Communities of Ukraine: On the Way to RebirthPART VI
BUILDINGCOMMUNITYDEVELOPMENTPROGRAMS
By the end of this part
You will be able to
explain the difference between conventional methods of research
and Participatory Action Research
find potential partners in your community for further work
analyze the efficiency level of your community as a community
development actor.
work with a community to develop the necessary action plan based
on real community needs.
Introduction
The work areas described in this chapter focus on creating
programs and projects to carry out the communitys new vision in a
systematic and practical way. An important first step can be a
participatory action research (PAR) process designed to help
community members reflect systematically on their situation in a
way which leads to effective action and to building the bonds of
unity and trust needed to carry out that action. It is also
important to collaborate with a broad range of partners in order to
access resources needed to carry out the communitys plans. Often
community people need to create organizations or other structures
to implement activities and programs which support the community to
do things in a new way.All of this work is described in terms of
the following four community development action areas:
Participatory action research
Program planning, implementation and evaluation
Networking with resources and allies
Building effective organizations
1. Participatory Action Research (PAR)This section describes a
tool called participatory action research (PAR) which is central to
the approach to community development explored in this manual. We
have created a separate section for this tool because it can be
used in many of the work areas described in other chapters:
assessing community needs, mobilizing community residents through
core groups, developing community programs and evaluating the
results of our efforts to date so that we can make new plans.
In community development, we must often create new solutions to
the problems we face because the old ways of thinking and acting
are not giving the results we want. To achieve this goal, we need a
research process (to uncover the knowledge which we can use to
understand our problems and find new solutions). This research must
be directly linked to action (so that people find more effective
ways to work together on those solutions). And finally, both the
research and the action must be carried out in a participatory way
(one that involves all those who share the problem and all those
who have to work together to solve it). When we put all three of
those ideas together, we get participatory action research or
PAR.
How is Participatory Action Research Different from Other Types
of Research?
Usually when people first hear the word research, they think
about the work done by special experts, such as sociologists,
demographers, or political scientists, to study an issue using
scientific methods. Some of the strategies that are commonly used
by these experts to study communities include surveys and other
types of questionnaires, key informant interviews, as well as the
gathering and analysis of statistical information from government
records. Also used are technical studies related to aspects of the
physical environment such as water, soil and air quality. All of
these research methods can be very useful for understanding and
working on community problems, but they will not achieve some of
the goals that are such an important part of community development.
Before we look at why this new type of approach, participatory
action research, is also needed, we will summarize some of the
major differences between PAR and other research:
Conventional Research
1. Expert-Driven Outside experts define the research questions,
choose the research methods and carry out the research. Community
members typically participate by providing information through
questionnaires, surveys or interviews.
1. Objectivity It is important to keep the contact between
researchers and community respondents free from subjective
influence.
1. Numerical (Quantitative) Measurement Where possible, experts
assign numbers to social categories of persons and to behaviours to
facilitate statistical summaries.
1. Rigor This characteristic is achieved through ideal or
quasi-experimental research design using control groups.
1. Random Sampling Researchers try to avoid over-representing
any one group or any one portion of the population by choosing
respondents in a random or near random sample.
Participatory Action Research
1. Community-Driven Community members define the research
questions, choose the research methods and carry out the research.
If facilitators from outside the community are involved, they work
under the direction of the community.
1. Subjectivity Research data is gathered through empathetic
dialogue between community researchers and other community
members.
1. Qualitative Approach to Data Collection Numerical measurement
is typically used to clarify or add to qualitative data which is
generated through community dialogue, interviews and other PAR
techniques.
1. Rigor Achieved through Triangulation Triangulation means
using three or methods and data sources to collect and analyze
information.
1. Informal Sampling What is important is incorporating the
views of as many types of community people as possible (taking into
account such factors as gender, age, socio-economic status).
Why Are Participatory Action Approaches to Community Research
Needed ?
As explained in the introduction to this section, participatory
action research can be an important tool for carrying out needs
assessments, for core group formation, and for program planning,
implementation and evaluation. We have defined community
development elsewhere in this manual as an approach to addressing
human problems which helps groups of people build the bonds of
trust, unity and cooperation that they need to work together to
understand and analyze their problems and build just and effective
solutions.
