (e.g., How often will the group meet, when, and where? Who should join, and who could join? How will the group communicate with the larger membership? And who brings the cookies?)
We hope these comments may be helpful to you. Thank you again for writing to us, and all best wishes for continued success in your work.
Hello, Lisa –
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your important question.
When it comes to starting an organization in your community, we could write a book! But since we can’t do that in this space, we’ll start with Chapter One.
We think the first and most important thing in starting an organization as with most anything in life, is wanting to do it. If you don’t want to do something, deep down, then it’s less likely to happen. It sounds as if you are well motivated, so the good news is that you are already off to a good start.
The next step is thinking about what you want to accomplish with your organization. What, precisely, do you want to do? What would you like to see happen, say a year from now? This takes thought, before you start – and, frankly, careful thought, because you want to be ambitious, but also realistic in terms of your own situation and the resources you have. You want to find the proper balance.
In doing this kind of thinking, it’s often helpful at the beginning to meet with others who share your basic vision, and brainstorm with them. This can be done very informally, around a kitchen table. Hearing different ideas and strategies will help you. And as a bonus, perhaps several of these people will be willing to be part of your planning team as you move forward.
The last step is Chapter One is to make a plan, based on your thinking. It’s best if you write it down, since the very act of writing will clarify your thinking. Your plan should contain an overall goal, specific objectives, specific action steps, responsibilities (who executes each action step), and timelines. Doing all this realistically takes work, maybe several hours. But it will pay off for you.
(A good sense of humor is not a bad idea, too. But, believe us, people have done many wonderful things that are even more hilarious than what you have in mind!...)
After that you are ready for Chapter Two – to take your plan out into the world, and execute it! We won’t tell you that is necessarily easy – as we said, you’ve got to really want to do it – but it is certainly possible. With strong motivation, a clear vision, good people behind you, and a clear plan, your chances of success are much improved. And we are hopeful that you will succeed.
There are sections in the Community Tool Box that give more detail on many of these points, and we would recommend in particular looking at some of the sections in Chapter 17 on Defining the Problem, Section 18 on Deciding Where to Start, and Chapter 8 on Planning. Pick the sections that most interest you, and just start reading.
We hope some of these points may be helpful to you. Thanks again for bring in touch with us, and all very best wishes for success in your work.
Bill Berkowitz
For the Community Tool Box team
Are there advantages to being non profit for 10 months or less?
Dear Sheryl –
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your important question.
If you are collecting money for a cause such as you describe, your organization does not need to be a formal nonprofit. We have ourselves belonged to several successful organizations that collected and managed money, and did not have nonprofit status at all.
However, there are certain advantages to becoming a legal nonprofit, even for a short period. Perhaps most importantly, it will give you more credibility in the eyes of some potential donors, and perhaps of the media and general public. You may better be able to get discounts, as you suggest. It will oblige you to have officers, and to meet other formal though simple-to-meet requirements, which may in fact encourage you to keep going when you might otherwise have folded. And should you ever want to apply for IRS tax exemption as a 501 (c) (3) organization (a separate process), having prior nonprofit status would be required.
To apply for nonprofit status is not usually difficult. Laws vary from state to state, so you should check your own. Someone in an existing nonprofit could help you file, if you choose to go that way. And your local bank could give you advice on how to set up a nonprofit (or other) account—note that local bank policies may vary here too. In addition, Chapter 43, Section 4 of the Tool Box will give you some more detailed general advice about these issues.
We hope some of these points may be helpful to you. Thanks again for bring in touch with us, and all very best wishes for success in your work.
I started a grassroots non-profit environmental group while in college. I registered my organization as Eco-Rooted, but have failed to keep up with paper work and fees- especially since we weren't making any money. I want to continue as a 501 c3 purely for the non-profit status so the public knows our intentions.
What is the best way to go about checking my organizations current status?
Also, If I didn't want to apply for non-profit status to avoid the paperwork and fees that come along with it, what is my next best option to keep this organization legitimate and recognizable by the state?
Thanks!
Hi Tim,
Thank you for your question. First, to check the status of your non-profit, you can go to the IRS website here and determine the status of your organization. This should tell you if your 501(c)(3) is still valid or not. Otherwise, you may have to contact the IRS directly to find out this information.
Have you looked at local or state directories of organizations focused on environmental concerns, and attempted to have your organization added to these directories? Also, have you determined other local or state groups that may be similar to yours that you could partner with in order to still be able to receive donations, but without having to duplicate efforts or have an independent organization.
