Thank you for writing to us at Ask an Advisor with your question. It is obviously a very important one, and a great many words could be written about it!
We want to be careful in responding, because from your question it seems that you may come from a different culture than we do. Where we live, in the United States, we do not have conflicts between chieftains, as you suggest you do. The nature of our own conflicts may be different in some ways.
If that is true, what can we say that might be useful to you? Here are some brief thoughts we have:
Many conflicts arise because the people in conflict do not have a good relationship with each other. They often do not know each other well; they do not understand each other; they distrust each other. Because of this, they place low value on the other person, and think of them as a possible threat. All of this easily leads to conflict.
When that is true, we believe that dialogue is the best way to resolve such conflicts. We mean a dialogue where the people in conflict can be brought together to respectfully listen to each other, and to search for common ground, a peaceful resolution to their own conflicts.
Sometimes, the people in conflict need some outside help. A third person, who could possibly be a development worker like yourself, could help bring people together and help moderate the dialogue. In some cases, that third person could first meet separately with the people in conflict, to learn more about their interests, their own goals, and their own ideas for resolving the conflict. This could occur before the people in conflict are brought together directly.
So these are some starting ideas we can share with you. They are not magic, and they may not always work. And in any case there is more to say. But we hope these thoughts may be helpful to you in stimulating your own thinking and to working toward your own local solution.
For further information, you might want to consult some relevant materials in the Community Tool Box. Specifically, you might take a look at Chapter 20, Section 6, and also Chapter 27, Section 9. Both of these have more information and ideas about conflict and conflict resolution that you can use.
We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for success in your important work.
I work at a community Center-Social Services program with a local government organization. The purpose of our programs is to address the needs of individuals living within City limits who are faced with a temporary financial crisis. The needs are defined as emergency in nature, i.e., utility assistance, rental assistance and counseling services in relation other needs.
I am interested organizing a community task force to address those needs in order to achieve self-sufficiency. (for example, questions about planning, assessment, participation, publicity, program development, leadership, advocacy, or evaluation, etc).
What do I need to do to establish this task force and where do I begin.
Best Regards,
Thank you, Katie, for writing to us at Ask an Advisor with your very important question. Through a task force such as the one you envision, you have the opportunity to make significant and lasting change in your community.
We do believe that planning a new task force like the one you have in mind will take some time and effort, and some careful advance thinking. This is very natural in any work of this kind. But we also think that taking the time to plan carefully before you begin will definitely pay off for you, and for the impact your task force will have in the longer run.
Here are some of the initial questions and issues you might address:
* What, specifically, do you want the task force to do? What are its goals? What should be its specific objectives and tasks? Where do you want to be a year from now -- and what, specifically do you then want to have accomplished?
* A related set of questions: What, realistically, can the task force do? What helpful services can and should the task force provide? Can it, for example, give direct financial aid? If not, should it be able to do so?
Your answers to the above questions, worked out as best you can in advance, will help you determine both the structure and the function of the task force, and help make your actual work more effective. .
* Who should be on the task force? Chances are you would want the members to be representative of the community and of the clients you serve. In our opinion, this would also include current consumers of these services.
So for example, who is already involved in emergency utility assistance, rental assistance, etc.? These are prospective candidates. So are key government and neighborhood leaders, perhaps as well as sympathetic bankers and other financial decision-makers.
You also want people who are doers, who are going to be actively involved, who will show up at meetings and do some work, not just sit on the sidelines. You probably already have a good sense of who those people are. Those are the people you want.
You might want to make a list of prospective members, and run it through one or more of your trusted colleagues. When you are satisfied, start making contacts.
* Before you ask people, you want to be clear on what will be involved for them. Again, what are the particular goals of this task force? And what will be involved for someone who decides to serve? For example, will face-to-face meetings take place? If so, how many, how often, when, and for how long? This means you yourself ought to have a good idea of at least the tentative answers in advance. If you make your expectations very clear up front, people will be more likely to know what they are getting into. Which means if they do join, they’ll be more likely to contribute and stick around.
* What other attractors can you offer as to why people should join? – for many candidates are likely to be busy, or to see themselves as busy, and they may not be eager to take on another task or responsibility. How might you convince them?
* Who should facilitate or lead the task force? Who handles the leadership or facilitation at meetings, and who does the staff work between meetings? Maybe it’s you, and that could be a very good thing. But in that case, you will need to be mentally prepared to do it, and have the available time to do it.
* How long is this task force expected to continue? Will it be a short-term group, or will it continue indefinitely? Prospective members will want to know this.
If you can think these questions through carefully before you begin, you will be off to a good start. We think it will also help you to talk to and get ideas from some of the colleagues in your own home office, and perhaps others in your planning efforts before you actually reach out, because they are going to know the particulars of your local conditions in ways we cannot at a distance. Be guided by what they say,
Finally, when you do get together, you want to establish a warm and welcoming climate right from the start. Arrange for a comfortable room, with reasonably high-quality refreshments. Convey the feeling that this task force is going to do some wonderful things. If you can create cohesion and build the right spirit from the get-go, that’s definitely a plus.
For further information, you might want to consult some relevant materials in the Tool Box, such as Chapter 18, Section 1, and Chapter 19, Section 1, on designing and implementing community interventions.
We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all very best wishes for a great task force in your community!
We are a training and development academy in Jordan, and we are planning to organize a training program for a group of officials on how to identify the needs for development, assess, draw a plan, etc.
May you contact me to arrange this together?
Dear Dr. Alsoud,
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box about your training program. We are very glad to learn about the training you are planning. It is clear that the Henley Academy has been doing distinctive work in Jordan and the MENA region for many years. So we are confident that your program will be an excellent experience for those officials involved.
We are also pleased to respond to your request in several ways.