Participatory research, designed and carried out by community
people themselves, helps people understand and analyze their
problems as they share and think systematically about what they
already know and carry out activities to gather new information.
The research they do is not simply theoretical; it is practical and
action-oriented in that it is aimed at finding solutions which will
lead to greater well-being and prosperity. Because the community
owns and controls the research process, it builds bonds of trust,
unity and cooperation. In this way, participatory action research
is at the heart of community development. It is one way of
describing its key processes and dynamics.
How is Participatory Action Research Carried Out ?
Participatory action research is a way of categorizing a number
of related strategies and techniques. These techniques and
strategies have their philosophical foundation in community
liberation work in Latin America and community organizing work in
Asia related to poverty alleviation. Some of these approaches were
further systematized at the Institute of Development Studies at
Sussex University in Britain into an approach called participatory
rapid appraisal. In the past decade or so, some form of
participatory action research has become a recommended part of
development work for many World Bank and United Nations
programmes.
Most participatory action research processes begin with the
creation of a community research team. This team is responsible for
overseeing all aspects of the research process, but it is important
for them to involve as many others as possible in every step. Often
the first task of this team is to build a clearer understanding of
community conditions. Participatory action research has many tools
for understanding and analyzing community problems. These include
using a variety of approaches to structuring community dialogue
(such as the medicine wheel model described in Part Three of this
book) as well as techniques which rely less on words such as using
maps, diagrams, charts, and pictures. It might also include
carrying out specialized research to gather information about the
community which is not readily accessible (for example, determining
the incidence of a particular problem such as drug abuse or teen
pregnancy). The important thing to remember is that, as much as
possible, community members carry out this research (with support
and training from outside experts if necessary). It is when
community members themselves uncover what is really happening in
their community that they will have the will, knowledge and courage
to undertake the challenging work of building new patterns of
life.The participatory action research process might also involve
organizing community members to gather other information essential
to building an effective solution. This might mean finding out what
other people with similar problems have tried. It could mean
designing and trying many different initiatives to work on the
problem. All of these steps continue to link research and action in
a dynamic process. Throughout this work, which might take many
months or even years, the research team continues to meet regularly
to reflect on what has been tried and what has been learned through
this joint action. New participatory research is carried out as the
need for additional information becomes clear and new actions are
tried on the basis of what is learned.
Features of Participatory Action Research
PAR happens in the context of a community.It is something that
people do together. If there is no real community, the first step
in a PAR process is building connections based on mutual or
collective love, respect, shared purpose, commitment and a common
sense of identity. These make community possible.
People in PAR address their practical needs experienced in the
daily life of a community.Such needs, along with a common desire to
fulfill them, form the starting point of PAR. PAR deals with the
realities of life, working to create a sustainable and meaningful
future free from oppression, poverty and despair.
People in PAR build knowledge and deepen their understanding of
the current situation so that they can take action.Building
knowledge in PAR involves taking and validating information from
different sources such as oral tradition, previous research and
individual experiences. It honours many ways of knowing. The
research in PAR is an investigation into the foundations of current
situations, the root causes of problems, and the consequences of
ongoing efforts to change things.
PAR always leads to, or flows from, action.People do things in
order to change their current situation. They reflect together on
what they have done and then take further action. Without action,
the research would be disconnected from reality.
People in PAR develop an organizing framework for community
change.In a community, people do things and talk about what
happened all the time. PAR can be a way of consciously bringing
together such action and reflection into a framework for change. In
this way, PAR processes are cycles of action, dialogue and learning
that build on each other with the explicit goal of changing the
current situation.
People in PAR empower their community.Communities gain the
research capabilities to analyze the root causes of their situation
and develop locally appropriate strategies. As groups reach their
goal of meeting a need, participants begin a journey through which
they gain confidence develop a deeper facility for collective
action, strengthen their unity of purpose and vision, gain greater
access to resources, become more powerful, conscious and liberated,
and become more self-critical in a healthy and productive way.
