Ask an Advisor Questions

Question	Core Competency	Date
Sir Please help me with example how to do the analysis and document Focused Group Discussion(FGD) on water Borne Disease	Assessing Community Needs and Resources	Tue, 11/11/2014
Hey! I am a fresher working for a digital marketing company. I have a background in business administration. I am asked to create a hr policy for my company from scratch. can someone help how i should go about it?		Sat, 11/08/2014
Participatory Approach to development		Fri, 11/07/2014
Some donors are asking for "a recent letter confirming 501 c 3 status". How do I request this and what is correct wording?		Thu, 11/06/2014
Hello, I am a part of a grassroot project called Thriving Places project, which is in collaboration with Virginia Tech located in Blacksburg Va. We are a website that has the same goal as your project and was wondering if we could get some input into improving our own. We are trying to gain readership/awareness locally as well as contributors to the project. You can check out our website at thrivingplacesproject.com and any help would be appreciated. Thank You, Young	Writing a Grant Application for Funding	Tue, 11/04/2014
what are the problems and differences that people may face when they travel to another country?	Advocating for Change	Mon, 11/03/2014
I HAVE 2 15 YEAR OLDS AND WE ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING CHILDREN. I HAVE B EEN A FOSTER MOM AND DID ADOPT THRU CYFD. HELPING CHILDREN IS OUR GOAL. I AM CURRENTLY WORKING FOR WINGS		Sat, 11/01/2014
I AM INTERESTED IN AND IF THERE IS SOMETHING SET UP FOR SCHOOL WORK IN THE TEENAGE INMATES. DONT KNOW HOW HARD IT WOULD BE TO KEEP UP WITH ACTUAL CLASS WORK AND GET CREDIT FOR HOMEWORK AND TESTS TAKEN THEN MAYBE IT WOULDNT BE SO HARD TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL		Sat, 11/01/2014
where are you begin when you are developing a program especially a youth cup development ? that is the first?question . and second question haw you can create project and what are the steps that you need to take ,and give me a sample showed me step by step defining the creation of project?	Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships Building Leadership	Thu, 10/30/2014
Hi, I'm a junior at Tripoli High School and I'm taking a government class where we're studying local problems and how citizens can participate in their government. We're basically working toward promoting community service and volunteerism in our town to help improve our community; We're wondering how your organization could help us out! We've thought about creating a "volunteering club." Do you have any other suggestions on how to promote community service or how we can make our idea become successful?	Developing Strategic and Action Plans Enhancing Cultural Competence Influencing Policy Development	Wed, 10/29/2014
Good Evening , My name is Mohamed and I am a new hire as a supervisor in new company and i need to open a new department or unit in the contact center of the company but i didn't how to start ?! could you please send me your recommendation. awaiting for your advice. Regards, Mohamed		Mon, 10/27/2014
Hello! I run a young adult peer support group and am looking to find out whether there are existing national, regional, or local groups my group can be involved with. I am based in Lexington, MA, about 10 mi north of Boston. Can you point me in the direction of other young adult peer support groups or national groups? This is for mental health. Thank you! Erin		Fri, 10/24/2014
citizen from USA I resite in Vista,CA 32 years been with a issue for many years wish it never was taking care losmy carree over 29 apartment and 15 vehicle work on anf off but never withheld a interest job I got disable wish is not enough the damages they try to incapasitate me but being a battle no compliance with any thing had affected me suffering losses body damages emosionally am very hurt saying I don't have anything not wanting to help or anybody to help me with a mandated have effected me really is a way of stilling people social and indent from the hole fam		Fri, 10/24/2014
We have a preventative maintenance program. How many objectives should be developed in relationship to a Mission statement? Do you focus on the main key points of the vison or mission statement or will objectives still qualify if one or two are not tied to the key words	Improving Organizational Management and Development	Fri, 10/24/2014
How teachers in a primary school can deal with increasing stress levels as the working hours are longer and high expectations with greater responsibility? What guidelines can be given to the students of the primary school to improve their behaviour and manage anger to become responsible citizens in the future?		Wed, 10/22/2014
Hello, I am looking for studies and charts that weigh the effect of each of the risk and protective factors on: 1. Positive youth mental health development and 2. Youth substance abuse Do you have any resources or data that talks about the odds ratios of each of the risk and protective factors on behaviors?	Assessing Community Needs and Resources	Wed, 10/22/2014
I was curious if it was too late to like withdraw from a class at KU. I don't really know what I need to do but I'm curious because my parents suggested that I withdraw from Chem. Also what exactly does it mean by withdraw? Will this penalize me at all? Thanks!		Wed, 10/22/2014
