Ask an Advisor Answers

             Some time ago you wrote to us about your young nephew and his desire to change the local school system.  For some reason, this question slipped through the cracks,  and our apologies for that.  But we hope we can partially make up for our delay by offering some comments now.

            We think it’s to your nephew’s credit that he is thinking critically about the school system – or any social institution for that matter.  And it’s possible for many kinds of people to create positive change, definitely including 12-year-olds. If we had more time and space, we could tell you some stories….

           How to do it? Your nephew has options. He can contact his local school committee, meaning that he could write them and/or ask to speak before them at a public meeting. Perhaps he or someone in his family knows a sympathetic school committee member, in which case he could meet with that member one-on-one to get advice before contacting the school committee as a whole.  Or he could make his views known through both print and social media in Haverhill.  Or he could back certain candidates for school committee office. These options are not mutually exclusive.

            In his presentations, it will help your nephew to have very clear, concrete, and feasible suggestions for implementation – he wants to say more than  “the system is outdated”; instead, he wants to say very specifically what needs to be done, and what specific actions (X, Y, and Z) should be taken, ideally supported by factual evidence. And if he’s talking to the school personnel, he wants to ask for a specific response, to guard against his ideas being left to wither over time.

          But his best single option, though, may be to organize.  From a decision maker’s point of view, it’s one thing if a single kid stands up to complain. But if that same complaint is made by a persistent group of students, planning and acting together, who won’t take “No” for an answer, that’s harder to ignore. In community work, there really is strength in numbers.

         If there’s already an active school-reform organization where your nephew lives, great. If not, he might reach out and talk to his age-peers who feel like him, and share ideas and strategies and possible tactics they could engage in, beginnIng in the fall.  Actually, the summer will give him time to do this. It’s not how most kids would plan to spend their summer vacations; but in some ways it might actually turn out to be fun.

             Not to say that any of this is necessarily easy. Creating change often takes real work, and success is not guaranteed; you may fall short.  But if you feel strongly about something, you might nevertheless decide to stand up and speak out rather than remain  silent.

            In addition to these points, some sections in the Community Tool Box may be useful for general ideas on creating change; your nephew (and you) might want to browse through some of these, which can be found through our table of contents.

            We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you.  Thank you for writing to us, and all best wishes for a wonderful summer – and a great school year ahead!

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box, and please excuse our unforeseen delay in responding to your important and challenging question.   

            From our distance, your recruiting procedures would typically be guided by (1) what resources (people, money, and especially time)   your group or organization has available for recruiting activities; (2) what specific role(s) you would like committee members to play; and (3) how long the project is going to last (will it be a one-time action research study, or do you envision a longer-lasting presence?)

            There are no one-size-fits-all answers to these questions; your own answers will depend on what’s going to work best for you in your particular setting; so it will be good for you to be clear on these points before you get in too deeply.

             A possibly useful approach, however, might be to consider a structure or structures where anyone who wants to participate can do so.  You’d have multiple channels, and multiple opportunities for involvement.   

            For example, you could create a bona fide planning or steering committee, with real authority.  (How those people would be chosen is a challenging question in itself.)  And this could co-exist with a larger and possibly more diverse advisory committee/ board, which could reflect the views of more people.  Since Bangladesh is a very big country, you could also help establish regional or even local councils to set local priorities and monitor their implementation.  You could sponsor a series of public hearings in different parts of Bangladesh as well, which could attract still-larger numbers.

            In addition, you could help facilitate ongoing structures where individual Bangladeshi residents could make their feelings known through texts, e-mails, and/or short videos. By so doing you could increase the number of perceived stakeholders, which seems entirely appropriate in that sexual gender-based violence is an issue that should properly concern everyone.  

            In other words, by adopting a layered, multi-level, and decentralized approach, you could maximize stakeholder opportunities to participate as well as participation itself.  And the longer-run impact of your project might be greater as well.

            What you do with all of that participatory input – how you deal with it respectfully, responsively, and effectively – is of course another story.  A bittersweet irony of community work is that success creates  its own costs.  But that is a question for another day.  For the moment, though, we think you are on the right track.

            Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for success as your work unfolds.    

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box, and please excuse our unforeseen delay in responding to your important question.   

            In general, both our reading of the literature and our experience suggest that testimony, especially written testimony, is more effective when it is (1) short, (2) specific, (3) suggests a specific action, and (4)  asks for feedback.

      The “short and simple” guideline may be good news for you and your supporters, for it means that written testimony need not be difficult to generate.  And this may be even more true in the case of PFAS, since adverse results of PFAS are likely to be long-term, and it may be hard to demonstrate specific and targeted adverse effects, as well as causal linkages. 

            What that means is that supporters needn’t limit their communications to scientific evidence (which, in our understanding, is somewhat mixed). They can instead emphasize the unknowns and the potential risks of PFAS, and suggest that in the presence of doubt it’s best for now to adopt some precautionary standards (i.e., regulations)
and to monitor new evidence as it comes in.

            Beyond that, you can:

•     Give your target population a long list of talking points, and have them pick one or two to focus on.
•     Encourage those writing not to avoid feeling and controlled emotion– it’s okay to be frightened about your child’s welfare, for example.
•    … And also to write in their own words. It doesn’t have to be entirely grammatical, or in Pulitzer-prize-winning prose.  
•     Spread out your advocacy campaign over time if needed, so that your desired letters will not all come in at once.  

      In addition, if you can find people who can make a credible case that they personally experienced negative effects from PFAS – people who have a compelling personal story – their testimony is likely to be particularly impactful.

            Of course, the effectiveness of your communications will also depend on your audience, in this case the decision-makers who will be reading your testimony.  By now, we’d imagine that you have researched who your audience will be, and have planned accordingly.

            Over and above these points, the Community Tool Box offers different resources that may be useful to you as your work continues.  For example, you might look atChapter 33, Section 6, on Using Personal Testimony, at /en/table-of-contents/advocacy/direct-action.The neighboring sections on Advocacy might be helpful as well, as might be Chapter 6, Section 2, on Using Principles of Persuasion.  You can access these by browsing the Tool Box table of contents.

            You can also find multiple other sources on writing effective testimony through a simple online search. One of the better ones we’ve seen comes out of rural Montana, athttp://rtc.ruralinstitute.umt.edu/www/wp-content/uploads/Guide-LettersDecisionMakers_FINAL-1.pdf.  This might be a bit too formal for your particular circumstance, but you could adapt it for your own audience.

            As for Chat GPT, we are not experienced enough in its use to make application suggestions here.  But if you have such suggestions of your own, or results to report, we’d certainly like to hear about them!

         We hope these comments might be useful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for success as your work continues.

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box, and please excuse our unforeseen delay in responding to your question.

            It’s excellent that you and your group would like to improve operations at your local animal shelter. Under normal circumstances, there’s no legal requirement that you form a legal entity. But that leads to a different question: Would you be better off doing so? In other words, forming a legal entity might not be necessary, but it might (or might not) be desirable.

            Forming a legal entity can create certain tax advantages for your group.  It can sometimes give your group more community credibility.  And it enables you to apply for federal tax-exempt status, which may be helpful if at some point your group wants to apply for grants.  (Note that not all nonprofits are tax-exempt; that requires a separate application process.)

            The details of how a group like yours would form a legal entity are usually handled on the state level, usually by the Secretary of State’s office in your state’s government. That’s often the best place to find out what your state’s requirements and procedures are, as well as to get some advice that’s particular to your situation.  The officials you are meeting with, depending on who they are, may be able to advise you as well.

             “Just doing stuff” can be excellent, and may certainly be sufficient in itself for you.  Becoming a legal entity might give you some added advantages. Once you’ve learned more, then you’ll likely be better able to make decisions that seem best for you now.  

            Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for success as your work proceeds.

             Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box, and please excuse our unforeseen delay in responding to your very thoughtful question.

            While we are not able to point you to the particular tool you mention, one general source that may be useful to you is SAMHSA, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, at www.samhsa.gov.  

            See especially their strategic prevention framework, at https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/20190620-samhsa-strategic-prevention-framework-guide.pdf. That guide (A Guide to Samsa’s Strategic Prevention Framework) describes five core components of prevention planning – assessment, capacity, evaluation, implementation, and planning – all of which taken together are believed to lead to sustainability and cultural  competence.

            Samosa may have other useful reports as well, available through searching their main site. Your search there may also lead you to in-house contacts with expertise on your particular assessment-tool question.

           Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for the success of your project as your work unfolds.

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your valuable question, and please excuse our unforeseen delay in responding to you.  

            We applaud your goal, and the efforts you are making to reach it. And when you ask about how to get started, we would say that you have started already, for one of the first steps in community work is identifying a need you want to fill. You’ve done this.

            But to respond to some of the other points you raise:  

*          Licensing and permitting issues around group homes are usually dealt with on a local basis.  This means it should help you to learn about the Memphis city departments who are responsible for reviewing and approving licensing and permitting applications.  You can find a friendly city official who can explain the local regulations to you, and/or you can find other housing operators in Memphis who have dealt with the same situation, and learn from their experience.

*         Many of your potential funding sources will be local as well. Some questions to ask yourself: What does the city budget look like?  What part of the city budget deals with housing, and the type of housing you envision?  Has the city funded projects like yours before?  How can you emulate their success?  How have other group homes in the city created their funding?  Are there special aspects of your project that would make it unique and distinctive from others? Also, what other local sources of funding might there be outside of city government? Can you locate some private philanthropy sources?

            That’s a lot of questions. But again, if you or any of your supporters can develop a personal relationship with a well-placed city official or other potential funder, he or she may help you with these questions, and that can be so worthwhile.

            It would be good to investigate state and federal sources as well. On a federal level, one place to start might be by researching the resources of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and in particular its service called HUD USER. Check it out at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/firsttimevisit.html.  For a newcomer to do this may take some persistence, but it may pay off in the long run.

*          More generally, it should definitely be helpful to get support and advice from others who have established group homes and safe havens in the city. Seek them out, talk to them, and learn from them.  You may well find that they welcome your interest, because there is plenty of need to go around.

*          And it will also be valuable to find others who could work together  with you on the project, to provide both support, ideas, and concrete help. You don’t have to do all the work alone – it’s often more enjoyable and more effective when the work is shared.  Your supporters could become your unofficial advisors, and maybe later serve on your Board of Directors!

            In addition, the Community Tool Box offers some general background materials that might be helpful to you.  In particular, you might want to look at Chapter 18, which is called Deciding Where to Start. See especially Section 1 in that chapter, on Designing Community Interventions, at /en/table-of-contents/analyze/where-to-start

            The various sections within Chapter 19, on Choosing and Adapting Community Interventions, should also be helpful, See  /en/table-of-contents/analyze/choose-and-adapt-community-interventions.  All of this material – including other Tool Box chapters and sections on funding – can be freely viewed and downloaded from the Community Tool Box table of contents.

            We hope these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for great success in creating a secure and loving home for the many children who need it.

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box, and please excuse our unforeseen delay in responding to your very thoughtful and well-articulated question.

            It’s excellent to hear about your activities and your plans to strengthen neighborhood life where you live. We surely support your goals.   There are many good ideas in what you write, and many of them may work out very  well.

            But you might want to take a step back and a second look at the methods you describe. What stands out most is that you seem to be doing this work all by yourself, where it could instead be more of a community effort. Engaging community members in the design (and, later on, implementation) can be empowering for them, and increase their future buy-in – not to mention that it can take much of the burden off of you!

            Also, when you say you would be posting this needs assessment online, do you mean that the posting would be of the results of the assessment, or rather that the posting would be the needs assessment itself.  If the latter, note that it’s quite hard to get people to answer surveys online, especially those taking more than a minute or two. 

            So we would like to describe an alternative approach, simply for your consideration.

            Rather than start with pre-conceived ideas, such as a Collective Problem Tree.  You could meet with small groups of neighbors, simply to talk about what’s going on the neighborhood and hear what’s on their mind. How do they see the needs (and assets) of the community?  What are they liking, what are they not liking, what issues are most important to them, how should those issues best be addressed, and what might they want to work on together?   Questions like that.

            You’d listen carefully to what they have to say.  And from those discussions, your interventions will emerge.  Maybe what emerges will be connected with your collective problem tree, or maybe not. The key point is that choices will be made by those most affected by them.  This is more of a bottom-up approach, rather than one which seeks to implement a concept from the outside.  It will draw on neighbor participation and contribution from the get-go. It will be more personal. And it may work out better for you and everyone in the long run. Your longer-run goals would not change, but the pathway for achieving them would be different.

            Just something to think about.

            In addition, you may find some useful background materials in the Community Tool Box. For example, you might look at Chapter 3, Section 13, Conducting Surveys, at /en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/conduct-surveys/main, as well as at other topics that may interest you, which you can find by  browsing the Tool Box’s table of contents.

            We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for the success of your project as your work unfolds.

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. and please excuse our delay in getting back to you. It’s good that you are interested in tools that may help you and your local coalition, and many such tools do exist.

            The tools that are most appropriate for you will depend on what you mean by “overseeing” a coalition – for example, do you mean direct it (such as by an administrative director), consult to it, advise it, handle its finances, or some combination of these things, or something else? (The legal issues you might best leave to your attorneys.)

             If you are looking for more general information about coalitions, you might consult Chapter 5, Section 5 in the Tool Box table of contents, which deals with on Starting a Coalition. You can find this at  /en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/start-a-coaltion/main.  Chapter 5, Section 6, on Maintaining a Coalition, may be helpful as well, as may be Toolkit 1, on coalitions, as well.

            We hope these thoughts may be useful to you.  Thanks again for writing to us, and all best wishes for success as your work continues.

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. and please excuse our delay in getting back to you. It’s good that you are interested in tools that may help you and your local coalition, and many such tools do exist.

            The tools that are most appropriate for you will depend on what you mean by “overseeing” a coalition – for example, do you mean direct it (such as by an administrative director), consult to it, advise it, handle its finances, or some combination of these things, or something else? (The legal issues you might best leave to your attorneys.)

             If you are looking for more general information about coalitions, you might consult Chapter 5, Section 5 in the Tool Box table of contents, which deals with on Starting a Coalition. You can find this at  /en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/start-a-coaltion/main.  Chapter 5, Section 6, on Maintaining a Coalition, may be helpful as well, as may be Toolkit 1, on coalitions, as well.

            We hope these thoughts may be useful to you.  Thanks again for writing to us, and all best wishes for success as your work continues.

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. and please excuse our delay in getting back to you. It’s good that you are interested in tools that may help you and your local coalition, and many such tools do exist.

            The tools that are most appropriate for you will depend on what you mean by “overseeing” a coalition – for example, do you mean direct it (such as by an administrative director), consult to it, advise it, handle its finances, or some combination of these things, or something else? (The legal issues you might best leave to your attorneys.)

             If you are looking for more general information about coalitions, you might consult Chapter 5, Section 5 in the Tool Box table of contents, which deals with on Starting a Coalition. You can find this at  /en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/start-a-coaltion/main.  Chapter 5, Section 6, on Maintaining a Coalition, may be helpful as well, as may be Toolkit 1, on coalitions, as well.

            We hope these thoughts may be useful to you.  Thanks again for writing to us, and all best wishes for success as your work continues.

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box. and please excuse our delay in getting back to you. It’s good that you are interested in tools that may help you and your local coalition, and many such tools do exist.

            The tools that are most appropriate for you will depend on what you mean by “overseeing” a coalition – for example, do you mean direct it (such as by an administrative director), consult to it, advise it, handle its finances, or some combination of these things, or something else? (The legal issues you might best leave to your attorneys.)   Many options are possible and justifiable, so it will help you to first clarify this point for yourself.

             If you are looking for more general information about coalitions, you might consult Chapter 5, Section 5 in the Tool Box table of contents, which deals with on Starting a Coalition. You can find this at  /en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/start-a-coaltion/main.  Chapter 5, Section 6, on Maintaining a Coalition, may be helpful as well, as may be Toolkit 1, on coalitions, as well.

            We hope these thoughts may be useful to you.  Thanks again for writing to us, and all best wishes for success as your work continues.

            This is certainly a very big and broad question. There are many such sources, but to get started it might help you to look over the different sections in the Community Tool Box.  You can find these in our Table of Contents, at  /en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/start-a-coaltion/mainsite, These are all available to you to read and down load without charge.

            The Table of Contents will give you a general idea of what sources might be available; you could then pick out those which are most connected with your own needs and interests.  We wish you much success in finding what you are looking for.

          Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your important question, and please excuse our delay in getting back to you.