PAR is an organic process, tied to the rhythm of community
life.It has ups and downs. There may be periods of great enthusiasm
and movement, and corresponding periods of disillusionment and
stagnation. The process can be very slow, and there are no
shortcuts. A PAR process does not unfold according to a schedule.
Over time, people create a momentum, building faith in the process
of knowing, taking action and reflecting together. One change
gradually leads to another.
PAR often has some form of outside intervention.The PAR process
only truly starts when a group of people themselves connects and
become researchers into their own lives. It is not something that
outside researchers can do independently, although they can play a
vital role in creating the conditions for PAR to take place. Like
gardening, the gardener does not grow the seeds any more than the
seeds line themselves up in orderly rows. The work of the gardener
lies in preparing the ground; understanding the properties of the
earth, plants and seasons; removing obstacles to the natural growth
of the seeds; and enabling growth to take place. It is the same
with PAR. An outside person cannot do PAR to a community; rather,
she can do things that enable a PAR process to take root and mature
within a group or community.
Case Study
Oleh and Natalya work at a youth drop-in center in the downtown
area of their town. Many of the young people who frequently come to
the center are from families with many problems. Some of their
parents are unemployed and the family really struggles to meet its
basic needs. Some of their parents are addicts, and other families
experience a great deal of conflict and even violence. Some of the
young people are in trouble with alcohol and drugs themselves, and
many are not doing well in school.
Natalya and Oleh have been talking about what they can do to
really make a difference. They know that the drop-in center is a
safe and comfortable place for the young people to spend some time,
but they would like to do more. After attending a community
development workshop, they decide to try a participatory action
research approach to figuring out what their next steps could be.
They understand that the young people themselves know their own
world best and will be able to identify the most appropriate
approaches that the center can try.
They are sure that the young people will not be interested in a
research project that involves a great deal of reading and writing
and will probably also not want to sit down and spend hours
analyzing their situation. So Oleh and Natalya decide they will ask
the young people if they would like to take pictures to create a
photo exhibit about their lives. The youth respond enthusiastically
and they are each given a disposable camera. Natalya and Oleh
encourage each of them to take pictures both of the things that
make them happy and of the things that they would like to
change.
A week later, the pictures have all been developed and the young
people gather in an excited group to see each others work and to
talk about why they chose to take those particular pictures. Oleh
and Natalya help the young people organize their pictures into
themes that explore different aspects of their lives and to add
short stories and captions. Some of the themes that they find
include relationships with friends, family life, getting into
trouble, feeling lonely, scared and hungry.
Once the pictures are organized and prepared for an exhibit, it
is easy for Natalya and Oleh to help the young people identify
particular issues that they could work on together at the youth
center. The young people decide that they would like to learn more
about how to have better relationships with their friends how to
support each better, how to avoid conflicts, how to communicate
better, and how to deal with relationships between boys and girls.
Natalya works with one group of young people to find information
about these topics on the internet and in the drop-in centers
resource library. Oleh works with another group of young people to
prepare the photo exhibit for display at the town hall. They also
organize a meeting with the director of the Department of Youth
Affairs for the same week that the exhibit will be held. In this
way, they hope to get support for a weekend retreat at a youth camp
with special youth trainers where they can gain leadership
skills.
Think and try to answer:
1. Does your community have a problem about which more
information is needed before people can understand it clearly
enough to begin to take practical action?
1. How will you help community members understand participatory
action research, how it differs from other types of research which
might be familiar to them, and how it can help them understand that
problem better and find effective solutions?
1. What initial thoughts do you have about how a participatory
action research process could be organized in your community?
1. Which tools and strategies might be used and how will you
help community members learn enough about these techniques that
they will feel confident as researchers?
2. Program Planning, Implementation and Evaluation
In this section, we consider the challenge of program
development in the context of community development. A program is
usually seen as something professionals (or community elite) do
for, or to the community. Community development is usually defined
as something the community does for itself. We are combining these
two concepts to define community development programming to mean an
organized and sustained process the community does for itself.