hallo! Iam Irene, recently i started up an non- profit making organisation to support the vulnerable in Kibera slums in kenya. i am the CEO of the organisation am requesting if i can get someone who can help me to come up with policies of the organisation iam reallyvery new in this and i don't have any advisor. help where you can	Developing an Intervention Increasing Participation and Membership Sustaining the Work or Initiative	Tue, 10/21/2014
Is it possible to purchase certain chapters? Your information on Board training is fabulous and I would like to use some of the information	Sustaining the Work or Initiative	Mon, 10/20/2014
May the Tool Box be used to develop and implement programs using subjects and topics from the various sections and chapters?	Developing Strategic and Action Plans Increasing Participation and Membership	Mon, 10/20/2014
To Whom it May Concern, My name is Ruth and I am an undergraduate student at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. I am currently conducting a rapid literature review and dissemination on community engagement for a low-income community in Hamilton. I am considering using the Community Toolbox as a resource but was uncertain as to whether or not the Toolbox is based on scholarly research. If it is in fact evidence-based, I would be interested in having a citation list that I could take a look at for research purposes. Please do get back to me as soon as you can, as I am expected to report back to the community within the next two weeks. Thank you, Ruth		Fri, 10/10/2014
I'm going through the community tool box online: Chapter 27, Section 2. It is very well done and engaging. I'm not sure what the difference is between culture and identity in completing the "what is your culture?" exercise. I think identity is less strong than culture or less of an influence but are there resources that you have to help me understand the difference more clearly? Any assistance would be wonderful as I am trying to make sure I have this correct before attempting to present it to other staff or recommend that they complete the tool box themselves. Thank you,	Advocating for Change	Thu, 10/09/2014
Good Day! I am a student and want to help my community. I would to ask how I am going to help my community if I do not have enough money and time?	Enhancing Cultural Competence	Sun, 10/05/2014
I am going to be 62 in November, married. My husband and I are on disability. We have a house payment of $90.000. A car payment of $19,000. Also charge cad dept of around $4,000. I always need to use my card for car insurance.If I would not had to have bake surgery, we would not be behind like this. Can I get some kind of grant to at least pay off my car?		Sat, 10/04/2014
Through my employment I recently came upon a young man who ambulates via a wheelchair. He is living in an apartment complex on the 20th floor in a non accessible apartment downtown. He has no way to open his door other than to call on neighbors. Is this a violation of ADA?	Advocating for Change	Tue, 09/30/2014
I am interested in starting an organization in my town to provide community members, especially families, outreach opportunities, as well as cultural education seminars/workshops for children roughly 4-10yrs old. I covet any suggestions, feedback, direction that could come my way regarding this endeavor. I am headed to look through your toolkits now and over the weekend will be working on firming up the mission/vision of the organization and hopefully drawing a crystal clear line showing how cultural awareness/understanding goes hand in hand with community service. Something like if people know more about each other, they feel more connected and are more willing to give... I live in a VERY affluent community, very white, very much lacking diversity and community service and I would like to see these two things grow and thrive here and need as much help as I can get building a case, finding funding, connecting community service and cultural education, etc.... So I am off to read everything I can now on your website and if it works for someone to call me I would be ever so grateful. Thank you!! Jocelyn 978-239-5390	Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships Assessing Community Needs and Resources Developing a Framework or Model of Change Developing Strategic and Action Plans Increasing Participation and Membership	Fri, 09/26/2014
how do I find what kind of activities there are for teens to keep them busy on weekends or summer vacation.	Assessing Community Needs and Resources Increasing Participation and Membership Advocating for Change	Fri, 09/26/2014
a builder is taking up a park in our area and planning to build a shopping complex . please suggest some ways to stop this ?	Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships Assessing Community Needs and Resources Developing Strategic and Action Plans Increasing Participation and Membership	Thu, 09/25/2014