           Your question is of course very specific, and many details of a response would be unique to Ethiopia. But you can find some general information about social marketing in the Table of Contents of the  Community Tool Box, such as in Chapter 45, Section 1, on Understanding Social Marketing, at /en/sustain/social-marketing/overview/main and in other nearby sections in Chapter 45 as well.  This might be a useful place for you to start; we hope so.  

         Many best wishes for success as your important work proceeds.

            Thank you for writing to us with your question.  Most of the Community Tool Box was written in the late 1990s and early 2000s. We have not engaged in a comprehensive overhaul since then, partly because we have been engaged in other Tool Box projects, and partly because we believe that the general principles of community building and community development hold up well over time.

            On the other hand, we do make updates on a case-by-case basis when we find that a point made in one of our sections is either wrong, misleading, or has been superseded by newer information, as with, for example, social media. Soon we may well need to be writing a module on community applications of artificial intelligence.

            Many instructors like yourself, and myself included, have used parts of the Community Tool Box for college courses. There are also two other options you could consider. One is a Training Curriculum, available in 16 separate modules,  which you can learn more about at /en/training-curriculumBut also, just this year we have released a new online training program called   Building Healthy Communities, explicitly designed for college classes, perhaps like your own.  We invite you to take a look at https://training.ctb.ku.edu/wp-content/uploads/CTB-Online-Training.pdf and to see if it might work for you.

            Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for great success in your essential work.

            Thank you for your question, Theresa. We have some familiarity with Zonta International, and applaud your efforts. We don’t have advisors physically present  in Chile at the moment (we wish we did), but we will keep our eyes and ears open for contacts that might be useful to you.

        In the meantime, it is always possible for you or colleagues to take advantage of Tool Box materials, most of which are available in Spanish (see the upper right corner of our home page), or to continue to write to us as needed.  

          All best wishes for continued success as your work proceeds.

Thank you for writing to us with your very interesting and challenging question. We certainly appreciate and applaud your boss’s generosity in this planned initiative, and applaud your own involvement in it as well.

In response to your questions more specifically:

* Looking for a nonprofit organization that could assume program leadership later on is an excellent idea, and it is never too early to begin looking.

* Any required papers or permits are likely to be issued and governed by your own locality, and may vary somewhat from community to community; so it would be wise to inquire in the appropriate offices in your local city or town hall. You might also talk informally with any local officials you might know who might have locally-based suggestions for you, and be guided by their advice.

* As for where to start, the Community Tool Box offers some general background materials that might be helpful to you, in particular
the different sections in Chapter 19, on Choosing and Adapting Community Interventions, at /en/table-of-contents/analyze/choose-and-a
dapt-community-interventions.) You might take a few moments to review this section, as well as similar nearby sections you can find in our table of contents

In your case, a question that stands out for us is how the program you envision could sustain itself financially into the future. Free exterior housepainting over any period of time would usually be a significant expense; How would you deal with it?

We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thank you again for being in touch with us, and all best wishes for success as your work continues.
 

            What kind of community work can one do?  How many stars are in the sky?

          Your question is an important one, because it points to the very wide range of community work that can be done. And the short answer to it  is “many kinds.” 

          Community work starts with a problem, or issue, or simple concern or question you have about your community, or communities in general.  (Perhaps you can already see how wide-ranging the work can be, even at the beginning.)

          The work itself involves finding an answer to your initial concern, that question, and often applying your findings to the community in question, so that you create better outcomes for that community. -   Those outcomes might take different forms, such as improvements in health conditions, better education, more economic opportunities, or a more equitable distribution of resources.   

          In doing community work, a variety of methods are available to you – for example, interviews, questionnaires, observation, experiments, advocacy, and direct action. Specialized training in using these methods and in understanding community life may be helpful to you, depending on your particular interests. Community workers can and do come from many different backgrounds, and can and do pursue many different kinds of training to improve their work -- even though it is still possible to be a very effective community worker with no specialized training at all.  

          Since community concerns vary widely from person to person and from community to community, “community work” takes in a very wide territory. And that means there is an enormous amount of work that can be done to help bring about the world most of us would like to see -- one where everyone’s basic needs are met, where peace and justice prevail, and where everyone has the opportunity to reach one’s full potential.   If you choose a path that involves community work, the chances are you will never be bored!

      When we were starting our own career, we came across this quote from an American social reformer of the 19th century, who said,  “In a world where there so much to be done, there must be something for me to do.”  Do you agree? We believed that then, we still believe it now, and we hope that you will come to believe it for yourself.

          We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box, and all best wishes for success in whatever work you choose to do.

          Thanks for writing to us with your important and challenging question. Of course, we don’t know the details of your community situation, but from our outside perspective we can offer some general comments for your consideration.

           You ask “Where do I start?”, but we would suggest that you have already started, simply by identifying the problem and asking questions about it.  That much in itself is good; so please take credit for that.

          As we see it, much of the problem you identify seems to be a community systems problem, involving not only you but also other service agencies in your community. (E.g., the small percentage of victims you evaluate, the disconnect between your program and receiving support in the community, the duplication of services.)  This suggests that solutions are not likely to come simply from yourself, nor should they. They are more likely to come from these agencies working better together.

            How can that happen?   We don’t know to what extent service agencies in your community have attempted to work together, or what the outcomes have been,  or to what extent they are working together now.  But if  the answers resemble “not very much,” or “not very well,” or “not as much as they could, ” one scenario could go something like this:

       You discuss the situation with your own supervisor, to get his/her perspective on the situation, and the backing to make some inter-agency contacts. Then you talk to a few confidantes in other agencies about the challenges you face – much as you are talking to us – and ask if it would be a good idea if the different parties concerned met to talk about these issues together.

            If they are supportive, even mildly supportive, you then expand the circle to include a larger network of players, with small, informal, one-on-one dialogues on the same topic. By doing so, you aim to get  buy-in for a larger meeting and to lay the groundwork for it.      

        After following this procedure for a while, you decide at some point you are ready to call an inter-agency meeting. You propose an agenda in advance, saying in effect to the group: ”These are the challenges I see; do you see things the same way?; how do you feel about them?: and what can we do about them?  This might be a two-part meeting, the first part focusing on spelling out the problems, and the second on changes you as a group could make to deal more effectively with them.

             That’s the basic framework, which you can adapt to your own setting depending on your community history, your current status, and the idiosyncrasies of your particular situation.   Do you think this might be worth a try?

            All that said, a number of improvements could also come about in-house. Some examples: expanded in-service training for your team members;  printed handouts for clients on community resources; establishment of in-house protocols for follow-up.

            There may also be ways to strengthen your own program’s recruiting and retention.  Part of that involves the reward structure, which can be changed though additional salary or bonuses, or payments for on-call contacts – all of course easier said than done. Part of it, though, could involve reframing:  Would it be possible to frame being on-call as more of an honor rather than as an added burden, where only the best get to be chosen as a member of an elite team?  At first blush, this may seem fanciful; but at second thought we wonder… Part of being a coordinator Is to be creative!  

            Finally for now, you ask how you can become a better leader -- as if we could add something useful beyond the millions of words that have  already been spilled on this topic. But since you ask, we will try.

            In your situation, to be a better leader may not so much mean  doing anything really differently, but rather more a matter of permitting the full expression of your natural self.  

            That is, in your coordinator role you can allow yourself to be a full person, to let your own uncertainties and vulnerabilities and limitations show.  You communicate, both explicitly and implicitly, that you care deeply about your team, both individually and collectively, and that you are doing the best you can.  You have an inherently difficult job, even though you chose it, and if everything you do is not done with brilliant competence or accompanied by perfect sensitivity, that’s okay.   

            Going a step further, your job not only allows you to put your full self on display, but also your best self, the kind of self you would like to be in any case – a kind, trustworthy, and compassionate person of great integrity, one who models the spirit they’d like to convey, one with high devotion to your team as a whole and to your broader cause.  

            Not all jobs make that possible; in that sense, your job is a privilege. So why not take advantage of it? 

           We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for writing to us, and all best wishes for success as your work continues.

               Thank you for writing to us. As we are not based in the St. Louis area, we are not personally familiar with the local scene. But we have been in touch with a colleague who does live there, and who is a pediatric health professional; she would be glad to hear from you.  We will send you her contact information in a separate e-mail, offline. 

            In the meantime, FYI, the Community Tool Box does contain information on how to conduct interviews that might be of interest to you. Specifically, you might benefit from reviewing Chapter 3, Section 12, on conducting interviews, at /en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/conduct-interviews/main, as well as other sections in Chapter 3; you can find these in the Community Tool Box table of contents.