In the 1920s, James Yen, founder of the Rural Reconstruction
movement in China, provided the following guidelines for
development programs:
Go to the people
Live among the people
Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Work with the people
Start with what the people know
Build on what the people have
When a community group decides to become involved in community
development, it will at some point need to move towards the action
of addressing a community need. Moving towards action requires the
community group to undertake several activities: reflecting on the
needs assessment results (and, possibly undertaking further
assessment of community needs), action planning, planning
implementation, and evaluation of the process and outcomes. Again,
it is important to emphasize that, while there is a tendency to
think of these activities as individual steps in a linear process,
in real life, these steps are, in fact, overlapping and
inseparable. For example, effective implementation of a community
development project needs to constantly be informed by updated
information on community needs and realities. Likewise, action
planning requires periodic and on-going evaluation of its
effectiveness.As a result, instead of understanding this program
cycle as a series of separate and distinct steps, it is more
accurate to view these actions as an on-going process.The diagram
below is drawn in a circle to show that the cycle may be entered
through any of the doorways, and that each part is influenced and
changed by actions taken in every other part.
Needs Assessment A Systematic Process for Listening to the
Community
Listening to the community identify its own needs has two
important outcomes for successful community development projects.
First, it ensures that a genuine community need is identified.
Second, it will build commitment and support among the community
for any actions taken to address the need they identify. This is
critical to maintaining on-going community participation in a
community development project.
A needs assessment usually grows out of an increasing awareness
within the community that the communitys situation needs to be
changed in some manner. Such community tension may simply bubble
under the surface of community life, occasionally reaching the
surface through informal complaining among community members (Bopp
and Bopp, 1998). The point of a needs assessment is to give a
structured voice to this informal community tension. A needs
assessment provides a forum for people to discuss their situation
and to mobilize them to begin the process of changing it.
Undertaking a needs assessment involves bringing community
people together to analyze their current situation and their
desired future situation. This enables a community to discuss where
it is currently at and where it would like to go in the future.Many
of the other work areas already discussed in Chapter IV can be part
of the needs assessment process:
Harnessing Community Tensioninvolves a growing awareness in the
minds and hearts of the people involved in a community development
process that things are not the way they should be.
Facilitating Consultation About CommunityReality and Needshelps
to systematize the description of community realities that will
serve as a springboard for community action.
Developing a Common Vision of a Sustainable Futurehelps the
community assess its present conditions in the light of the future
it is willing to work to create.
Networking with Resources and Allieshelps the community
recognize the resources it already has, where the gaps are, and who
will be willing to dedicate time and energy to the community
development process being considered.
These community-identified needs are the foundation for moving
towards action. All planning and implementation must be focused on
addressing these needs in some manner. It is therefore critical
that the information from the needs assessment is documented
properly. This will allow a community group to spend time
reflecting on the information gathered in the needs assessment and
to think of planned solutions for the needs identified by the
community.
The community group should reflect on the needs assessment
results to gain clarity on the exact nature of the
community-identified needs. Such a process may result in the group
realizing that some information is incomplete, missing or vague, or
that additional information is required for effective planning.
This may require doing further needs assessment. This should not be
seen as a step back in the process. Rather, it is a natural part of
the reflection and action process of the community development
cycle.
The development of programs to address specific community issues
often means that key information from the participatory action
research processes described above (and in further detail in
Section 6 of Part IV) will need to be adapted, integrated and
documented appropriately in order to facilitate planning processes
around that issue.
Think and try to answer:
1. How does your community or organization decide which issues
are important?
1. How does your community or organization make plans?
1. Who works to implement these plans and how is the decision
made about who will be involved?
1. How are community activities and programs evaluated and how
is the information from these evaluations distributed?
Program Planning and Design Planning solutions to address the
community needs identified through a needs assessment is at the
heart of action planning. Just as community participation is a
central part of a needs assessment, so too must participation be
central in action planning.Everyone whose participation is required
for carrying out a plan needs to be involved in making it.
Tools for Planning Community Development Programs
The following guidelines can help ensure that program planning
supports community development processes rather than shifting the
momentum from community people to the technical support providers
whom often are familiar with the criteria and skills needed to
develop program proposals.