There is a new website call "Nextdoor," one of our neighbors has started the site. I see this as a wonderful opportunity for community member to become actively involved, aware of what their local elected official are doing, crime in the area and so much more. However, with all of this potential, there is a certain City Council member, discouraging political, religion and sexual content. I can agree with restricting religious and sexual content, but politics? Ours is a very poor city, with very little commerce or growth. I believe some of this has to do with poor city management. Do you have any ideas about how I might gently persuade them to understand that we as a collective group would greatly benefit by being more informed about our cities politics? Our newspaper is extremely bias. You are obviously far more educated than I am, if you have a persuasive research doc that would explain this, that might help too. Thanks for being there, and Thanks for the website. Shelley	Advocating for Change Influencing Policy Development Implementing a Social Marketing Effort	Tue, 09/23/2014
I am a facilitator for a job seekers support group. Have similar others used this site and if so how was it used?	Developing an Intervention	Sun, 09/21/2014
Greetings .kudos to your information on this site. Kindly assist me to develop a questionnaire on the implementation of health policy in nigeria; the issues and prospects.	Assessing Community Needs and Resources	Sat, 09/20/2014
Hello, My name is Kami and i just wanted to know what i should be doing to start my own youth project/organization in my surrounding so that i can help the community with that. Thanks !	Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships Assessing Community Needs and Resources	Wed, 09/17/2014
I need help writing a plan for elderly, disabled and home bound citizens for voting. I have authored 3 articles, handouts published by Democracy NC, talked with residents and administrators, social workers and activity directors and divided 108 facilities into 4 groups. I knew what I want to do long term with civic involvement. I organize residents. I am making 108 notebooks with all candidate info cross indexed by each type of race. These will be taken to all facilities and community centers. I need to propose reason for asking for funding for magnifying sheets - one for each notebook and start on power point. I freeze up when writing a mission statement and so on. Are you able to help me get started?	Writing a Grant Application for Funding	Mon, 09/15/2014
hello I am studying the advanced diploma of disability and I am really struggling to do a question which is about identifying an issue of concern in the disability sector and then I need to research it develop an action plan and then also implement my action plan. My topic was going to be something like mis match of residents together. What is the criteria for this.	Assessing Community Needs and Resources Analyzing Problems and Goals Developing a Framework or Model of Change Developing Strategic and Action Plans	Sun, 09/14/2014
I need help with writing a grant for my organization. Where do we start.	Writing a Grant Application for Funding	Fri, 09/12/2014
Hello, I am working on a brief on the topic of nonprofits communicating data to the public. In my outline I have three audiences: 1. peers, to sharing program and demographic data to strengthen the field; 2. Funders and policy makers, to change the operating environment; and 3. clients/community, for dual-directional evaluation and to empower them to take informed action of their own and to help explain nuances in program data. For my brief, I am wanting to write three case studies that describe a nonprofit's experience with each external communication method (one nonprofit for each topic). Do you have any ideas of nonprofits who have tried, or been successful at communicating back to their clients? For example, data walks, or community meetings where service providers provider an opportunity to weigh in on what was collected. Thanks.		Fri, 09/12/2014
Sir/Madam,I am a teacher and professional counselor who lives in a community with a high illiteracy rate and yet many of the children do not attend school. It is my desire to establish a Community Counseling Center to help the people in my community. But my resources are limited. What should I do? I am a Ghanaian.	Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships Assessing Community Needs and Resources Analyzing Problems and Goals Developing Strategic and Action Plans Increasing Participation and Membership	Fri, 09/12/2014
Hello, My name is Kaitlyn Dixon and I am a Community health Education Intern with UAB Health Smart. UAB Health Smart works with minority health disparities and offers free of charge health screenings, nutrition consultations, and meetings with an exercise physiologist. We seek to educate the community and to offer preventative care that can reduce instances of disease as well as reduce health care costs for our clients. One of our current efforts is to find new health education materials to offer to our clients regarding how to care for themselves before health issues even happen and to help them learn to manage disease once it has set in. We were wondering if you either had any free resources we could disperse or knew of any reliable health organizations that could offer such information for our clients. Thank you for your time. Kaitlyn Dixon UAB Health Smart Community Health Intern		Thu, 09/11/2014
In an organization, why develop training plan?	Improving Organizational Management and Development	Thu, 09/11/2014