            Thanks again for being in touch, and all best wishes for successful completion  of your research project, and beyond.

            Thank you for writing to us with your question. The Community Tool Box does contain many resources that may be helpful in addressing the issues you are dealing with.  One of them, as you mention, is Toolkit #7, and this is a reasonable place to start.

            There are other options too. For example, you mention the project management cycle, and the Tool Box resource that comes closest to that is found in Chapter 2, Section 13, on Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships. But we think you might also benefit from reviewing Chapter 17, Section 3, on Defining and Analyzing the Problem,  as well as Chapter 24, Section 7, on Developing and Increasing Access to Health and Community Services, which may speak more specifically to your particular concern. You can find links to these and other sections in the Community Tool Box table of contents.  We encourage you to take a look and focus on that material that speaks most directly to you.

            The basic procedure for addressing issues such as yours is not difficult to state. At its bare-bones essence, you want to describe the situation as it is now (A), describe your desired outcome (B), identify the available options for getting from A to B, and choose that option (or options) with the greatest likelihood of success. Of course, those who are most affected by the issue (in your case, the immigrants you mention) must be closely involved in this process throughout.

            Easy enough to say. The difficulty often arises because advocates (such as yourself) don’t take sufficient time to problem-solve in a logical and systematic way. Taking the time to think, to sketch out ideas, to share them with colleagues, and to revise and refine before acting is usually time well spent.  We recommend you follow this procedure, over and above any sources you might read, including our own.

       Which is not to say we don’t also recommend our own Tool Box materials!  We hope you find these thoughts to be useful, and wish you every success as your work continues.

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box.   As you probably know, there will rarely be simple or easy solutions to this kind of problem. Our lives are shaped by natural forces, and there are limits to the control we have over nature.

            In addition, water policy is largely determined on a national level, rather than by each individual community.  But in community work our focus is on what we can do, not what we can’t. And we are not powerless, even on a local level, and even in the face of life-threatening problems such as water supply.

            To the extent you have not done so already, it will first help to gain clarity on the specific source or sources of the problem, through research, inquiry, and/or reflection.   A next step is to identify the options available for addressing it.   Then one chooses that option or options which seem the most likely to succeed, given the resources that you and your community have available.  After that, one plans a strategy to achieve chosen options. Finally, one acts to implement the plan.  It’s best to do this analysis together with colleagues, because your analysis will be then strengthened by incorporating the perspectives of others.

            In other words, we advocate a logical and systematic analysis of the situation as a prelude to action in many problem situations, even if that analysis may require research, thought, and time. This is one way to use the power we already have. And in the long run, we believe this type of approach is well worth the effort.

            Even then, though, there is of course no guarantee that the solutions agreed upon will be effective, or that they will solve the problem on their own. But more often than not they should help. And by adopting this approach, other possible solutions may appear.   

            Because we must limit the length of our response, what we’ve said so far is simplified and does not cover all details. But you can learn more from the various materials available in the Community Tool Box. For example, you might benefit from reviewing the different sections in Chapter 17, on  Analyzing Community Problems and Solutions, which can be found at /en/table-of-contents/analyze/analyze-community-problems-and-solutions. See especially Section 3, on Defining and Analyzing the Problem.  

            Another helpful source is Toolkit #7, on Developing an Intervention, at /en/developing-intervention. You can find links to these and other sections in the Community Tool Box table of contents.  We encourage you to consult them, to browse the Community Tool Box table of contents, and to utilize or adapt those materials that seem most useful to you.  

            We hope these thoughts may be helpful. Thank you again for being in touch, and we send best wishes as you and your community continue to work on this challenging problem.

            Thank you for writing to us at the Community Tool Box with your question.  We think we understand the choices you need to make, and in this case we agree that your choice may not be an easy one.

            Normally, we do believe in the great value of in-person discussion, because that is where the impact of your research is likely to be generated and felt. That is, you probably want the actors to incorporate  what they have learned into their everyday work after you have left the scene, and it helps if when they can collectively agree, face to face, to adopt or re-affirm certain practices, standards, or values.

          But we also understand your point about different dominances of the actors.  Are these strong enough to seriously inhibit the open discussion you want?  On that point, you would know better than we do. We can’t judge this from here.

           If you do use an open discussion method like the fishbowl, would it help if people were prepared and encouraged in advance to speak freely on this occasion, to accept any critical comments that might be made as part of the process, and to set the stage in advance for an open discussion?  We’re not sure. In any case, creating a climate for open discussion is a good idea.

       On the other hand, if you feel the effect of different dominances would be so strong as to significantly prevent open discussion, that would be a reason for using an online data collection method such as the whiteboard you mention, even though, as you say, the open discussion would be lost.

       But is there another option?  We also wonder if you might find a way to  combine your methods, such as by presenting the whiteboard material first, collecting online reactions, and then sharing the results of that data collection in an open in-person discussion. Would that be possible within the time frame you have?

            We hope some of these thoughts may be helpful to you. Thanks again for being in touch, and we send all best wishes for success with your project work and thesis.

            Thank you for writing to the Community Tool Box with your question, and congratulations on your assignment.

            We are not aware of an existing general asset map for South Chicago, or of any general source for neighborhood asset maps across the country. But since we are based in Kansas rather than Chicago, it’s possible that there might be one we don’t know about. Probably the best way to find out is to check with local neighborhood  leaders and other neighborhood sources directly.

            There are also two Chicago-area organizations that might well know more than we do about this, since they are closer to the situation. One is the Asset-Building Community Development Institute, based at DePaul, which promotes asset-based programs in general.   See https://resources.depaul.edu/abcd-institute/Pages/default.aspx  The other is MAPS Corps, which emphasizes training youth as data collectors throughout a neighborhood. See https://mapscorps.org/

            These organizations might be able to help you in other ways as well.  Of course, you could also try a simple web search for “South Chicago asset maps”  and see what you come up with.

            If you can’t find the map you want, then you have the option – and the opportunity – to create a map of your own. As you suggest, these can take time to complete. And we don’t know how that would fit with the agenda of the Black Researchers Collective.

            But on the other hand, creating your own map could be an excellent experience for the neighborhood, as well for you personally.  If neighborhood residents were to participate with you in the mapping process (as we think they should) that could empower them to think about the strengths of their own neighborhood  in ways they might not have thought of before, and to trigger actions building on those assets that will improve their neighborhood quality of life.  

            In other words, map development can be a community building process in itself.  (And it can also be a fun thing to do!)

            If you head in that direction, there are many sources you could consult.  One source is the Community Tool Box itself, in Chapter 3, Section 8 of our Table of Contents, on Identifying Community Assets and Resources, at  /en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/identify-community-assets/main.

            And here are some other how-to-do-it sources you could examine, going from simple to more complex:

            From the Center for Justice Innovation:   https://www.innovatingjustice.org/sites/default/files/documents/asset_mapping.pdf

             From a health policy center at UCLA:   https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/2023-08/tw_cba20.pdf

            From Palm Beach. Florida:    https://discover.pbcgov.org/ocr/PDF/REP/Module_5-Asset_Mapping_and_Neghborhood_Plans.pdf

            Take a look if you are able, and adapt what you like to your own neighborhood setting.

            We hope this much might be helpful to you.  Thanks again for being in touch -- and all best wishes for great success in your project.

