Ask an Advisor Questions

Question	Core Competency	Date
Dear Sir, I want to make project on a Lord Buddha Temple. The Project will write for companies for funding. so please advice me how to make it.	Improving Organizational Management and Development	Fri, 03/30/2018
Hi, My name is Chris Zurowski and I am currently a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology. I am currently working with a group focussed on designing a program meant to function as a bulwark against massive technological change. We found your community toolbox to be a very useful toolbox and we were looking to potentially add to it with you. With your help, we are looking to ideate on how to lay the groundwork for a Handmade section of the toolbox. This would be a resource where people who have recently lost their jobs (say to McDonalds replacing them with robots) can learn a handmade skill (Woodworking, Knitting, Metalsmithing, etc) to generate a source of income for themselves while looking for a new job, or simply learn a new skill. Is this something you would be interested in talking to us more about, and if so, how would we need to document the information in a way that could be easily transferable to the toolbox?	Analyzing Problems and Goals Developing a Framework or Model of Change Developing Strategic and Action Plans Building Leadership	Thu, 03/22/2018
Hi, I live in Dubai and with a few friends we would like to start a mentoring program. We are keen but have no idea how to go about. At the moment we are confused. Can anyone help us how to begin. We want to start really small with just one or 2 underprivileged youths. Also to do any fundraisers or anything monetary is not allowed without proper permissions. thank you!	Building Leadership	Wed, 03/21/2018
My window faces children and young boys using drugs. It's a community room.Playing for Change works there. I want to help those kids, but don't know how. Thank you for your time.	Influencing Policy Development	Fri, 03/16/2018
I am a Doctorate of Nursing Practice student, and I am working on a foot care innovation (DNP project) that will be implemented this summer. I am working with a public housing agency and conducting the foot care clinics in three of there Hi-Rises. While this is a small project, about 60-90 residents participants the goal is to expand this following this summers pilot project. I have been studying your community tool box, and am required to conduct a readiness assessment. The PHA does not have the financial capacity to allow their staff to undertake a 60-90 minute interview. I was wondering if you would have any recommendations for a shorter community readiness survey. I am considering adapting readiness survey, would that be appropriate? Or do you know of any other surveys related to community health that would be appropriate? Any advice on the matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you	Building Leadership Increasing Participation and Membership	Mon, 03/12/2018
I am a member of my university's task force on civic engagement, the work of which is based on principles in the Campus Compact 30th Anniversary document. My background is in clinical psychology, although I've gravitated toward critical and community psychology in recent years. My focus within the task force is on relationships with community partners, and I've organized a discussion group of campus and community members to talk about how the university has been doing at civic engagement and how we might improve. I found the tool box by way of teaching community psychology (for the first time this semester) using Kagan et al.'s (2011) textbook. I'd like to make as much use as possible of the task force efforts in improving my university's civic engagement, and am interesting in knowing which parts of the tool box might be most helpful in this regard. Any advice you might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.	Assessing Community Needs and Resources Enhancing Cultural Competence Influencing Policy Development Evaluating the Initiative Sustaining the Work or Initiative	Sun, 03/04/2018
Hello We are interested in learning more about your evaluation tool. Could you please provide an example of data evaluation. Thanks Kate	Assessing Community Needs and Resources Implementing a Social Marketing Effort	Thu, 03/01/2018
what are media advocacy strategies for the aims to be achieved help pleas	Advocating for Change	Wed, 02/28/2018
Greetings from the pearl of Africa in uganda. We are a community based organisation with more than thirty years doing community development work in the rural areas of uganda. We have on established paid staff to implement our priority programs. We use volunteers to assist us implement our work. Is it possible to advertise our need for onsite volunteers through your platform? Secondly, is it possible to advertise our need for potential partners who are willing to establish a computer training centre in our community, an optical and dental care centre at our local health unit?	Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships Increasing Participation and Membership	Sun, 02/25/2018