0. You cant plan for other people. You can only plan for
yourself.
Community development processes require planning at several
levels, and each level needs to ensure that it is not making plans
for the others. Some of the planning levels typically found in
community development work are:
Integrated Community Planning This is a broad-based community
consultation process that can be used to assist the community to
reach consensus about goals and strategies to address specific
community development issues. This process can result in the
development of an integrated community plan that can serve as the
foundation for all the other types of planning that are needed.
Community Core Groups, Families and Individuals These groups
should be assisted to develop their own plans for carrying out
their part of the integrated community plan.
Community-Based Agencies and Organizations These plans outline
the actions these groups will take to facilitate community
participation in the community development processes; they identify
their roles in implementing the integrated community plan. The
agencies and organizations should be certain that they are not
developing plans for the community about what community members
will do.
Outside Helpers- These plans outline how they will support the
community members and organizations with their community
development plans.
0. Community Development program plans need several
components.
Designing a planned solution to address a community need
requires that the community group write a structured action
plan.This plan should involved several components:
Vision Statement Written by the community group when it formed,
this should outline the desired future state of the community. The
pursuit of this vision is the primary purpose for which the
community group exists. The vision statement therefore answers the
question of why the group exists.
Goal Statement Goals describe accomplishments that need to be
fulfilled in order to realize the vision. The goal statement
therefore answers the question of what?
ObjectivesObjectives provide specific, measurable targets,
accomplishments and timelines that will need to be realized in
order to reach the goals. They further refine the question of
what?
Strategies These are the specific lines of action that have been
chosen to achieve the goals and objectives. Strategies should be
reviewed regularly and changed as needed in order to achieve the
desired results. They answer the question of how?
Activities This part of the plan outlines specific tasks that
need to be done, when they need to be completed, who undertake each
task, and how you will know when each activity has been
achieved.
Learning Plan A learning plan outlines who requires what kind of
learning in order to undertake their respective tasks in
implementing the program plan. It should state who needs to learn
what and precisely how that learning will take place.
Monitoring and Evaluation Plan- This outlines the process
whereby information about all aspects of the program will be
accumulated for all program aspects. It allows you to review how
the activities of the implementation process correlate with the
originally defined goals and objectives. Monitoring reveals both
successes and emerging problems and changes in programming since it
provides a general description of the program progress towards the
established objectives. (More detailed information is available
later in this section under D. Evaluation)
0. Make sure your plan is sustainable
In other words, make sure that your plan wont get stopped
halfway through because it does not have all the things it needs to
keep going.
0. Communicate your plan clearly
One source of frustration and hard feelings in the community
development process is a lack of clarity about exactly what each
partner in the process has agreed to do. Each planning level (see
above) needs to communicate its plan to every other level in order
to avoid conflicts expectations about what be expected to
happen.
e.Use your plan
Too often Program A is developedto satisfy funding or other
types of administrative requirements and then it simply sits on a
shelf somewhere. A good plan can help hold everyone accountable and
can serve as a standard against which to make choices about
day-to-day activities and priorities.
Program Implementation
On the surface, it may seem that implementation is simply what
you do between the planning and evaluation phases. Beneath that
apparently straightforward surface, however, there are certain
fundamental issues over which most community development programs
seem to stumble.
All action is not implementation. Implementation means bringing
your strategic design to life by carrying out lines of action in
ways that are focused around the basic development principle so
that the process itself actually leads to your original vision.
Implementation is not a robotic process of carrying out what was
planned. It is a living process, and anything that is alive
changes, learns and grows. In healthy community development
processes, the vision and plan evolve and develop as the project
unfolds. If the actions as planned are not leading to the
anticipated positive transformation, the plan itself will need to
change. Community development program implementation always
involves learning because the process requires building the
capacity of people, community organizations and agencies to more
effectively address the determinants of human well being and
prosperity. For this reason, learning needs to be integrated into
every program implementation process without exception.