* First, you may wish to review some of the materials about training we have posted on our Community Tool Box web site (http://ctb.ku.edu), which give some of our own perspective. Many of these materials can be found through our Table of Contents by accessing our Chapter 12, on Providing Training and Technical Assistance. You will also find separate chapters devoted to Developing a Strategic Plan (Chapter 8), and Assessing Community Needs (Chapter 3).
You may also be aware that much of the Tool Box has been translated into Arabic, with the help of our partners in Lebanon. When a section has been translated, you can view it simply by clinking the Arabic indicator on the “Language” tab at the top right of the Tool Box home page.
* Second, we have also developed a Training Curriculum, with 16 separate training modules in basic community competencies including Needs, Plans, Leadership, Evaluation, Partnerships, and Sustaining the Work. Each module contains step-by-step guidelines, training exercises, and PowerPoint summaries. The training here could be delivered by experienced trainers, or by ourselves. More details can be found at http://ctb.ku.edu/sites/default/files/site_files/ctb_training_curriculum_2017.pdf
* Third, we ourselves have provided a variety of training programs, both in the U.S. and globally. These have included webinars, courses, conferences, and train-the-trainers programs, both online and on-site. You can learn more about these at http://ctb.ku.edu/sites/default/files/site_files/training_flyer.pdf.
* Finally, we would be glad to respond to specific questions you may have, as well as to explore the possibilities of further collaboration with you. For example, we could do this in a Skype call with you. If you would like to pursue this opportunity, please contact Christina Holt, who directs our Community Tool Box services, at cholt@ku.edu.
We hope some of this information will be helpful to you. Thank you again for contacting us. We send all best wishes for continued success in your important work.
... Thank you for writing to us. If we understand your question correctly, it is a big one! Very briefly, we think it will help iff you can:
1. State precisely what you think the resources would be used for. What specific actions would be taken?
2. State precisely what kind of resources you will need. What kind, and how much?
3. Make a list of all the different places where you might find the resources you need. What are they? And which are the most promising?
4. Find a small group of people who share your beliefs and who would like to get involved in action.
5. Sit together with them, and clarify your answers to the three questions above, .
6. Then, based upon those answers, work out a step-by-step plan for how you will get what you want.
This may not necessarily be easy, and it may take some time, but if you are committed and determined,, we think that you will have positive results. We send our best wishes for success.
How can I join?
... Thank you for writing us, Janet, and for your interest in our organization. It is great to know about it!
We are not a membership organization, however, and we do not have actual members who join. But there are certainly ways you can stay involved with us. You can sign up to receive or newsletters and other updates at toolbox@ku.edu. Your ideas for future development and suggestions for improvement are welcome there as well. And if you have or know of a resource or some other material that you feel could be included in the Tool Box, or that we would like to know about, we'd be grateful if you told us.
We hope this much may be helpful Thanks again for writing, and all best wishes for success in what you do.
... Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. However, we do not have a direct connection with HUD, and have no information on HUD classes or where you might take them. Your best bet would probably be to contact HUD directly. Best wishes.
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box about your ideas. We applaud you for your concern about children’s education.
Your question about starting an organization is a big one. But we think the best place to start is to clarify just what it is you would like your organization to do? (For example, what do you mean by “the process of children in school”? And just what is meant by “preventing their growth”?)
Specifically, what would be your organization’s goals? What would be its particular objectives? We would recommend that you take a little time to write these down, and possibly revise them, so that they are clear to you. When they are clear to you, then it will also be easier for you to make them clear to someone else.
Once your goals and objectives are clear, a good next step is to find some other people who have the same feelings about the problem, and who have the same general goals as you do. This is because starting a new organization usually takes time and energy, and things are likely to go better if the work can be shared with others. A group also has other advantages: You can provide emotional support to each other, and the whole organization is likely to benefit from a variety of different ideas and perspectives. Your starting group can be quite small, though, perhaps just a few people at the beginning. You can grow over time.
Once you have clarified your goals and formed a core group, then it’s good to get together and plan – what actions do you want take to reach your goals, who will take them, and when will they be taken? Some questions that may come up in your discussion may include what about members? What about leadership? What about publicity? What about financing? These are very natural questions for most any new project of this kind; but if you think them through, you can come up with good answers that work for you.
All this again will take some time to work out, but we believe the time spent will definitely be worth it and pay off for you in the longer run. We could speak at more length about these topics, but we hope this short answer will get you started. And you should be able to gain much knowledge from parts of the Community Tool Box that deal specifically with these topics. One good place to begin is Chapter 18, on Deciding Where to Start. Take a look at the Table of Contents for other examples.
We hope these thoughts will be useful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for much success in your work.
1. what are the job descriptions of a CBO Partnership Manager/Coordinator and Program Manager?
2. How do you initiate an assessment you plan to undertake on a situational/problem ground or area in your community?
3. what best is to be done for publicity purposes to make a CBO known to the community and how do you plan it?
4. What are the relevant points to note when developing a program?
Your answers to my questions above shall help me improve the running of our community owned orgnaization.
Thanks!
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your questions. All of them are important ones, but we think you will understand that it would not be possible to provide full answers to them within the space we have available.
However, we think with you will find helpful information on most of your questions within the Community Tool Box itself. Specifically, you will find materials on assessment (your Question #2) in the different sections within Chapter 3 of the Tool Box. Publicity (your Question #3 ) is discussed in the sections within Chapter 6, and some key points in developing a program (your Question #4) are covered in Chapters 18 and 19. We encourage you to take a look at these sections, and to be guided by them in as your work progresses.
We hope these materials will be useful to you, and that they will in fact help you improve the running of your community organization. Thank you again for writing, and all best wishes for continued success in your work.
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your important and very big question. We have no doubt that fighting against poverty and other social ills is one of the most significant tasks a community worker can undertake. Women’s empowerment is a major way to do this. And so we applaud your efforts.