Do you have any tips or resources pertaining to tracking/contacting the recently incarcerated population? I'm sure this particular population doesn't want to be reminded that they were previously in prison. But, they are needed to complete a one year follow-up survey with a program that they were involved in when they were incarcerated. Sending letters to the addresses that they provide upon consent (a year ago or longer) simply isn't resulting in participants going online to take a short survey with a $10 gift card incentive. Any suggestions?	Increasing Participation and Membership	Thu, 02/22/2018
what can be done if a neighbor is preventing a disabled person from exiting an apartment building? I know of a friend who was not able to exit because a neighbor blocked a door to go outside.	Developing Strategic and Action Plans	Thu, 02/22/2018
Do you have any knowledge of a program similar to yours located in Illinois? I am familiar with CEED project, but they are too far from me. I live in Ogle County. I would like to start a program like yours but with a rural area prospective and for low income. Presently, I am a low income working woman. I have been trying to work with SBDC, economic development offices, rural development, etc for the past four-five years to get started. Not much movement. I think I don't know the talk to present the idea and make connections to move ahead. Any sources, connections, or general advice would be appreciated. I am also looking at Iowa, too	Developing a Framework or Model of Change Developing Strategic and Action Plans Developing an Intervention	Wed, 02/21/2018
Where can I find the date this website was published? I really like the information I got and want to use this as a source for my paper.		Sun, 02/18/2018
I am in the process of try to form a plan/program for cleaning up my town/community. How would I go about starting.	Developing an Intervention	Thu, 02/15/2018
what do we mean by policy cycle in community social organization management and how we can form example for this cycle "as written in NGO Management textbook that it encompasses five steps, identifying the issue, policy analysis, policy decision,policy implementation,and policy evaluation"?	Developing a Framework or Model of Change Influencing Policy Development	Tue, 02/06/2018
Hello Would you please send me the pdf version of this tool, so that I can get it printed as the place where I am working have low connectivity issue?		Mon, 02/05/2018
How can i become resourceful towards the empowerment of women in fight against poverty and social ills. I am a Social Worker and i have colleagues that wish to engage in lay forums to challenge socio-economic instabilities in our South African surroundings.	Analyzing Problems and Goals Developing Strategic and Action Plans Building Leadership Increasing Participation and Membership Advocating for Change Improving Organizational Management and Development Sustaining the Work or Initiative	Wed, 01/31/2018
I plaesured to have this chance to access Ask an Advisor on your page! I am a practicing community-based organization leader and volunteer. I have the following questions to you, Team members; 1. what are the job descriptions of a CBO Partnership Manager/Coordinator and Program Manager? 2. How do you initiate an assessment you plan to undertake on a situational/problem ground or area in your community? 3. what best is to be done for publicity purposes to make a CBO known to the community and how do you plan it? 4. What are the relevant points to note when developing a program? Your answers to my questions above shall help me improve the running of our community owned orgnaization. Thanks!	Assessing Community Needs and Resources Developing Strategic and Action Plans Improving Organizational Management and Development	Tue, 01/30/2018
I've become very concerned with the process of children in school. How can I start a organization to help alleviate the problem children face that prevent their growth in completing school.?	Analyzing Problems and Goals Developing Strategic and Action Plans Advocating for Change	Thu, 01/25/2018
How do new board members sign up to take HUD classes for training? Can they go online or are there training sessions at a location?		Wed, 01/17/2018
I would like to join your organisation. How can I join?	Increasing Participation and Membership	Wed, 01/17/2018
our community lack resources to carry out like refuce collection,leadership and financial support on capacity building workshop	Assessing Community Needs and Resources Developing Strategic and Action Plans Increasing Participation and Membership	Wed, 01/17/2018
Hello there We are a training and development academy in Jordan, and we are planning to organize a training program for a group of officials on how to identify the needs for development, assess, draw a plan, etc. May you contact me to arrange this together?	Assessing Community Needs and Resources Developing Strategic and Action Plans	Tue, 01/16/2018