To learn more about fundraising and donations for non-profits, you can utilize resources from the Community Tool Box sections and Toolkits, as well as other web resources. Here's a comprehensive plan:

1. Needs Assessment:
   • Utilize Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources to understand the specific needs of your non-profit organization and the communities you serve.
   • Conduct a thorough analysis of your organization's fundraising goals, existing resources, and potential gaps in funding.
2. Building Relationships:
   • Refer to Chapter 14. Core Functions in Leadership | Section 7. Building and Sustaining Relationships to establish connections with potential donors, volunteers, corporate partners, and community stakeholders.
   • Cultivate meaningful relationships by engaging with donors personally, expressing appreciation for their support, and demonstrating the impact of their contributions.
3. Education and Awareness:
   • Utilize resources from Toolkit 13. Implementing Social Marketing, 7. Developing an Intervention and Chapter 6. Communications to Promote Interest | Section 1. Developing a Plan for Communication to raise awareness about your non-profit's mission, programs, and impact.
   • Develop compelling storytelling materials, such as success stories, impact reports, and testimonials, to engage donors and inspire support.
4. Fundraising Strategies:
   • Explore different fundraising strategies and techniques outlined in Chapter 42. Getting Grants and Financial Resources | Section 1. Developing a Plan for Financial Sustainability, such as events, campaigns, grant writing, corporate partnerships, and individual giving.
   • Develop a diversified fundraising plan that leverages multiple channels to reach donors and maximize fundraising potential.
5. Capacity Building:
   • Strengthen your organization's fundraising capacity by providing training and resources to staff, volunteers, and board members.
   • Utilize resources from Chapter 12. Providing Training and Technical Assistance to empower stakeholders to participate in fundraising efforts and cultivate donor relationships.
6. Collaboration:
   • Collaborate with other non-profit organizations, community groups, and businesses to expand your fundraising network and share resources.
   • Participate in collaborative fundraising events, joint campaigns, and cross-promotional activities to reach new donors and supporters.
7. Grant Research and Writing:
   • Conduct thorough research to identify potential grant opportunities from government agencies, foundations, and other funding sources.
   • Utilize online databases, grant directories, and funding alerts to search for grants relevant to your organization's mission and programs.
   • Refer to the Toolkit 14. Applying for Grants for guidance on crafting compelling grant proposals and meeting funder requirements.
8. Donor Stewardship:
   • Implement effective donor stewardship practices to cultivate long-term relationships with donors and retain their support.
   • Acknowledge donors promptly, provide regular updates on your organization's work, and demonstrate transparency and accountability in financial management.
9. Networking:
   • Network with fundraising professionals, donors, and other non-profit leaders through conferences, workshops, and online forums.
   • Share best practices, exchange resources, and seek advice from experienced fundraisers to enhance your organization's fundraising efforts.
10. Evaluation:
    • Develop metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of your fundraising activities and track progress towards your goals.
    • Utilize evaluation techniques from Chapter 36. Introduction to Evaluation | Section 1. A Framework for Program Evaluation: A Gateway to Tools to assess the impact of fundraising efforts on your organization's financial sustainability and programmatic outcomes.

By following these steps and leveraging resources from the Community Tool Box sections, Toolkits, and other web sources, you can enhance your knowledge and skills in fundraising and donations for your non-profit organization.

To organize resources, establish relationships and connections, and design education projects in schools related to community development, environmental initiatives, food and nutrition, as well as maternal and child health, you can utilize resources from the Community Tool Box sections and Toolkits, as well as other web resources. Here's a comprehensive plan:

1. Needs Assessment:
   • Utilize Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources to identify the specific needs and priorities related to community development, environmental initiatives, food and nutrition, maternal, and child health in the target school or community.
   • Conduct surveys, interviews, or focus groups with teachers, parents, students, and community members to gather insights into existing resources and gaps in education and support services.
2. Building Relationships:
   • Refer to Chapter 14. Core Functions in Leadership | Section 7. Building and Sustaining Relationships to establish partnerships with schools, community organizations, local businesses, government agencies, and healthcare providers.
   • Collaborate with these partners to pool resources, share expertise, and coordinate efforts in designing and implementing education projects.
3. Education and Awareness:
   • Utilize resources from Toolkit 13. Implementing Social Marketing, 7. Developing an Intervention and Chapter 6. Communications to Promote Interest | Section 1. Developing a Plan for Communicationto design educational materials, workshops, and events that raise awareness about community development, environmental conservation, healthy nutrition, and maternal and child health.
   • Develop age-appropriate curricula, lesson plans, and educational activities that integrate these topics into school programs and align with academic standards.
4. Resource Mobilization:
   • Seek funding and in-kind support from grants, sponsorships, donations, and fundraising events to acquire resources for education projects.
   • Explore opportunities for resource sharing and collaboration with local organizations and businesses to access educational materials, equipment, and expertise.
5. Capacity Building:
   • Strengthen the capacity of teachers, school staff, and community volunteers to effectively deliver education projects on community development, environmental initiatives, food and nutrition, and maternal and child health.
6. Collaboration:
   • Foster collaboration between schools, community organizations, and healthcare providers to create holistic approaches to education and support services.
   • Establish interdisciplinary teams or committees to coordinate efforts, share resources, and evaluate the impact of education projects.
7. Evaluation:
   • Develop an evaluation plan to assess the effectiveness and impact of education projects on students' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to community development, environmental initiatives, food and nutrition, and maternal and child health.
   • Utilize evaluation techniques from Chapter 36. Introduction to Evaluation | Section 1. A Framework for Program Evaluation: A Gateway to Tools to collect data, measure outcomes, and identify areas for improvement.
8. Networking:
   • Connect with other schools, educators, and stakeholders in the field of community development, environmental initiatives, food and nutrition, and maternal and child health through conferences, workshops, and online forums.
   • Share best practices, resources, and success stories to inspire and support others in similar education endeavors.
9. Continued Engagement:
   • Maintain ongoing engagement with stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, and community members, to sustain support for education projects.
   • Provide opportunities for feedback, reflection, and continuous improvement to ensure the relevance and effectiveness of education initiatives over time.

By following these steps and leveraging resources from the Community Tool Box sections, Toolkits, and other web sources, you can effectively organize resources, establish relationships and connections, and design education projects in schools that address community development, environmental initiatives, food and nutrition, as well as maternal and child health.

To seek grants that support work around people with disabilities, you can utilize resources from the Community Tool Box sections and Toolkits, as well as other web resources. Here's a comprehensive plan:

1. Needs Assessment:
   • Utilize Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources to understand the specific needs and challenges faced by people with disabilities in your community.
   • Conduct surveys, interviews, or focus groups to gather insights into the barriers to inclusion and opportunities for improvement.
2. Building Relationships:
   • Refer to Chapter 14. Core Functions in Leadership | Section 7. Building and Sustaining Relationships to establish partnerships with disability advocacy organizations, service providers, government agencies, and other stakeholders.
   • Collaborate with these organizations to identify funding opportunities and develop grant proposals that address the needs of people with disabilities.
3. Education and Awareness:
   • Utilize resources from Chapter 6. Communications to Promote Interest | Section 1. Developing a Plan for Communication to raise awareness about the importance of supporting people with disabilities and the impact of inclusive programs and services.
   • Develop educational materials, workshops, or awareness campaigns to educate funders and the community about the needs and rights of people with disabilities.
4. Grant Research:
   • Conduct comprehensive research to identify potential funding sources for projects that support people with disabilities.
   • Utilize online databases, grant directories, and funding alerts to search for grants specifically targeting disability-related initiatives.
5. Grant Writing:
   • Refer to the Applying for Grants toolkit for guidance on crafting a compelling grant proposal.
   • Clearly outline the goals, objectives, and outcomes of your project, emphasizing how it will benefit people with disabilities and promote inclusivity.
   • Provide evidence-based strategies and best practices for addressing the identified needs and challenges.
6. Capacity Building:
   • Strengthen the capacity of your organization to effectively implement programs and services for people with disabilities.
   • Utilize resources from Section 9: Increasing Participation and Membership to provide training and support to staff, volunteers, and community members.
7. Collaboration:
   • Seek opportunities to collaborate with other organizations and stakeholders working on similar initiatives.
   • Explore partnerships with disability-specific organizations, healthcare providers, educational institutions, and employers to leverage resources and expertise.
8. Evaluation:
   • Develop an evaluation plan to assess the impact and effectiveness of your programs and services for people with disabilities.
   • Utilize evaluation techniques from Chapter 36. Introduction to Evaluation | Section 1. A Framework for Program Evaluation: A Gateway to Tools to collect data, measure outcomes, and track progress towards your goals.
9. Networking:
   • Attend conferences, workshops, and networking events focused on disability rights and inclusion to connect with potential funders and partners.
   • Join online forums, social media groups, and mailing lists to stay updated on funding opportunities and share resources with other professionals in the field.
10. Continued Engagement:
    • Maintain ongoing engagement with funders, partners, and stakeholders to sustain support for your initiatives.
    • Provide regular updates on the progress of your projects and communicate the impact of your work on people with disabilities and the broader community.

By following these steps and leveraging resources from the Community Tool Box sections, Toolkits, and other web sources, you can effectively seek grants to support work around people with disabilities and advance inclusion and accessibility in your community.