While we cannot provide a fully detailed response in the space we have available, we can suggest some key points you may wish to keep in mind as your work progresses.
First, to do your work together with a group. This has several major benefits: (1) You can usually get more done, because you are sharing the effort; (2) You can learn from others’ ideas and perspectives; and (3) You can provide personal support for each other. You mention that you have colleagues who want to work with you – that is a good idea and a big advantage.
Second, to take the time to plan your strategies and actions before getting too deeply involved. There are many possible actions that you could take, but you can’t take them all at the beginning. So what is most important to do now? This will take thought: but having an overall advance plan for what actions you want to do and when will pay off for you in the long run.
For example, you mention an interest in conducting lay forums, and this may be an excellent idea for you. But how does this fit with the other overall goals and the actions you wish to take? Is it the best action to take at the moment? It’s worth asking this question, and to be clear on your answer, before you begin.
Third, to prepare for a long-term effort. It will help you to realize that if you get involved in this area, that your goals will not be reached overnight. They may take quite a long time to achieve. So it will be good for you and your group to be mentally prepared to continue your work for an extended period.
Fourth, since this is likely to be a long-term effort, it will also help to be thinking of new people who could be recruited to work with you and perhaps become leaders in the group, for you (or any one person) may not be able to continue to keep doing this work indefinitely – you might move, or take another position, or your life circumstances might change. All this is natural, and so you want to be thinking of ways you can keep your group fresh, strong, and moving forward.
Finally, since the big rewards may not come for a while, you will want to celebrate the small victories that occur along the way. When they happen, you can gather and have some fun, maybe share a meal together! Celebrating your successes is important in keeping up group spirit and motivation.
In addition, we think you will find helpful information on your question within different sections of the Community Tool Box itself. Specifically, you will find materials on planning within Chapter 8 of the Tool Box, and on developing a community program in Chapters 18 and 19. We encourage you to take a look at these sections, and to be guided by them in as your work progresses.
We hope these thoughts will be useful to you in your work in South Africa, and that they will help you improve your community effort. Thank you again for writing, and all best wishes for great success.
Would you please send me the pdf version of this tool, so that I can get it printed as the place where I am working have low connectivity issue?
Thank you so much for using the Community Tool Box! We are pleased that you have found these resources helpful to your work. Unfortunately, we do not have hard copies or PDFs of the Community Tool Box to distribute. The Community Tool Box contains more than 7,000 pages of material and is an ongoing work in progress. However, you can print materials from the Tool Box by selecting the “SHARE” feature on the top right-hand corner of any page and then selecting the “Print” icon. You can save as a PDF from your Print options.
Also, PDF copies of our CTB Training Curriculum are available for purchase. You can review the details from each of our 16 curriculum modules available at http://ctb.ku.edu/en/training-curriculum. If you want to order any of these modules, please click on the orange “Order Now” button.
Training Curriculum Flyer
Thank you for your interest in the Community Tool Box, and best wishes in your work!
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. We believe the question you pose is asking about the stages that commonly occur when thinking about and executing any policy – these stages can often be divided into identification, analysis, decision, implementation, and evaluation, as your textbook apparently states. Together, these stages can be called the “policy cycle.” Can you think of an example from your own experience?
Note that these stages can apply to many types of organizational policy, not just those for NGO’s. And these stages can also apply to the solving of many other problems in general. But the five stages might not occur in every single case. The five stages, we believe, are a convenient way of understanding the policy and problem-solving process, one that can often be put to use in the real world; but they may vary, and should not be considered a rigid law.
We hope these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thank you again for writing, and all best wishes for success.
Thank you for writing to us with your important question. To put it very briefly, the most important points in starting a new program are first to find several people who think as you do and can work together with you, and then to get together with those people to plan the steps for what you want to do. You can find more detailed information in the Community Tool Box, especially in Chapters 18 and 19 on starting community interventions. We wish you much success in your work!
Thank you for writing to us. The Community Tool Box was not published on a single date, but rather on multiple dates ranging from 1995 through 2018. In citing, you can use the phrase "multiple dates."
Presently, I am a low income working woman. I have been trying to work with SBDC, economic development offices, rural development, etc for the past four-five years to get started.
Not much movement. I think I don't know the talk to present the idea and make connections to move ahead.
Any sources, connections, or general advice would be appreciated.
I am also looking at Iowa, too
. Thank you for writing to us with your important question. The Community Tool Box is not an actual program as such, but rather a service we provide to people like yourself, and for people interested in helping their communities around the world. You are certainly free to use our materials for the people you work with without charge. We would not expect you to create a whole new Tool Box by yourself!
On the other hand, we realize that the rural and low-income women you work with have distinctive needs, and that you want to help these women in particular. That is excellent. But since we don't live in Ogle County, you know the situation there better than we do. You are right that it can be challenging to work with a local bureaucracy. But we think it may help you to get together with a number of women who feel as you do, to plan some specific goals, and to identify what you need to reach them. If you need help from other organizations, can you find one or more friendly people who have experience working with those organizations, and who can advise you how to approach them? We hope that may be possible, for we think it will help you.
We hope too that you will keep your dreams alive, and we wish you every possible success as your work continues.
I know of a friend who was not able to exit because a neighbor blocked a door to go outside.
Thank you for writing us with your important question. Of course, we do not know the details of your particular situation. But the usual first response would be to learn more about the neighbor's motivation and interests. Why did he or she feel it was necessary to block the door?
This can usually be done by talking to the neighbor directly, in a non-confrontative manner. Can a solution be worked out that satisfies everyone's needs? It is also possible that the neighbor's actions were illegal. You might want to research this in advance of a meeting, so that you know your legal options if necessary.
We hope this much may be helpful in arriving at a satisfactory solution, which should certainly be possible. We send best wishes for success.