Good morning, I work at a community Center-Social Services program with a local government organization. The purpose of our programs is to address the needs of individuals living within City limits who are faced with a temporary financial crisis. The needs are defined as emergency in nature, i.e., utility assistance, rental assistance and counseling services in relation other needs. I am interested organizing a community task force to address those needs in order to achieve self-sufficiency. (for example, questions about planning, assessment, participation, publicity, program development, leadership, advocacy, or evaluation, etc). What do I need to do to establish this task force and where do I begin. Best Regards,	Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships Analyzing Problems and Goals Developing Strategic and Action Plans	Thu, 01/11/2018
In a community of persistent destructive chieftancy conflicts,where there is lost trust in security egencies.what roles can a a development worker together with community active network/group play in solving the conflict and its related problems.	Improving Organizational Management and Development	Thu, 01/11/2018
Hello, my name is Gwen. I'm interested in finding professional insurance for my nonprofit and I need help. I'm located in Hamden CT.	Improving Organizational Management and Development	Wed, 01/10/2018
Hello, I am interested in becoming a facilitator for conflict resolution and professional development. Does you site offer such positions?		Wed, 01/10/2018
Hi, I was wondering if you could give me the date: Section 2. Using Principles of Persuasion in chapter 6, was published. It would be much appreciated!		Sat, 01/06/2018
Vision:To be the world's notion of supportive,competent and developmental individuals to agitate positive change Mission:To elevate financially disadvantages students through provision of financial assistance and entrepreneurial education. Please how best can I rephrase the above vision and mission. Our network collects donations and then pays tuition for disadvantaged students	Developing Strategic and Action Plans	Sat, 01/06/2018
Hello! I am trying to start surveying the community I work with and I am wondering where to start?		Fri, 01/05/2018
i work for a Center for Independent Living in ND and we would like to utilize a few of the Modules to work with people with disabilities on developing there leadership skills. How do I purchase a copy and what are the fees?	Building Leadership Advocating for Change	Thu, 01/04/2018
I am wanting to start some sort of community outreach program for abused women and children. I was abused and I want to give bck to the community and help others overcome this trauma. Could you please send me information on what direction to go in in terms of starting. I have the perfect idea and our community desperately needs some prevention plans and help to children who are being victimized. I want to be that mediator to bring awareness in addition to change in my community!	Assessing Community Needs and Resources Analyzing Problems and Goals Developing Strategic and Action Plans Advocating for Change	Wed, 01/03/2018
Dear Advisor, The work that you have done in other cities is remarkable! I currently live in Point breeze area of Philadelphia Pennsylvania. We are striving to uplift this low social economic community through opening a community center. Do you have any suggestions for steps moving forward? Or organizations I can reach out to for funding? Our mission is to inspire happy healthy lifestyles. Through providing a warm, open-minded, positive space for mindfulness, experiencing art and culture through dancing and music, as well as many other classes, including individualized nutritional planning and cooking classes, we aim to bring Resources under one roof, to give the community a convenient one stop location. If you well like me to forward you my business proposal to better understand what we are offering, please let me know. Look forward to hearing from you! Happy new year to you and your family! Warm Regards, Megan Countey, BSN-RN	Developing a Framework or Model of Change Writing a Grant Application for Funding	Sun, 12/31/2017
I am planning a health outreach in a rural community in Kaduna state Nigeria. Are there grants available.	Writing a Grant Application for Funding	Wed, 12/27/2017
I am the Director of Community Partnerships with the Texas Education Agency. I will be supporting schools in Texas with developing community partnerships to improve achievement in reading and math by providing holistic and wrap around services for their students. What resources do you have that can support this effort?	Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships	Tue, 12/19/2017
I work as a community volunteer in one of the community in India. I do not get paid for the the work and I am thinking of training few of volunteers. I can not afford to pay the cost of training material. Is there a way I can get the materials free of cost. Even PDF will work for me.	Writing a Grant Application for Funding	Sat, 12/16/2017
hello, I have a brilliant idea for a new company. I'm taking a BManagement class and we received an A on the project. I would like to coincide a Fast Food chain and a Dog Distributor to make a The Dog Pack. where you would get a Chicken Breast from the Fast Food Chain and dry sample bag, toy, treat and water from a Dog/distributor when you go thru the drive thru so you can feed yourself and your companion. What would be the steps involved in designing an action plan? i can send you the powerpoint presentation	Developing Strategic and Action Plans	Tue, 12/12/2017