To create incentives to attract architects to create transformative public spaces, we can draw upon resources from the Community Tool Box sections and Toolkits, as well as other web resources. Here's a comprehensive plan:

1. Needs Assessment:
   • Utilize processes in Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources to understand the community's desires and priorities for public spaces.
   • Conduct surveys, focus groups, or interviews to gather insights into the community's vision for transformative public spaces and their expectations from architects.
2. Building Relationships:
   • Refer to Chapter 14. Core Functions in Leadership | Section 7. Building and Sustaining Relationships to establish partnerships with local architects, urban planners, community organizations, and government agencies.
   • Foster collaborations through networking events, workshops, or design competitions to engage architects in the process of creating transformative public spaces.
3. Education and Awareness:
   • Utilize resources from Chapter 6. Communications to Promote Interest | Section 1. Developing a Plan for Communication to raise awareness about the importance of transformative public spaces and the role architects play.
   • Organize educational seminars, public lectures, or design charrettes to showcase successful examples of transformative public spaces and inspire architects to contribute.
4. Incentive Design:
   • Develop incentive programs that recognize and reward architects for their contributions to creating transformative public spaces.
   • Offer financial incentives such as grants, honorariums, or design stipends to architects who propose innovative and impactful designs for public spaces.
   • Provide non-monetary incentives such as recognition, publicity, or professional development opportunities to incentivize architects to participate in public space projects.
   • Some examples are here: Chapter 25. Changing Policies | Section 3. Using Tax Incentives to Support Community Health and Development
5. Policy Advocacy:
   • Advocate for supportive policies and regulations that prioritize the creation of transformative public spaces in urban planning and development.
   • Refer to Toolkit 10. Advocating for Change to engage policymakers, urban planners, and community stakeholders in advocating for policies that incentivize architects to prioritize public space design.
6. Capacity Building:
   • Strengthen the capacity of architects and design professionals to conceptualize and execute transformative public space projects.
   • Provide training, workshops, or design competitions focused on public space design principles, placemaking strategies, and community engagement techniques.
7. Community Engagement:
   • Involve community members in the design process to ensure public spaces meet their needs and reflect their values.
   • Use participatory design approaches, community workshops, or online surveys to gather input from diverse stakeholders and incorporate their feedback into design proposals.
8. Resource Mobilization:
   • Seek funding from public and private sources to support incentives for architects and public space projects.
   • Explore crowdfunding platforms, grants, sponsorships, or public-private partnerships as potential funding sources for incentive programs.
9. Monitoring and Evaluation:
   • Establish mechanisms for monitoring the impact and effectiveness of incentive programs in attracting architects and creating transformative public spaces.
   • Use evaluation techniques from Chapter 36. Introduction to Evaluation | Section 1. A Framework for Program Evaluation: A Gateway to Tools to assess the outcomes, identify lessons learned, and make adjustments to incentive strategies as needed.
10. Continued Engagement:
    • Sustain engagement with architects, community members, and stakeholders to maintain momentum and support for transformative public space initiatives.
    • Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and shared responsibility for creating vibrant and inclusive public spaces that enrich the lives of residents and visitors alike.

By implementing these strategies and leveraging resources from the Community Tool Box sections, Toolkits, and other web sources, communities can effectively create incentives to attract architects to collaborate on transformative public space projects.

Developing a toolkit to accompany a documentary and for seeking grants for a documentary project involves several steps, drawing from resources provided by the Community Tool Box sections and Toolkits. Here's a comprehensive plan:

1. Needs Assessment:
   • Utilize Chapter 3. Assessing Community Needs and Resources to understand the target audience's needs, interests, and preferences related to the documentary topic.
   • Conduct surveys, interviews, or focus groups to gather insights into the community's knowledge gaps and desired resources.
2. Toolkit Development:
   • Use the "Developing a Strategic Plan" Tool kit 5. Developing Strategic and Action Plans to outline goals, objectives, and strategies for the toolkit.
   • Design the toolkit content based on the documentary's themes, incorporating educational materials, discussion guides, action plans, and additional resources.
   • Ensure the toolkit is accessible, engaging, and user-friendly, utilizing multimedia elements, interactive features, and diverse formats.
3. Content Creation:
   • Collaborate with subject matter experts, community members, and stakeholders to develop content for the toolkit.
   • Utilize resources from Chapter 6. Communications to Promote Interest | Section 1. Developing a Plan for Communication to design compelling narratives, visuals, and messaging that complement the documentary.
4. Pilot Testing:
   • Pilot test the toolkit with a small sample of the target audience to gather feedback on usability, relevance, and effectiveness.
   • Use insights from the pilot test to refine and improve the toolkit before its full release.
5. Distribution and Promotion:
   • Develop a distribution plan to disseminate the toolkit alongside the documentary, utilizing online platforms, community organizations, educational institutions, and relevant networks.
   • Leverage social media, press releases, and promotional events to raise awareness and generate interest in the documentary and accompanying toolkit.
6. Evaluation:
   • Use evaluation techniques from Chapter 36. Introduction to Evaluation | Section 1. A Framework for Program Evaluation: A Gateway to Tools to assess the impact and effectiveness of the toolkit in achieving its goals.
   • Collect feedback from users through surveys, focus groups, or interviews to understand the toolkit's strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
7. Grant Seeking:
   • Review Toolkit 14. Applying for Grants for the process of applying for grants.
   • Research potential funding opportunities for documentary projects, including grants from government agencies, foundations, and private donors.
   • Utilize online resources such as grant databases, funding directories, and grant writing guides to identify relevant grant opportunities.
   • Develop a compelling grant proposal that outlines the documentary project's objectives, target audience, impact, budget, and sustainability plan.
   • Customize the proposal to align with the priorities and requirements of each funding source, highlighting the potential impact and value of the documentary and accompanying toolkit.
8. Grant Writing and Submission:
   • Follow best practices for grant writing, including clear and concise writing, evidence-based arguments, and alignment with the funder's guidelines.
   • Ensure all required documents and supporting materials are included in the grant application package.
   • Submit the grant proposal by the specified deadline, following the funder's submission instructions and requirements.
9. Follow-Up and Reporting:
   • Maintain communication with funders throughout the grant application process, providing any requested additional information or clarification.
   • If successful, fulfill reporting requirements outlined by the funder, providing updates on project progress, outcomes, and financial accountability.

By following these steps and utilizing resources from the Community Tool Box sections, Toolkits, and additional web resources, you can develop an informative toolkit to accompany your documentary and effectively seek grants to support your project.

We are located in Kansas, where small towns are the norm (average city size is around 1,000 people). It has been my experience that people in farming communities will come together to ensure success of things like this, once they see it is needed and get past the "kids shouldn't be doing bad things" kind of responses they will initially have. You have some outstanding ideas for what to do, and a great idea for how to use currently unused space. People generally will do things for kids that they wouldn't do for themselves, so you may find some resources in the CTB like Chapter 6 (/en/table-of-contents/participation/promoting-interest) and Chapter 7 (/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involv...) to be useful.

There are some excellent resources on designing and conducting needs assessments in Chapter 3 of the Community Tool Box at /en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-n.... We do not have a specific needs assessment that relates to gun violence prevention, but you may be able to develop something useful from the instructions on how to develop needs assessments thee.

You might also want to contact the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention violence prevention resources at https://www.cdc.gov/violence-prevention/index.html. They should be able to guide you to some recently used and successful approaches.

I do not believe that we have any relevant assessment tools in our Enhancing Cultural Competence chapters on the Community Tool Box, but you can find a plethora of relevant assessments on the National Center for Cultural Competence web site at Georgetown University -- https://nccc.georgetown.edu/. At the time of this posting, there are 18 to 20 self-assessments that could be readily adapted for group use there.

I could not find this resource on the Community Tool Box. I know that I have seen several versions and use a couple of different versions in the workshops and classes I conduct on this topic area. A great location for similar resources is the National Center for Cultural Competence at Georgetown University -- https://nccc.georgetown.edu/. There are a wealth of resources around the continuum and related topics on their web site.

This is an excellent question, but it is a very complicated situation with some important next steps depending on other things in your context. I encourage you to avoid conflict organizing, which is something that a lot of people employ but rarely ever is it employed well enough to work. The Table of Contents (/en/table-of-contents) in the Community Tool Box has a wealth of materials related to creating a context of success, which includes helping organizations see that collaboration is in their best interests when there are important outcomes to be achieved together. It used to be required that HUD provide such a resource for housing residents, but it is my understanding that Community Centers and even internet access are no longer required. Chapter 17 on Analyzing Problems and Solutions (/en/table-of-contents/analyze/analyze-community-proble...) might have some relevant resources. So might the several chapters on advocacy, which begin with Chapter 30 -- Principles of Advocacy (/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/advocacy-principles).