. Thanks for writing to us with your important question. You can take small comfort in knowing that it is not easy to get people to fill out surveys under any circumstances! But in your case, some thoughts: 1. You could raise the incentive ($ 10 seems too small). Or you could enter respondents in a lottery to win a three-figure gift card. 2. Some people may not have easy online access; so could you provide a mail-back option? 3. You could frame your letter.in terms of helping other people, rather than themselves, and stress this appeal. 4. Making your letter short, colloquial, personal, and hand-signed may also help. 5. Repeated attempts are a natural part of the process. For more detail, you might consult some of the work of Don Dillman at Washington State.
We hope this much may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing, and best wishes for success in your work.
... Thank you for writing to us and for your question. While the Community Tool Box is not designed to post advertisements of the kind you mention, we have posted your inquiry on a listserv that reaches more than 1000 community psychologists. We hope that this may result in your getting some responses and leads that will be useful to you!
...To find many ideas about media advocacy strategies, we recommend that you look at Chapter 34 of the Community Tool Box, which contains six different sections on the topic. We think that reviewing these sections may give you some good ideas about media advocacy strategies that will work for you and your organization. We send best wishes for your success.
We are interested in learning more about your evaluation tool.
Could you please provide an example of data evaluation.
Thanks
Kate
Thank you for writing to us. We do not offer one single evaluation tool, but we do much general information about evaluation, including examples, in the Community Tool Box. Wr recommend you click on the Table of Contents, which you can find on our web site, search for the Chapter and Sections on evaluation, and review the material there. Best wishes.
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. We agree that the University has a powerful role to play in civic engagement and in strengthening the community. The Campus Compact provides some useful background principles. You seem to have implemented some key principles on your own, for we believe that relationships here are key, and the discussions you mention between your university and community partners seem like a very strong idea.
Beyond that, there are many models and ideas that other universities have used that you can draw upon and adapt for your own university setting. One good example we have encountered comes out of Case Western Reserve University, at https://students.case.edu/community/resources/bestpractices/. A simple web search should turn up many more.
How might the Tool Box undergird your work? As you know, the Tool Box covers a wide variety of community topics. But some sections that may be particularly relevant for you are those on planning (found in Chapter 8), and on starting a new community intervention (found in Chapters 18 and 19). You can access these through the table of contents on our web site.
We hope these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing, and all best wishes for success in your work.
Thank you for your inquiry to the Community Toolbox. We are very glad to hear about the valuable work you are doing.
As for resources, we are wondering if you have already read through the resources on our site at the following page: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development/community-readiness/main. The assessment tool here takes approximately 30-60 minutes. The scoring instructions are clear here and it seems there may be a way to cut certain sections/questions from this measure if needed to make it shorter.
We hope this much may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing to us, and all best wishes for great success.
I want to help those kids, but don't know how.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you for writing to us and for your question. We do not know all the details of your situation, but as we understand it, some common sense applies. If you have reason to believe that the young boys you mention are using drugs, it makes sense first to contact those who are supervising those children, whether it be the program you mention, parents, or others, and report your observations.
If you feel those who are supervising are not responsive to your concerns, you could then consider contacting the local child protective services and/or the police. But as a general principle, you might want to approach those supervising the boys first.
We hope these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks for writing; we are hopeful for good outcomes.
thank you!
Thanks for writing to us at the Community Tool Box (and please excuse our delay in getting back to you). To start the kind of mentoring program you envision could be a very promising idea, and the fact that you are motivated to do this work is a big asset. Of course, it would need to fit within the cultural context of Dubai, something we frankly do not know very much about, as we writing to you from the United States.
In general terms, though, in starting a mentoring program you would want to answer such basic questions as (1) Who would be mentored?, (2) How would the mentees (those being mentored) be chosen?, (3) How many mentees would there be?, (4) Who would do the mentoring?, (5) What would be the specific content of the mentoring program (that is, what would take place in mentoring sessions?)?, (6) How frequently would the sessions be held?, (7) How long would each session be?, (8) How long would the overall program last (for a certain time period, or indefinitely?)?, and (9) How would you evaluate the program, to measure its success?
It’s important to realize that these are very natural questions that arise when starting any program such as yours. You can answer them, but it will take some thought to do so. We would recommend that you meet with your friends, systematically discuss these questions, and come up with answers that will work within your own community setting and for you personally. Based on your answers, you would then form a specific work plan, with action steps, and (when you are satisfied) begin to execute it.
We also think you will also benefit from reviewing the different Community Tool Box sections on mentoring, in Chapter 22, as well as those on starting a new intervention, in Chapters 18 and 19.
We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing; we wish you every success in your valuable work.
Thanks for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your interesting question (and please excuse our delay in getting back to you). Briefly, we think that a Handmade Tool Box along the lines you describe is a potentially powerful idea, and we would certainly encourage you to pursue it, for all the reasons you state.
As you know, our own Tool Box deals with community development issues, as contrasted with handmade skills such as woodworking. For that reason, we do not see a direct connection between the work you envision and our own, and think it would be better if you kept your own initiative as a separate and free-standing one. But as you continue, please do feel free to borrow or adapt our own format and structure, since that part is certainly not copyrighted.
And as you indicate, we think you will make more progress by working with a group, for what you have in mind seems to be a potentially are large-scale and long-term project that would involve a number of people. We hope you stay with it!
We hope these thoughts may be helpful to you, and wish you every success as your work progresses.
I want to make project on a Lord Buddha Temple.
The Project will write for companies for funding. so please advice me how to make it.
We are not sure we have understood your question correctly, but it sounds as though you would like to learn more about writing a grant. If so, you might benefit from looking at the Community Tool Box sections on grant writing, which you can find at https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/finances/grants-and-financial-resources.
Thanks for writing to us, and best wishes for success in your work.