Greetings and gratitude! Our names are Ashleigh Paul and Andrew Young and we are from Phoenix, Arizona. We discovered your website while searching for questionnaire templates for assisting in the beginning phases of building a sustainable community and were impressed with your content. We are currently looking for resources to help with the first steps of formalizing a loose group of individuals into a more organized community with the goal of coming together to live sustainably. We realize that gaining information about the people involved is important. Our first goal is to build a detailed questionnaire form that can be utilized to gain data about the individuals and compile this to see the community resources and build a web with the information. Are there tools such as template questionnaires available for gaining this type of information and organizing it into a web or excel format? We will be reviewing all of the details provided on your website. If there is any specific advice, information, templates, etc. that you believe could benefit us at this time in our development or in the future, anything and everything would be greatly appreciated. We hope to connect with as many like-minded people as we possibly can and are excited to learn more about Community Tool Box! Thank you & many blessings!	Assessing Community Needs and Resources	Mon, 12/11/2017
I am a member of an organization called The Mustique Indigenous Peoples Association. This is a tiny island in the Caribbean belonging St. Vincent &The Grenadines.We have been in existence for many years, and have changed executive members many times. We have never been connected with any other organization before and would like to be able to share communications with you if that is ok with you please let me know.	Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships Building Leadership	Sat, 12/09/2017
I am slowly going through and processing the vast amount of information on your website and finding much of it helpful. I know that your work will compliment and assist in both my work and my involvement in various committees and advisory boards. However, there is a question that continually crops up for me. I work as a Peer Support Specialist and Community Health Worker in Behavioral Health. I'm stationed at our local drop-in center and am responsible for providing peer counseling and facilitating multiple groups each week. After experiencing frustration about the dearth of relevant services, support and finances, I decided to take action. That has included advocating and planning for the re-creation of our Board, creating an on-site micro-volunteering program which will involve various community organizations and businesses, starting a weekly women's group, looking at fund-raising opportunities and considering small grants, and have acquired the donation of a laptop to be used at the Center. My question stems from this: because my peers at the center are people living with severe, persistent mental illness and adults with developmental disabilities, they and my work are covered by HIPAA privacy laws. This complicates any involvement in outreach, etc as well as in developing relationships outside of the center. Are there work-arounds and solutions that I can implement to make my work more effective and to reassure my supervisors and management while protecting my peers?	Improving Organizational Management and Development	Thu, 12/07/2017
Dear Work Group for Community Health and Development of Kansas University , Greetings from NAMA Foundation, Kuala Lumpur! We hope this email finds you well. By way of introduction, I’m Khalid Al Walid who is responsible for the Programs & Partnership Department of NAMA Foundation (“NAMA” or “the Foundation”). In a brief overview, NAMA is an international grant provider which support in two main areas of intervention: (i) empowerment of education sector and (ii) empowerment of third sector. Since its incorporation 13 years ago in Malaysia, NAMA has been working in more than 27 countries and with its current strategic planning, we are now focusing mainly in 5 countries i.e. Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, Palestine and Lebanon, but not forgetting any ad-hoc assistance as and when required elsewhere. Currently, NAMA is developing our 2018 Budget & Plan and within our 2018 Program Planning, and in relation thereto, we are planning to have a Volunteering Management Program called Count Me In Program ("CMI Program"). The objective of the CMI Program is to train the master trainer who later will train the local "Count Me In" consultants for our Volunteering Management Program. NAMA expected to develop 4 modules under the said program as follows; Volunteering Plan Volunteering Recruitment Module Volunteering Orientation Module, and Volunteering Capacity Building Module By going through your esteemed website, we do believe that your expertise and experience could possibly benefit our 2018 CMI Program. In line with that, we would like to set an appointment for an online video conference meeting with representatives from your esteemed organization between Wednesday (27.09.2017) - Friday (29.09.2017) this week. We are proposing the said meeting to be at 9 a.m. of the UK time. We are looking forward to hear from your esteemed organisation soon. Best regards, KHALID AL-WALID MUSTAFA KAMIL, Head, Programs and Partnerships NAMA FOUNDATION (647699-V) Unit No.C-7-7, Level 7, Megan Avenue 1, No. 189, Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur GL: +603.2181.6646 \| F: +603.2181.6643 \| M: +6012.643.7296 Email: hpg@namafoundation.org Website: www.namafoundation.org		Thu, 11/30/2017