Good afternoon! My name is Steven Charles and I work for the New York State Independent Living Council in Albany, NY. We are launching a new program that will be heavily reliant on social marketing and wondered if you could help us answer some questions based on your past experiences with social marketing campaigns. Our program’s goal is to reach out to the 1,600,000 adults with disabilities in the State of New York. We are aiming to engage roughly 1% of this target population each year over a ten-year period to form a solid membership base of individuals who will be committed to advocacy efforts for the disabled community. Based on the figure stated above, we hope to engage 1,600 new members each year, and after ten years, a cumulative membership of 16,000. We were just curious to know, based on your past experience with social marketing campaigns and advocacy efforts, if this seems like a reasonable goal, both for the first year and over the ten-year period. What sorts of change might we expect to see in our numbers from year to year?	Implementing a Social Marketing Effort	Tue, 09/09/2014
When you might not want to apply for nonprofit and tax-exempt status How do you show proof for funders and others who might require proof of your exempt status.		Mon, 09/08/2014
I'm having trouble navigating the web page. I'm trying to find info regarding different models. Epidemiological Model Public Health Model Social Model Asset Model I admit I'm still overwhelmed with all the info, and haven't quite put all the pieces together at this time. Thanks for your help.	Developing a Framework or Model of Change	Fri, 09/05/2014
Hello, I'm writing for information regarding most effective approach to getting a public school bus transportation policy changed. Effective August 2014, the Seminole Public School System in Florida instituted a policy which makes students residing within 2 miles of the school ineligible for bus transportation. We are one of the families impacted and I'd like to know what can be done to change the policy. Thank you in advance for your assistance. Kindly, Marisol Martinez	Assessing Community Needs and Resources Developing a Framework or Model of Change Developing Strategic and Action Plans	Thu, 09/04/2014
i work for a project that focuses on maternal, newborn and child health. the project ends in dec 2014, i would like to seek advice on how i can write a proposal for scaling up the project to other areas that were not included in the initial phase. what resources are there on this website that can help me to achieve this goal	Implementing a Social Marketing Effort Writing a Grant Application for Funding Sustaining the Work or Initiative	Wed, 08/27/2014
Hi, I was wondering if you were able to help me find organizations that allow me to help build self-sustaining communities. By this, I want to help build gardens for food, educate others on how to be involved, advise people that are struggling, and possibly gather data on practices to determine which ones are found to be most favorable in different climates. Any information that can allow me to apply even for an internship would be much appreciated. Thank you.		Wed, 08/27/2014
Hello! I am an AmeriCorps VISTA service member working to "assess effectiveness of current food policy council mission, goals, and processes." I am to develop a tool to make the assessment. I feel that assessing the effectiveness of a council could be similar to assessing the effectiveness of a program, but it is also a little bit different. I am having trouble finding a set of best practices or tools that one can use specifically for evaluating councils or food policy councils. I found in the document Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned that most food policy councils have not conducted self assessments. I am finding it difficult to gather resources for this. Do you have any recommendations? Thank you!	Evaluating the Initiative	Tue, 08/26/2014
I think the members of my non- profit organization need training in how to ask people to join our organization. The members tend to shy away from inviting people. I think they fear rejection. Any suggestions?	Increasing Participation and Membership	Tue, 08/19/2014
I work at a large local health department. We are interested in your curriculum on Cultural Competency. Do you provide training using that curriculum or can we use the curriculum in our organization?	Enhancing Cultural Competence	Tue, 08/19/2014
I recently found out that I received credit for Math 115. At orientation I was told that someone would contact me to change my schedule to the next math class in my major (Finance). I was wondering what to do because I do not want or need to take Calculus again but I would like to keep my course load at 15 hours and it is recommended that I take all of my math classes consecutively until they are all completed.		Sun, 08/17/2014
I'm disabled by Lymes disease, fibromyaligia, chronic pheriphial neuro apathy, and more. I lost my daughter last year. Her children where staying with my sister. My sister claimed she couldn't afford to feed them and needed help, would i move in. So i did. She moved her daughter in with her boyfriend and three children. She moved my things into her garage. But, she kept my things she wanted. She won't allow me to see my grandchildren. Their father has custody and gets money from the state. But he hasn't raised them for five years. What can I do? I've already lost my daughter and it's bad enough she is stealing from me again. I need help Please.		Sat, 08/16/2014