Thanks for writing us at the Community Tool Box. We are glad you are interested in making a change in your neighborhood, and in starting an organization to do so.
Much as we would like to, we cannot be familiar with specific resources in individual communities such as Indianapolis. But in general terms, it makes good starting sense to contact some of the organizations already involved in your neighborhood, both to learn more about what they do, and also how you might possibly work together with them to create desired change.
In addition, you might also benefit from looking at some of the sections in Chapters 18 and 19 of the Tool Box, which deal with starting a community intervention. You can find the specific links and material by accessing the Tool Box Table of Contents. You might also review Chapter 43, Section 4, on starting a nonprofit organization, which is at https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/finances/managing-finances/nonprofit-status-tax-exemption/main
We hope these thoughts may be helpful to you. All best wishes for success with this and future projects!
What do we need for 501c7 status? We want to register our social club under this. What would we form under? LLC? We want chapters and membership globally.
Regarding 501c7 status, we found a website that has a Q&A section on this: https://www.wagenmakerlaw.com/blog/social-club-q-section-501c7-tax-exempt-organizations .
From the Community Tool Box, you might also want to consult Chapter 43, Section 4, which has general information on starting a non-profit: :
https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/finances/managing-finances/nonprofit-status-tax-exemption/mai
- In addition, you might want to check out different state or local requirements that might be involved. These do vary across states and locations. A usual starting point could be the Secretary of State's office for the state. (That's what it's called in my state; names might vary.) An advantage here is that such an office may also be helpful in giving tips / advice / guidance in pursuing federal tax exemption.
Thank you for writing to us, and best wishes for success with your organization!
Congratulations on wanting to prepare yourself for a community leadership role! In doing so, we think it will help you to learn more about the current problems and issues in your area, and to get the opinions of others about how they could best be addressed. In other words, the best way to learn in this case is to dialogue with other well-informed local people who are familiar with your local situation.
Beyond that, the Community Tool Box has material that on leadership that may benefit you. Take a look, for example, at the material in Chapters 13-16, and consider the recommendations made there. (You can find these sections by consulting the Tool Box Table of Contents.)
Thank you for writing to us, and all best wishes for success in the future.
With just one part-time indep.contractor for admin & event planning (who attends all board mtgs!), and part-time website mgr, the few active board members are greatly taxed, physically & financially! We are behind the times, as far as fundraising, promo, development, pr, marketing, with no real donor database or retention techniques & no membership campaign. We have no 'for profit’ counterpart & no Exec Dir, so Board members are continually asked (by the one pd person) to do more, give more, working just to scrape by.
Suffice to say, nobody has proper nonprofit experience, so the same gal who has 'run' our ‘society’ for decades, continues with same methods, old fashioned auctions & methods with our one annual fundraiser, honoring a big name composer/arranger or two, yet we see very little profit due to big expenses, poor management of time & funds, no ‘in kind’ goods or services in place, retail spending, when we should be raising quite a profit, with name people; all smaller events are run the same, just as 30 yrs ago! Nobody is looking into grants or big sponsors, Development, or building a donor database & retention marketing plan or diversity within the board. The Board is very lax & ill informed on nonprofit policy, procedure, protocol. It's exhausting, on top of my own full time job & caretaking of mom!
If we could get funds for a knowledgeable, competent staff; and initiate new methods, we’d be off & running!
My question:
Is there an agency or community resources for someone to speak to the board; perhaps, to make a basic presentation on the importance of diversity, of having all these systems in place; keeping up with & learning from other, successful nonprofits? (Using mobile apps, software system for NP donor database & retention). One agency gave a sales pitch for items we don’t need, so several old time board members have a bad taste in their mouths about new things.
Are there orgs, that might come once to educate our board as to what we may need, where we might look, in order to help us grow into a relevant 21st century society/org that can really be a valuable source to our community & beyond. We did one FB livestream, which was very successful. The one gal we pay, has basically been running the org for 30 yrs, as it started out, more of an elite club for members to gather for lunch & camaraderie.
We have started to introduce many new offerings, events & competitions with the younger members to honor these ‘behind the scenes' positions, indispensable to a production. But, the older members are fighting tooth & nail.
I've read & researched for a year & the old timers don't want to hear about 'slick' marketing techniques, etc. We've lost some of young, new members. So I’d like to have a leading respected community member, or nonprofit advisor reinforce the need to focus on the basics, feedback to our Mission Statement, as we can offer such a unique situation & access to the guys & gals, actually, working in the business!
I'm continuing with the legacy of my father, once involved with this org, and himself, once a wonderful composer. Here's hoping I can get recommendations for the great people in this organization.
Thanks very much!
Jill
... Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your detailed question. We understand and appreciate your deep involvement and personal caring for your organization.
As we read your question, we think this is a case where your group would benefit from a retreat, hopefully off site, with plenty of lead time, prep time, and retreat time, and with the well-communicated, set-in-advance, and agreed-to goal of sorting out some of the current key issues facing the group, some of which you name. If members can get behind this much, that's a definite plus.
You would want a good facilitator, or session leader. There are plenty of them. It's not our role to recommend specific names. But what we can suggest is that your leader should be a highly-regarded neutral person, acceptable to different interests within the organization, and perhaps best chosen by a smaller group representing those different interests. This seems consistent with what the questioner has in mind. To hire the right person might cost some $$, but this is a situation where it could be well worth it.
We hope these suggestions may be useful to you. Thanks again for writing, and all best wishes for many continued successes for your organization in the future.
I would appreciate any feedback.
Thank you
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your question. We appreciate the great value of your work as well as its specialized nature. and also the clear feeling behind your writing.
While we do not know of specific funding sources that address the specific situation you describe, we think identifying (and possibly then pursuing) possible sources is certainly worth some effort.