Hi, Im so glad to have stumbled on your web page, we ( http://humanityafrica.org.uk/ )are building a agricultural project in Zambia Mukushi, and there is a educational component in it, i was just writing a concept note for the high commissioner of Zambia in the UK, i will include the first section for you here, hopefully we can work together Educational Acceleration Hubs Vision Humanity Africa will use technology as well as the latest breakthrough in the field of education to create nodes with all our agricultural value addition nodes to facilitate curiosity through discovery in a tactile learning environment based on current lesson plans based on community development, resource development, bio diversity, climate mitigation and especially agriculture. This will allow children to be resilient and self sustainable, and indeed productive members of society in rural areas and curb urbanization, it will improve health and allow children to be positively engaged in creating entrepreneurial skills to be self sustainable upon leaving school. The nodes will provide supplementary quality education to all the schools in the district, based on peer development and leadership qualities. Teachers will benefit from this program as much as the children. The program work from early childhood literacy right through to grade 12 but will also hold value for graduates and especially distant learning individuals. The glaring vacuum in current educational models Although Zambia, and indeed most African countries accept South Africa has a abundance of land available for agriculture and is indeed available under the traditional and cultural land management system our youths that finish grade ten and 12 does not have the skills to be efficient productive farmers ones they leave school, we believe that this is totally unnecessary and that the potential to change this is self evident and amazingly simple. We foresee a system where school leavers will be able to embark on agricultural on agricultural endeavors with ease and self assurance and make a success out of it. All the ingredients is already in the syllabus offered by the Ministry of Education and all it is going to take to facilitate the success of this program is a little cooperation between Humanity Africa and the local schools. Tactile/Kinesthetic learning and remembering We need to move away from a two dimensional learning platform to a ten dimensional model. The human capability to remember and to understand is not utilized in modern education where everything is presented on a black board (white today ) and a piece of paper, it is falling far short on how we naturally remember things vividly from the past. There is a lot of definitions on tactile and kinesthetic learning but for us most fall short of the essence of what it means. Tactile learning simply means creating a environment of learning that includes all the senses, but it can not stop there as it still fall short in associations that is as important as sensory imprinting itself, and in this imprinting lies the potential of retention of knowledge and understanding. The ten dimensions of learning Sight Smell Taste Touch Sound Life - the ability to present what is being learned within the physical community itself, the soil, the water, the air, the fauna and flora, the systems and the structures, in other words the association with the reality of life Reality – the actual reality currently prevailing in that community from a whole systems perspective Vision – the world we want to see, the relationship between what is and what we can dream it to be Engineering – the “how to” analytical and critical thinking how to move from what is to our desired outcome Scope – perspectives on scope, Individual, Family, Community, Country, Globally including the health of the planet as the foundation for the survival of everything	Writing a Grant Application for Funding	Sat, 11/25/2017
Hallo Toolbox Advisor, At the Utrecht University I am evaluating a program in the Netherlands to promote democratic citizenship (and positive behaviour, community agency and taking responsibility for the community) among children (targetgroup 1) and their parents (targetgroup 2). that covers school, organised child leisure activities and the home. It is called the Peaceable Neighbourhood (see attachment). What I am looking for is to learn from. I already found the Search Institute that described their method of the 40 assets and the work of Nakkula, M. J., Foster, K. C., Mannes, M., & Bolstrom, S. (2010). Building healthy communities for positive youth development (Vol. 7). Springer Science & Business Media. That describes how local programs are organised. And I found the Accion por los Niños in Peru (http://www.accionporlosninos.org.pe/) . That