Thank you for reaching out to us! We are always impressed by the people with whom we connect internationally. We aren't a membership organization, but you are more than welcome to access and use the resources within the Community Tool Box in your work. Please note our Creative Commons copyright license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/, and be sure to note the source of the materials you use from us. We wish you all the best in your work.

That would have been written and published sometime in the late 1990s. I would anticipate around 1997, but do not have an exact month/year to offer you. More important is that we continually update our materials, so what you see on the Community Tool Box is always the most current and complete materials we have available. Also, we recommend that you follow the APA (American Psychological Associate) style guide for citations of our materials. That style guide emphasizes using the date is was accessed, not the date of creation, for the materials. Some good examples can be found on their web site at https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/we....

Thank you for reaching out to us for help with this important work. We are not in a position to offer direct assistance, but the Table of Contents (/en/table-of-contents) in the Community Tool Box can offer guidance on how to develop your Health Cities program. There is some specific guidance about organizing Healthy Cities and Communities efforts in Chapter 2 at /en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-he.... There is some additionally helpful information about developing a Memorandum of Collaboration (a kind of contract) at /en/table-of-contents/overview/model-for-community-cha.... This Memorandum of Collaboration can be organized around the 7 Factors for Success, which is what we've found to be most successful for developing clear working relationships between organizations. It emphasizes roles and responsibilities for each partner in the areas of vision and mission development, strategic planning, developing leadership, building capacity, conducting evaluations, and developing a context of success based on shared outcomes of interest. Wishing you all the best of success in your work.

There are some excellent resources in the Community Tool Box that should help. In the Table of Contents (/en/table-of-contents), you might want to take a look at Chapters 1 and 2 for ideas about structure and functioning of a community collaborative. You might also want to review Chapters 6 and 7 for ideas about how to get others involved in the effort. These materials are rather general, but they offer specific actions that can be taken as well as great (real world!) examples that have been done by others.

This is incredibly important work that you are undertaking, and need the support of others to carry it out. There are some excellent resources in the Community Tool Box that may provide additional ideas for you to consider as you continue to move forward. Please check out Chapter 7 -- Encouraging Involvement in Community Work (/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involv...) for ideas that should help you move forward with the support you need.

Your question asks about permissions for changing the budget agreed upon with a funder. This is outside the scope of the Community Tool Box. We encourage you to contact your funder to request a needed change.

These Community Tool Box (CTB) resources are free, and we encourage you to make good use of them in your NGO’s efforts. Should you be interested in other forms of collaboration, we encourage you to contact the Community Tool Box team directly with a specific request. CTB Contact information: /en/contact-us

Although the Community Tool Box (CTB) offers free content on cultural competency and other topics, there is no formal course or certificate available through the open source CTB. Several CTB resources maybe helpful in learning about cultural competence:

1. CTB Toolkit #9: Enhancing Cultural Competence /en/enhancing-cultural-competence
2. 27, 1: Understanding Culture and Diversity in Building Communities /en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/culture-and-diversity/main
3. CTB Chapter 27, Section 7: Building Culturally Competent Organizations /en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/culturally-competent-organizations/main

These CTB resources are free, and we encourage you to make good use of them in your efforts to enhance cultural competence.
Should you be interested in the CTB Online Curriculum which includes a variety of topics including cultural competence, the online training does offer a certificate for participation (for a fee). For more information: https://training.ctb.ku.edu/

Thank you for your question about how to engage community leaders and organizations in encouraging miners to participate in your program. The Community Tool Box (CTB) offers some guidance for engagement and increasing participation that you could adapt and apply to your efforts. Several CTB resources may be particularly helpful:

1. Troubeshooting Guide #5 There is not enough community participation. /en/not-enough-community-participation This offers guiding questions to consider (e.g., Have we made participation easier or of lower cost?) and links to supports for taking action (e.g., Involving People Most Affected by the Problem).
2. Toolkit #8 Increasing Participation and Membership /en/increasing-participation-and-membership This offers an overview of the tasks involved in encouraging participation and links to learning modules in the CTB.
3. Toolkit #13 Implementing Social Marketing /en/implement-social-marketing-effort This offers an overview of the tasks involved in encouraging use of programs and links to learning modules in the CTB.
4. CTB Chapter 7, Section 6: Involving Key Influentials in the Initiative /en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement/key-influentials/main
5. CTB Chapter 7, Section 7: Engaging People Most Affected by the Problem /en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement/engage-those-affected/main
6. CTB Chapter 7, Section 8: Identifying and Analyzing Stakeholders and Their Interests /en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement/identify-stakeholders/main

These resources are free, and we encourage you to make good use of them in your efforts to encourage people to participate in your program

Thank you for your question about how to engage community members in envisioning a community that was equitable and served the community’s needs. The Community Tool Box (CTB) offers some guidance for supporting visioning sessions—and promoting equity—that you could adapt and apply to your efforts. Several CTB resources maybe particularly helpful:

1. CTB Chapter 8, Section 2: Proclaiming Your Dream: Developing Vision and Mission Statements /en/table-of-contents/structure/strategic-planning/vision-mission-statements/main
2. CTB Chapter 14, Section 2: Developing and Communicating a Vision /en/table-of-contents/leadership/leadership-functions/develop-and-communicate-vision/main
3. CTB Chapter 2, Section 17 Addressing Social Determinants of Health in Your Community /en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development/social-determinants-of-health/main
4. CTB “Justice Action Toolkit” /en/justice-action-toolkit

These resources are free, and we encourage you to make good use of them in your efforts to train others.

Thank you for your question about resources for training. Although we do not have information specific to visitation centers, the Community Tool Box (CTB) offers some guidance for training generally that you could apply to your efforts. Several CTB resources may be particularly helpful:

1. CTB Chapter 10. Hiring and Training Staff of Community Organizations /en/table-of-contents/structure/hiring-and-training ; especially Chapter 10, Section 7 Developing Training Programs for Staff /en/table-of-contents/structure/hiring-and-training/training-programs/main
2. CTB Chapter 11: Recruiting and Training Volunteers. /en/table-of-contents/structure/volunteers
3. CTB Chapter 12: Providing Training and Technical Assistance /en/table-of-contents/structure/training-and-technical-assistance ; especially Chapter 12, Section 2: Designing a Training Session /en/table-of-contents/structure/training-and-technical-assistance/design-training-session/main

These resources are free, and we encourage you to make good use of them in your efforts to train others.

Thank you for your question about encouraging participation. This can be challenge since those we hope will benefit often have competing demands that make difficult their participation. Strategies for increasing participation—like other forms of “social marketing”—often come down to making participation easier and more rewarding.  The Community Tool Box (CTB) offers some guidance for increasing participation—and social marketing—that you could apply to your efforts. Several CTB resources maybe particularly helpful:

1. Troubeshooting Guide #5 There is not enough community participation. /en/not-enough-community-participation This offers guiding questions to consider (e.g., Have we made participation easier or of lower cost?) and links to supports for taking action (e.g., Involving People Most Affected by the Problem).
2. Toolkit #8 Increasing Participation and Membership /en/increasing-participation-and-membership This offers an overview of the tasks involved in encouraging participation and links to learning modules in the CTB.
3. Toolkit #13 Implementing Social Marketing /en/implement-social-marketing-effort This offers an overview of the tasks involved in encouraging use of programs and links to learning modules in the CTB.
4. CTB Chapter 7, Section 7: Engaging People Most Affected by the Problem /en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement/engage-those-affected/main
5. CTB Chapter 21, Section 2: Creating and Facilitating Peer Support Groups /en/table-of-contents/implement/enhancing-support/peer-support-groups/main

These resources are free, and we encourage you to make good use of them in your efforts to encourage people to participate in your program.

Thank you for your question about writing grants. The Community Tool Box (CTB) offers some guidance for grant writing that you could apply to your efforts. Several CTB resources maybe particularly helpful:

1. Troubleshooting Guide #13 Not enough money to sustain the program or initiative. /en/not-enough-money-sustain-program This offers guiding questions to consider (e.g., Have we developed a plan for financial stability?) and links to supports for taking action (e.g., Developing a Plan for Financial Sustainability)
2. Toolkit #14 Applying for Grants. /en/applying-for-grants This offers an overview of the tasks involved in writing a grant application and links to learning modules in the CTB.
3. CTB Chapter 42: Getting Grants and Financial Resources. /en/table-of-contents/finances/grants-and-financial-resources This provides links to a number of relevant CTB sections including: Section 1. Developing a Plan for Financial Sustainability; Section 4. Applying for a Grant: The General Approach; and Section 5. Writing a Grant.