As a general principle in most any project, it makes sense to work together with others who believe as you do. In your case, you might seek out and enlist the help of local colleagues who are closer to your particular situation, and who may also have a little more experience and/or contacts on the fund-raising end. We can see the potential value of calling a meeting of these people to discuss this issue more systematically, with the goal of coming up with a working plan of action.
We wonder also whether it might be possible to contact the manufacturers themselves. Is there a possibility of donation, or discounted rates, or specialized cost-sharing rates? Or are there cooperative arrangements that could be made between the manufacturers and public-sector entities? In this case, some creativity on your part may be called for. We can’t be sure how feasible any of these possibilities may be, but we think there is little downside to investigating them.
We hope some of these suggestions may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing, and all very best wishes for success in your most important work.
Thank you for writing us at the Community Tool Box. Funding is of course is a significant issue for many coalitions
One specific source we recommend is the chapter on Funding the Coalition in the book The Spirit of the Coalition, by Bill Berkowitz and Tom Wolff, published by the American Public Health Association. It’s an older book (2000), but perhaps you can access a copy.
More generally, what your coalition (or a smaller group within the coalition) might want to do at the beginning is to clarify specifically what you need funds for, how much you need, and precisely how funds would be used. A typical next step would be to develop an inventory (i.e., make a list) of potential funding resources in your area, both public and private. On the basis of your inventory, prioritize your targets and determine how to approach them.
If you are not experienced in fund-raising, in this particular case it may be useful to talk informally with some specific local funders about your situation, and seek their advice about how best to proceed before making a formal application.
You may also find the different sections in Chapter 42 of the Community Tool Box, which deal with financial resources, useful to you in your thinking and planning.
We hope these brief suggestions may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing, and all very best wishes for success in your work.
However how you I cite in APA format.
Thank you for your question. An appropriate citation in this case would take the form of:
Community Tool Box. Conducting a Workshop (n.d.). Chapter 12, Section 4 of the Community Tool Box (http://ctb.ku.edu). Retrieved from https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/training-and-technical-assistance/workshops/main on_____[insert date here].
Thank you for writing to us as the Community Tool Box. In developing the kind of assessment you mention, a typical first step would be to search the literature (and the web) for similar or related assessments that have been done previously. It is likely there have been some. If you can find them, that will give both give you a model to work from, as well as some specific questions that could be adapted to your own situation.
Beyond that, before you begin we think it will help you to consider what you would like to do with the assessment – how would it be used, and for what purposes? This will help shape your approach and perhaps the specific questions you will ask. More specifically, it should also help you to (1) carefully define what you mean by “support system” – what do you see it as including and not including?, (2) determine the form the assessment will take (e.g., interview, survey, etc.), (3) decide what categories of people will be asked to respond to the assessment (e.g., youth themselves? others?), and also (4) decide on how the specific respondents will be selected. Finally, do you envision other components to the assessment in addition to interviews and surveys?
A review of Community Tool Box Chapter 3, Section 8, on Identifying Community Assets and Resources, will give you some other tips and ideas.
We hope these suggestions may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing, and all very best wishes for success in your work.
Thanks for the wonderful resource here.
I am a Nigerian with concern for peacebuilding and child development. Recently, I am working on a campaign that targets the juveniles in remand homes. I intend to carry out a value-based counselling and vocational skills training with the kids.
I need support in terms of 'how-to' resources and or curriculum that can be a guide to accomplish this task.
Thanks, as I expect your kind support.
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. We congratulate you on the important campaign you are undertaking. While we do not have specific expertise on values-based counseling or vocational curricula for youth, it should help to contact colleagues you may know or know of who are closer to this particular field and who may have some specific leads for you.
More generally, there are some common steps in conducting a campaign such as the one you describe. Basic among these would be to (1) identify others who you would like to work on this campaign together with you, and who would be able to join you -- for there will be more power from a group of people working together. Your group would then want to (2) draw up a specific campaign plan together, with specific outcome goals, and actions directed toward reaching those goals. Part of the campaign would probably involve (3) publicity of some kind, and you would want to consider how that publicity would be done. Then, as the campaign proceeds, you would most likely want to (4) evaluate its success, which will involve pre-determined indicators of success and measurement of those indicators.
Details on how to implement these steps are found within the different sections of the Community Tool Box, specifically in the sections on starting an intervention, planning, publicity, and evaluation. If you look through the Table of Contents, you will find the specific section references for these sections and others that we think will correspond with your needs.
We hope these suggestions may be useful to you. Thanks again for writing, and all best wishes for success in your work.
Hi Jackie,
your question about whether schools can require students to do academic requirements outside of classroom hour speaks to several important issues in education such as student health and well-being, time for socializing with friends, resting, playing, and relaxation, among other things.
I know teachers also need to protect their time for breaks for all the same reasons. Although I cannot answer your question for a specific school because school board practices and policies vary by region, I think you might find responses to your question in a few different ways. Perhaps you have already tried some of the following approaches.
I encourage you to first ask the teacher your question and share your concerns for students to have periods free from academic responsibilities. Depending on that conversation, you may decide to speak with the principal at the school, Later, or at the same time you may want to approach the school board and learn about its policies. I do not where you are located. If you are in the U.S. or Canada it is likely that most policies about teacher-student workload and contact hours are set by the local schools or school board.
In closing, I also refer you to the following two sections of the Community Tool Box that provide information that you may find helpful about documenting complaints and changing policies in schools.
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CHAPTER 31, SECTION 7. DOCUMENTING COMPLAINTS - MAIN SECTION
... situation. He asked Richard to call the same agents with a request similar to Mark's, and report what happened. Just as Mark had ... -
CHAPTER 25, SECTION 9. CHANGING POLICIES IN SCHOOLS - MAIN SECTION
... them is obvious. Don’t organize the community for a minor request – the simpler you can make things, the better. In general, ... going around the School Committee entirely, a simple request, taking time to build support on the Committee, threatening a lawsuit, ...