is very noteworthy in my opinion. What there are plenty of is community programs that are owned by the municipality and its professionals that see the targetgroup as consumers of policy. But there are programs that make the targetgroup owner as wel but most of them are focussing on prevention of e.g drug abuse or violence abuse and not on positive behaviour. I searched in your database and those of Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJPD), het National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) and Child Trends. In developing countries there are a lot of programs involving kids in community development (Hutter K. (2008). Young People’s Civic Engagement in East Asia and the Pacific. Bankok: Unicef East Asia and Pacific Regional Office and UNICEF (2006) Child and Youth Participation Resource Guide. Bangkok: East Asia and Pacific Regional Office. And of course Hart, R. A. (1992). Children's participation: From tokenism to citizenship. Innocenti Essays no. 4. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre). It seems much more common there, maybe because people are more used to children that take responsibility in family income etc. But there the problem is that programs are poorly described and not evaluated My question is: do you know, besides the work of the Search Institute and Accion por los Niños of any well documented program that explicitly promotes democracy and citizenship / children contributing to the community instead of being recipients of youth policy. 2) has an ecological approach, focusing on at least three life domains. 3) target groups are children and their parents. 4) Children / participants are offered co-ownership of the program. I am looking forward for your reply Regards, Bob Horjus Researcher Peaceable Neighbourhood and Pedagogical Civil Society / Utrecht University	Developing a Framework or Model of Change Evaluating the Initiative	Tue, 11/21/2017
Hi, Do you offer assistance with obtaining/providing a wheel chair ramp for a Hospice patient with Alzheimer's whose caregiver is her husband who is a veteran. Thank you		Mon, 11/20/2017
Hello, let me introduce myself. My name is Fadhilla and I'm from Indonesia. I'm currently doing my undergraduate thesis and I found this website through website searching. So, I put one of the chapters in Community Tool Box as my literature review about Providing Training and Technical Assistance (Chapter 12) part "How do you deliver a training session" /en/table-of-contents/structure/training-and-technical-assistance/deliver-training-session/main. But how to make the citation to be put on my bibliography? Because I found that the information isn't really complete, like the year of publishing that chapter, etc. Thank you so much for the help! :)		Sun, 11/19/2017
Hello, Im a secratary of a non for profit organization that is working on a mentorship program. We want to use your goal setting tool. I assume that its ok, however I want to make sure we have permission.		Fri, 11/17/2017
Dear Advisor, I am the last year Master student and doing my internship in project management since I want to make own practical learning project for my internship I have difficulties to start as I cant find needs of the community in order to develop a project. Could you please help me with advice or provide any help I will be very grateful for any help. Thank you Best regards Aziza	Assessing Community Needs and Resources	Fri, 11/17/2017
Dear Nicole, Thank you for these references. Having looked through them, I have some questions. Was a framework/ model/ theory used to guide the development and evaluation of the toolbox/ toolkit? I don't mean the conceptual framework described in Francisco et al 2001, as this appears to refer to the content. Did the authors utilized an adult educational theory when developing the content? Were any behaviour change theories used? i.e., the authors are trying to change audience behaviour. Was this measured? How were stakeholders chosen? Was a consensus method applied to choices made? Was there a Steering/ Advisory Group? Was feasibility, usability, etc evaluated? Was a process and/or outcome evaluation conducted? There is some use of 'toolbox' and 'toolkit'. Are these seen as interchangeable? What definition is used? When material / literature was collected, was systematic review methodology used? or something else. Was there guidance from a specific dissemination theory? Thanks in advance. I'm asking as a person who is trying to learn from others in the field. Stacey Guy sguy7@uwo.ca		Tue, 11/07/2017
Good day, Thank you for the opportunity. I would like to know the methodology and procedures behind the development and evaluation of the toolbox. I have been unable to find any publications on this. I am a PhD candidate at Western University who is developing a toolkit for implementation in health care. Any response is greatly appreciated. Regards, Stacey Guy		Tue, 11/07/2017
My name is Atanas Mzee from Kenya. I am currently at Baylor university, Texas studying social work. I am looking for ways to get market in USA,Australia ETC for art/ crafts work created by talented young people in Kenya. They have great talent but no market access. Please advise.		Sat, 11/04/2017