It may be easier to reestablish yourself as a 501(c)(3) than it would be to join another organization. And it may also be more beneficial to you because of the difficulties in establishing a non-profit organization in the first place.
Good luck! We hope this has been helpful. Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Hello Mussa,
First of all, compliments on your pursuit of such a good cause! We would be happy to try and help you.
A few questions for you. Do you have any others in the area who are also interested in building a playground for the town's children? These people might be helpful in brainstorming a course of action with you. And are you familiar with the building process in your area? It might also be helpful to identify someone in Wakkerstroom who is familiar with the local government policies who can aid you in determining requirements you will need to meet to build the playground. Approaching this person and identifying others who can help you early in the process will be helpful. Please take a look at these chapters from the community tool box. They may be beneficial as you plan your process: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involve... and http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/getting-issues-on-the-....
We hope you find this answer helpful. If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for your question--we really appreciate your use of the Community Toolbox!
We aren't sure of your role with respect to this task force, but here are a few suggestions:
One thing that may help is bringing together the members of the task force to create a timeline outlining the history of the organization, its present status, and its future aims. An open group discussion about what goals/objectives the task force would like to pursue could be quite helpful. The group could then come to a consensus about whether or not a need for the task force remains, clarify its activities, and redefine participant roles. To increase the objectivity of the decision-making process, you may want to involve a third-party facilitator or at the very least take a look at Chapter 16 ("Group Facilitation and Problem-Solving") within the Toolkit .
If the task force decides to continue its work, Chapter 8 of the Community Toolbox ("Developing a Strategic Plan") may be helpful in the planning and coordinating of its activities.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any additional thoughts or questions.
Thanks again!
Matt Grantham
Napa Ca
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your query to the Community Toolbox!
We aren't very familiar with your area, but we have a few suggestions about where to start looking for other individuals that may want to collaborate around this issue/interest.
Cityofnapa.org includes contact information for all local government departments, including Parks and Rec as well as "CleanGreenNapa." You may check with these departments. There is also a Facebook page for the Napa Farmer's Market (facebook.com/napafarmersmarket) where you may find people who have similar interests and may want to branch off into "backyard" gardening. There are a number of other websites that may not explicitly cite backyard gardening, but they may lead you to individuals with this interest.
Thank you for your inquiry and best of luck!
Hello, and thanks so much for your inquiry. We do have Community Tool Box staff members and associated faculty who present at professional conferences from time to time. If you are interested in free, self-paced online trainings, you might check out the free courses we have posted on TRAIN. Links and more information is available here: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/online-courses
Feel free to email any additional questions to toolbox@ku.edu.
Best wishes!
Hi Lisa,
Thank you so much for your question, and kudos to you for working on such important issues!
We recommend Chapter 18 of the Community Toolbox "Deciding Where to Start" and Chapter 19 "Choosing and Adapting Community Interventions" .
You may also find it useful to contact other community/group homes and ask about any health promotion initiatives they have utilized and whether or not they have been successful. Consider adapting an existing intervention or group of interventions to your needs so as to avoid "reinventing the wheel." Consult with local community health workers and organizations who may already be engaged in some health promotion efforts which could be extended into (and adapted to) your group home.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any further thoughts or questions you have, and the very best of luck to you!
Thanks again.
You provide a book with all of the toolkits and curriculum information in a PDF by chance?
Thank you for your inquiry about the Community Tool Box Curriculum. Currently, we have only eight training Modules posted on TRAIN. However, we do have a robustly developed curriculum in core competencies for community health and development which may be helpful to you. The curriculum does contain Participant Guides (in hard copy or pdf format), modifiable Facilitator Guides, and accompanying PowerPoints. More detailed information about the Community Tool Box Curriculum is available here: http://ctb.ku.edu/sites/default/files/site_files/community_tool_box_curr.... Additionally, an order form is also available: http://ctb.ku.edu/sites/default/files/site_files/curriculum_order_sheet.pdf. Feel free to email us at toolbox@ku.edu or give us a call at (785) 864-0533 if we can be of further assistance. Best wishes with your capacity-building efforts!
Hi Melissa,
Thanks so much for your interest in the Community Toolbox!
Within Toolkit #5 "Developing Strategic and Action Plans" , there are two tabs: "Outline" and "Examples." Within the "Examples" tab, there are 6 sample strategic plans that you may find very useful. None of these are specific to Communication and Outreach, however they will provide a good starting point from which to launch your own strategic plan.
We very much hope this was helpful!
Please let us know if you have any other thoughts or questions!