Best wishes with your pursuit,
Colleen
Here are some additional resources. The latter site also references a more extensive kit. Not sure if you know about these resources, but we thought we would pass them on to you.
www.samhsa.gov/treatment
https://collectivehealth.com/insights/creating-behavioral-health-program-works-everyone/
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Thank you for writing to us and for your question. The Community Tool Box is not designed to post advertisements or endorse grant writers or consultants. We have posted your inquiry on a listserv that reaches more than 1000 community psychologists. We hope that this may result in your getting some responses and leads that will be useful to you!
You may also find the technical assistance you need within the Community Tool Box resources. If you have not already reviewed them here are two links we suggest.
- CHAPTER 42, SECTION 5. WRITING A GRANT - MAIN SECTION
Learn about grant proposals and how to use grants to accomplish your stated purposes, ... for change. Whether you have never contemplated writing a grant proposal and feel intimidated about how to begin, or you have ... - TOOLKITS, 14. WRITING A GRANT APPLICATION FOR FUNDING
... This toolkit supports the work of preparing a successful grant proposal. Outline for Writing a Grant Application for Funding In this Toolkit, you will find ...
How do I know which community representatives (in Atlanta, Georgia) to engage for my particular issue? I am in the process of adopting a foster child (that has been with me for 2 years) we should be finalizing this month. This process has opened my eyes to systemic and chronic issues in the foster care system and I really want to help. I would like get involved perhaps providing support to overworked and underpaid social workers and case managers; perhaps providing a resource tool box for families trying caring for foster children Etc. Over the past two years I have consistently been given incomplete/inaccurate information by DFCS as it relates to our process. I have had to extend an abundance of energy trying to care for this amazing special needs child and even MORE energy following up with all the incorrect information from the agency. Honestly, my heart bleeds for all of the children stuck behind the red tape and I just need to know which of my elected officials is directly responsible for this area so that I can bring more awareness and solutions to this important platform.
Thank you
Thank you for using the Community Tool Box and contacting us with your question. We have some resources to help you. Check out Chapter 4. Getting Issues on the Public Agenda https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/getting-issues-on-the... See also the following resources. Good luck with your advocacy for children in the care of the state, especially those with special needs, and the families supporting them.
I have reviewed the information in the tool kit on social media campaigns but have been unable to find a simple fill in template that I can use to develop one and share it with others.
We appreciate that you have consulted our resources on social marketing campaigns. As you noted, we do not have a template, per se, for a social campaign, but there are many examples and content guidelines for communications. You might find helpful Community Tool Box Chapter 6: Communications to Promote Interest and Participation https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/promoting-interest.... Best wishes with your project.
We appreciate you connecting with the Community Tool Box. It seems you may be asking about how to use participation as a tool for advocacy. We have many tools available on advocacy and participation. To begin, we suggest the links below. You can find more resources in our toolbox by using its search feature.
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CHAPTER 30, SECTION 1. OVERVIEW: GETTING AN ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN OFF THE GROUND - MAIN SECTION
... has selected. What is advocacy? Does advocacy always involve confrontation? Why and when would you choose ... -
CHAPTER 33, SECTION 10. GENERAL RULES FOR ORGANIZING FOR LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY - MAIN SECTION
... Learn how to design and implement a legislative advocacy campaign, keyed to specific legislative targets and goals, to support ... work. What is legislative advocacy? Why should you engage in legislative advocacy? ... -
CHAPTER 33, SECTION 19. USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DIGITAL ADVOCACY - MAIN SECTION
... What is using social media for digital advocacy? Why should you use social media for digital advocacy? When might you use social media? Who should use ... -
TOOLKITS, 10. ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE
This toolkit supports planning for advocacy efforts and responding to opposition. ... Related resources : Overview: Getting an Advocacy Campaign Off the Ground Developing a Plan for Advocacy ...
I would like to know where can I began to seek fu ding for this much needed project?
Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your question. While we do not know of specific funding sources that address the project you describe, we think Chapter 24 may be a good place to start.
CHAPTER 24, SECTION 7. DEVELOPING AND INCREASING ACCESS TO HEALTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES - MAIN SECTION
... and community services? How do we find private funding sources? How do we break down the physical barriers to ... to access to health and community services. One concerns funding, without which necessary services either won't exist, or won't be ...
Thank you for writing to us and for your question. We do not have all the technical skills to provide sample code for Python App Engine or the proprietary object-oriented programming language, PeopleCode. We hope you can find some examples on the web or connect with a support group of coders.
Are there database where I can a sample individual experiences?
Thanks for using the Community Tool Box and reaching out to us with a question. We are not aware of a database available to other researchers for individual experiences directly related to your topic of school closings. Access to datasets that other researchers have collected is available in some cases. For an example see the National Institutes of Health (NIH): http://libguides.gwumc.edu/NIHcompliance. If you have not already read the following chapters in the Community Tool Box, you may find these helpful in your search for accessing previously collected/archival data. Good luck with your project.
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CHAPTER 37, SECTION 7. COLLECTING AND USING ARCHIVAL DATA - MAIN SECTION
... how to use existing information, both archival and secondary data, which can be much easier than collecting the data yourself. ... on pregnancy rates for the state and county collected by the Public Health Service, but none at the community level, and none that separate ... -
CHAPTER 3, SECTION 19. USING PUBLIC RECORDS AND ARCHIVAL DATA - MAIN SECTION
... Learn how to utilize public records and available data to gain community insight on history, demographics, and issues. ...