These resources are free, and we encourage you to make good use of them in your efforts to find funding for your work.

You raise an important question: How can a community oppose a change not judged to be in the community's best interests? The Community Tool Box (CTB) offers some guidance for advocating for change that you could apply to your conservation efforts. Several CTB resources maybe particularly helpful:

1. Troubleshooting Guide #7. We are facing opposition or conflict. /en/facing-opposition-conflict This offers guiding questions to consider (e.g., Do we know who are opponents are and why they oppose us?) and links to supports for taking action (e.g., Identifying Opponents);
2. Toolkit #10 Advocating for Change: /en/advocating-change This includes guidance for planning an advocacy effort such as your conservation work.
3. CTB Chapter 33. Conducting a Direct Action Campaign /en/table-of-contents/advocacy/direct-action  

These resources are free, and we encourage you and your community to make good use of them in your important conservation efforts.

I do not have a specific tool to share, nor are we in a place to consult with you to develop one. I recommend that you contact someone in a local college or university that focuses on maternal and child health. They can be a great resource that can help you and your organization in the long term.

That said, the resources with the CTB Assessing Community Needs and Resources (/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-n...) might be all you need to complete this work yourself. Check out Section 1 -- Developing a Plan, Section 7 -- Developing Needs Assessment Surveys, and some of the other related materials within that chapter to aid in the process.

To advocate for change, seek funding, heal community divides, and develop the community, you can utilize resources from the Community Tool Box sections and Toolkits, as well as other web resources. Here's a comprehensive plan:

1. Advocating for Change:
   • Refer to Toolkit 10. Advocating for Change or Chapter 5. Choosing Strategies to Promote Community Health and Development | Section 1. Strategies for Community Change and Improvement: An Overview for strategies on how to advocate for policy change, raise awareness, and mobilize community support for your cause.
   • Use advocacy tools such as lobbying, grassroots organizing, media campaigns, and coalition building to influence decision-makers and bring about positive change in your community.
2. Seeking Funding:
   • Explore funding opportunities from government grants, foundations, corporate sponsorships, individual donors, and crowdfunding platforms.
   • Utilize resources from the Community Tool Box's Toolkit 14. Applying for Grants  for guidance on researching grants, writing proposals, and managing grants effectively.
   • Additionally, leverage online resources such as grant databases, fundraising platforms, and funding directories to identify potential funding sources.
3. Healing Community Divides:
   • Utilize strategies from Section 11. Building Inclusive Communities  to address community conflicts and promote reconciliation.
   • Facilitate dialogue sessions, mediation processes, or community forums to foster understanding, empathy, and collaboration among diverse groups within the community.
   • Implement conflict resolution techniques, such as mediation, negotiation, and restorative justice practices, to address underlying tensions and promote healing.
4. Community Development:
   • Utilize resources from Chapter 8. Developing a Strategic Plan to create a comprehensive plan for community development that addresses the needs and priorities of community members.
   • Engage stakeholders through participatory planning processes, community meetings, and surveys to identify goals, strategies, and action steps for community development.
   • Implement projects and initiatives focused on infrastructure development, economic empowerment, social services, and environmental sustainability to improve the quality of life for community members.
5. Capacity Building:
   • Strengthen the capacity of community members and organizations to effectively advocate for change, seek funding, heal community divides, and drive community development.
   • Utilize resources from Toolkit 8. Increasing Participation and Membership to provide training, leadership development, and technical assistance to empower community members to take action and lead initiatives.
6. Networking and Collaboration:
   • Build partnerships and collaborate with other organizations, agencies, and stakeholders to leverage resources, share expertise, and amplify impact.
   • Engage in cross-sector collaborations, community coalitions, and joint initiatives to address complex challenges and achieve shared goals for community development and social change.
7. Evaluation and Monitoring:
   • Develop monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to assess the progress and impact of your advocacy, funding-seeking, healing, and community development efforts.
   • Utilize evaluation techniques from Chapter 36. Introduction to Evaluation | Section 1. A Framework for Program Evaluation: A Gateway to Tools to collect data, measure outcomes, and make informed decisions for continuous improvement.

By following these steps and leveraging resources from the Community Tool Box sections, Toolkits, and other web sources, you can effectively advocate for change, seek funding, heal community divides, and develop your community to create positive and sustainable social impact.

I think your plan, start within the institute to take advantage of their resources and then to move outside the organization is good. It makes sense for the reasons you note. One thing to consider early is the intention for advocacy versus education-only. If you intend to provide advocacy, that might be a deciding factor towards going independent early. Your healthcare organization may have legal or financial restrictions against advocacy efforts. Best to look into it with their leadership and legal teams.

While I do not know the BEST way to share your Photovoice project, I do know that there are several web sites that host Photovoice specifically and can facilitate ongoing engagement -- including with policy makers and others. A good article summarizing the approach can be found on the Global Journal for Community Psychology Practice at https://www.gjcpp.org/en/article.php?issue=33&article=201. An example web site that I know has been used by local and international Photovoice projects is https://photovoicekit.org/. This resource was specifically designed for the purposes you note.

1. How do you think varying places could become more accessible to the disabled? (ie: Playgrounds, restaurants, schools, etc.)
The best approach to this issue is through education and advocacy. Recruiting and training advocates-both disabled and nondisabled—in presenting accessibility as a civil rights issues and in the basics of accessibility (not just physical accessibility but also the need for sign language interpreters for the Deaf,  the importance of website accessibility, for people with visual  and learning disabilities, etc.) could create a cadre of people who are knowledgeable about ways to create accessible communities. For example, many business people are unaware that there are tax credits available for making their businesses accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines. Each federal region in the U.S. has an ADA information center that is charged with training on the ADA and providing information about making communities accessible. These centers are wonderful resources.
 
2. Describe the emotional impact for the physically disabled when they cannot access these surroundings.
For anyone with a disability, being excluded due to barriers is hurtful and discouraging. For example, not being able to dine at an inaccessible restaurant with friends or being excluded from an art class that is held in an environment with barriers can create social isolation. Constantly confronting these barriers can lead to depression. Barriers other than physical ones can be discouraging. For example, a blind person unable to access information due to an inaccessible website can discourage independence, which is another problem.
> 3. In what ways can we foster a more inclusive and accessible environment for people with physical disabilities?
We can all be advocates in our own local settings. For example, when visiting a public place with an inaccessible restroom, we can ask the manager, “how would a wheelchair user access this restroom?” We can bring accessibility issues up at places we frequent, such as churches, clubs, retail establishments, restaurants, parks, etc. For those who serve on non-profit boards, we can ask whether people with any type of disability are able to access facilities and programs. We can vote for candidates who have a disability platform—and if they don’t, we can question them about how they will promote inclusion and accessibility. We need to use an “accessibility lens” to assess whether settings and programs can be accessed by everyone, disabled or not.
 
> 4. What initiatives can be implemented to enhance accessibility in public transportation for people with physical disabilities?
First, we can learn about what is required for accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act—this is where an ADA Center can be helpful in providing information. Then, we can advocate with our local transportation authority to ensure that they follow or exceed these requirements.
Second, connect with national disability advocacy groups, such as the National Council on Independent Living, to support their efforts to increase access to public transportation. Groups like this have advocates who monitor transportation policy and advocate for accessibility.

Given that there isn't any specific standard related to BCBA training in community-building, this might be difficult but I will try to offer some suggestions that may help. A good practical resource can be found at https://www.abamatrix.com/bcbas-and-bcabas-heres-what-you-need-to-know-a.... This doesn't replace the certification web site or your state requirements, but it does offer some suggestions for BCBA CEUs in general. There may be some training CEUs available through your state association conferences, or the annual ABAI conference. I did not attend this year, but many of the BCBAs get at least some CEUs there. You could also focus on supervision related CEUs. We do not offer this kind of supervision through the Community Tool Box, but you might find that behavior analysts focused on OBM or community-based treatment may provide additional supervision that will suit your needs. You may be able to find someone through the BACB web site's registry at https://www.bacb.com/. We hope this information helps you!