I am a nursing student in Oregon and currently working with a group of 3 other nursing students on a project in Community Health surrounding Hispanics and Diabetes and nutritional health. I would love any feedback, resources or current projects that you are aware of that we could look into.
Thanks for any suggestions
Kari
Hi Kari,
Thanks for your question and your interest in the Community Toolbox!
We found a couple of websites that will get you started on your search:
http://thecommunityguide.org/diabetes/index.html
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/final-reports/diabetesnetwork/inde...
There are undoubtedly many more groups of researchers and providers working on these issues, and I'm sure they would love to collaborate with you!
Thanks so much and good luck!
I am looking forwards to hear from you more,
Regards
Sara
Hi Sara,
Thanks for your question, and congratulations on your extremely important work!
You might consider the framework of Community Based Participatory Research, including the involvement of community members in designing and conducting the research and the work you carry out. You may already have local contacts that champion your cause, however it may be possible to locate others who can serve as co-researchers and partners.
We'd love to help you more, so if this response does not answer all of your questions or meet all of your needs, please submit again and provide more details about what your project may be missing.
Thank you so much and good luck!
Hello, Lisa.
Thank you for using our Ask an Advisor.
If you have not yet done so, we wanted to suggest that you speak personally to the principal regarding allowing chairs within the gymnasium? This can open up a dialogue that will allow you to understand what policies or concerns may be preventing her from allowing the chairs in the gym, while also presenting you with the opportunity to problem solve these issues. Also, we would advise that you set up a meeting with the principal during a time where she can focus on the issue at hand.
Although a large group might not get the results you want, taking one or two people who were requesting the chairs to this meeting may also be beneficial. Advocating for someone while they are present to discuss their issues may bring about a better resolution.
Hopefully, this advice will help you. Please let us know if we can help you further.
Hello, Vanessa!
Thank you for using Ask an Advisor. The Community Toolbox has a lot of good resources for such a project. You may want to look through the different chapters for some helpful tips. Also, you may want to visit www.chicagohomeless.org, which may help you to learn about the issues homeless persons face and what you would like to focus on for your project. As you may know, homelessness has many facets, and your project will most likely only need to focus on one of these issues. Researching what these issues are and deciding which one you would like to focus your project on would be an excellent first step.
Chapter 1 of the Community Toolbox , especially Section 8 is a good place to start. Also Chapter 17 and 18 might be helpful.
We hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Thank you.
Hello, Jane.
Thank you for using Ask an Advisor.
Different organizations and corporations have different policies, so you may want to take this issue up with the board of the corporation. Unfortunately, we cannot tell you what is and is not allowed in the corporation you are writing us about. Reviewing the written policies of the corporation may shed some light on this issue.
Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.
I am an research intern for a developing community health coalition. There seems to be a wealth of information on human resources and organizational structure. However, there seems to be a lack of information regarding the physical resources that a community coalition needs to house these human resources. If your organization could refer me to research regarding the concrete physical resources (I.E. space to have meetings in, space to store disaster relief or prevention materials, other material resources), or a sort of model supply logistics chain for health coalition building, it would be instrumental to our planning.
Justine,
First, thank you for your question. You might start by contacting other coalitions in your area to see what they do with their resources. You can also check Ch. 3, Section 8 of the toolbox for information on identifying community assets and resources. If you are looking for space, you could try contacting people within your network. As a coalition, we assume you have a network of people who may have different access to resources you might utilize. Also, some storage companies offer non-profits and universities discounts on storage. Churches can also be good resources for non-profit organizations. In general, finding space often starts with simply asking the community.
In order to better answer your question, it would be useful for us to know more about your situation and your coalition's needs and resources. Please feel free to contact us again with more details of your work so that we may better serve you.
I am looking to come up with an action plan to focus on reducing the rates of diabtetes in racial and ethnic minorities in my county and I am not sure where to start. Please advise.
Thank you
Suzanne
Suzanne,
Thank you for your question. We would suggest that you begin by checking out our community toolbox, which will offer comprehensive assistance in community interventions. Chapter 8 in the toolbox does discuss action plans in particular. Chapter 18 "deciding where to start" may also be of use to you.
The Community Guide (thecommunityguide.org/diabetes/index.html) offers information on diabetes research. Some good first steps would include identifying your population, researching what similar organizations in your field have done that have worked and not worked, and finding best practices in diabetes research. There has been a wealth of research into diabetes, including studies with minority populations in particular. One such site is AHRQ.gov.
We hope this has been of some help to you. Please contact us again if you have additional questions.