Thanks for connecting with us at the Community Tool Box. Your question about managing bank accounts varies by many of the issues you have raised. You will need to check with the banking and corporation (C Corp) regulations for your state. In many states "authorized signers" can be changed as the board members change. Considering having at least two authorized signers in case of illness or other absence by one of the signatories. You may have already read the CTB Chapter 43. Managing Finances that provides additional tips and examples. In that chapter, "we have suggested getting help from an accountant or a lawyer when you are going through these processes. But those fees add up; how can a relatively poor organization afford this type of counsel? Our advice is to look for professionals who will either donate their time or do the work at a reduced cost." Consider reviewing the Chapter again for more details. Good luck!
I need people from USA to visit it
You might begin by checking out Chapter 6 of the Community Tool Box titled, "Communications to Promote Interest."
Thank you for using the Community Tool Box and consulting Chapter 8, Section 5: Developing an Action Plan. In response to your question on how much time it takes within the 3 to 6-month estimate, it depends on a few factors such as the number of people involved in the discussions and how quickly the writer transforms notes into working documents for participants to review and provide feedback. Often, groups that already have established relationships can work more quickly than those who do not have a shared philosophy. Also, the time can be shortened if a team is revising an existing plan or staring a new one using a model from another group. Obviously, not having an existing plan or example will take more time. If you do not have a plan to work from, consider using the resources at the end of the section for Preventing Youth Violence: An Action Planning Guide for Community-Based Initiatives and searching online for other examples. Additional resources from Community Tool Box may be helpful in accomplishing your work:
An Overview of Strategic Planning or "VMOSA" (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans)
Proclaiming Your Dream: Developing Vision and Mission Statements
Can you point me to a tool for measuring the performance of city-schools interagency collaborations? Thank you.
Thanks for using the Community Tool Box. Many assessments of collaborations are customized to ask questions relevant to the collaborating agencies in areas such as funding, diagnoses (in the case of schools perhaps Individualized Educational Plans). It is not clear if you are interested in assessing only schools interacting with each other or other agencies with schools. Our suggestion is to begin by writing a definition of what a successful interagency collaboration is, then identify what tangible resources are involved in the collaboration (financial, physical, services) and who distributes and uses the resources (e.g., students, parents, teachers, school staff, principals). You may want each organization involved in the collaboration to develop a few questions. Then, using interviews or focus groups ask service providers and those using the services. A logic model can help guide questions that can be counted/outputs (e.g., effective collaboration would result in a reduction of re-telling one's story to multiple agencies.
Here are some additional resources we hope are helpful:
Community School Partnership Assessment: http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/AssetManager/csassessment.pdf
http://navnetnl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/better-at-working-together-part-1-literature-review.pdf
One approach to assessing the impact of knowledge mobilization (i.e., disseminating key findings) is the "THE COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION EVALUATION FRAMEWORK" (by Worton, et al., 2017) available online http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ijcre/article/view/5202/6046.
I am Van Noeurm from Cambodia. I work as a project officer in local organization in my country which is based on Healing and Reconciliation work with victims of torture of genocide and youth engagement in peace process.
At the moment, I am holding an event related to Public Forum on community truth-telling. Having been through this website, I see that Public Forum and Dialogue process is quite similar.
Could you please kindly provide some ideas on how to initiate the public forum as stated above?
Noted: we have survivors of torture from genocide and youth in total around 100 participants, some are from communities and some are from University.
Best regards,
Van Noeurn, Cambodia.
Thank you for using the Community Tool Box Chapter 3 on public forums. For additional resources on how to initiate a public forum see one example from COMMUNITY LISTENING FORUM TOOLKIT on the following link on page 6 for tips on identifying and inviting panel members, participants, and attendees: https://facesandvoicesofrecovery.org/file_download/inline/2912319e-d643-4d95-bb65-997dba8c7d61. Pages 7-9 offer suggestions on engaging people from media and promoting the event/forum. You may also want to consider starting an online forum, if that is a viable option, to connect people and build interest. Consider engaging key stakeholders in the area where you want to have the forum and ask them for their ideas about how to initiate. One of the underlying principles is to build relationships, so you may find the following chapter helpful: CHAPTER 27, SECTION 6. CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEMBERS OF GROUPS TO IDENTIFY THEIR SIMILARITIES, DIFFERENCES, AND ASSETS - MAIN SECTION.
Thank you
We appreciate your checking out the resources on the Community Tool Box. You may have already read our suggestions on how to prepare a job description in Chapter 10, Section 2: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/hiring-and-training/job-descriptions/main. At the bottom of that chapter, there are links to sample job descriptions. Consider also searching on charityvillage.com using the word coalition and look at current job descriptions under various titles to determine if the work is similar to the position you are creating. Here is one example: https://charityvillage.com/app/job-listings/911f89d7-557a-e811-80d3-14187768272a?search=true. Good luck with developing your position description and hiring.
I am conducting a study aimed at understanding the program and policy priorities of individuals who are eligible for federal food assistance. We are attempting to use a tool called CHAT (https://www.usechat.org/console/CHAT-resources/) which allows study participants to play a game where they prioritize a set of interventions in the context of limited resources (i.e. many more intervention options than the number of points they have to assign to interventions). The interventions are things like improving the grocery store environment, improving school lunches, etc. The challenge is making sure people who participate understand the interventions and also making the game board streamlined enough so that there are not too many options on the board. What tools are out there to make sure our language is accessible? How can we make sure we are meeting participants where they are in terms of describing interventions? Thanks
Good Morning Heena, and thanks for contacting CTB.
I think that your question may have to be posed to the developers of CHAT, because it may require modifications within the CHAT program to accomplish accessible language. I found a link to the CHAT help desk: www.kayako.com/Live-Chat-Help/Desk-Solution,
One possible, but awkward, way to determine Readability Level of CHAT language would be to copy examples into Microsoft Word and then check readability level as part of Spell Check. That still doesn't give you a way to change the language used by CHAT.
I hope this helps a little.