Some of the most effective boards of directors of major
corporations and public institutions are as effective as they are
because they have a good coach. We are convinced that, in a similar
vein, community development projects needs coaching and mentoring
from someone who is experienced, skilled, above moral and ethical
reproach, detached from the various interests competing within the
process, and committed and dedicated to the advancement and
well-being of the people the program intends to serve. In addition
to coaching and mentoring, regular learning sessions need to be
incorporated into a continuous improvement initiative at the heart
of program life. Implementation is not primarily what professionals
do. Until the key individuals and groups within the community are
actively engaged (hearts, minds and human energy) as the authors of
the process, what is occurring may be preliminary and necessary,
but it is not yet community development implementation. Just as the
human body utterly depends on routine patterns such as breathing,
eating and sleeping for health, community development programs need
routines.The fundamentals are the following:
Revisioning and spiritual anchoring This reconnects everyone to
the vision and values that need to animate the program and to the
living Spirit of Life.
Community building (maintaining and improving human relations)
This promotes the learning, mutual understanding, skill building,
healing and changing that needs to occur within and between the
primary implementers so that the circle of true community is always
alive and well at the heart of the program.
Monitoring A routinized program of reflection on the action
occurring in light of vision, goals, and principles will lead to a
continuous evolution of program design and behaviors.
Learning A planned and routinized program of learning for
continuous improvement that builds the capacity of everyone
involved to more effectively pursue the goals of the program is
vital to success in community development work. Without it (and
most programs do plod on without it), program participants are
often doomed to repeat the same patterns of thinking and acting
that have created the very conditions the program has set out to
transform.
The routinization of these four elements (anchoring, community
building, monitoring and learning) provides a sound practical
framework for ensuring that implementation is what is occurring and
not one of its many counterfeits, such as frenzied activism,
dogmatic promotion of strategies or a structure that isnt working,
or the gradual decline and demolition of trust and constructive
human relations.
Program Monitoring and Evaluation The purpose of evaluation is
to find out whether or not, and to what extent, the work that is
being done is leading to the accomplishment of the vision, goals
and objectives set by the community. The process of community
development is complex, subtle and very prone to being diverted,
distorted or even stopped along the way. For these reasons, it is
absolutely fundamental that strategic action be balanced by
systematic reflection. A self-corrective guidance mechanism needs
to be built into the system in order to be able to tell if the
process is really on course, or if changes are required. Evaluation
means to reflect on what has happened and to make an assessment as
to its value.
A common mistake that is made in the evaluation of
people-centered programs is to look at the objectives written down
at the beginning of the program (or those outlined in the funding
proposal) and then to set out to measure the progress (or lack of
it) made in reaching those objectives. Often by waiting until the
end to measure only one part of the program plan, such as the
objectives, the data that is gathered only tells of the final
product. In such instances, the evaluation would then not reveal
valuable information about the process of the program, whether or
not learning took place, and the quality of participation. There is
then no way of telling if, or to what extent, the strategy has
moved the community closer to its vision and goals.
In community development processes, the evaluation standards
must then be rooted in the origins of the process. The three
necessary areas of assessment in evaluating community development
programs are related to:
Primary vision, and the goals, objectives and strategies that
flow from it.Is the development process leading to the achievement
of the vision and goals? This is thewhator content-related
question.
Development principles.At the beginning of community development
processes, people should identify the principles by which they want
their development action to be guided. The key question to ask is
whether or not the principles agreed upon are being respected. This
is thehowor process-related question.
Participatory process. The people involved in the inner
(personal) and outer (community) work need to describe what they
are experiencing and learning from the process. This subjective
data grounds the other two categories and centers evaluation on the
process of building human capacity for change.
Tools for Monitoring and Evaluating Community Development
Programs
In order to evaluate anything, some standard is needed. In other
words, in order to tell if something is good or not good, we first
need to have a clear idea of what good is in that particular
situation. This standard is often expressed in clearly defined
success indicators that link the communitys vision of its desired
future to the ongoing programs and projects designed to actualize
that vision. Evaluation requires relevant and practical monitoring
tools to use for keeping track of day-to-day work, week-to-week or
month-to-month progress toward agreed-upon success indicators. An
effective evaluation and monitoring mechanism for community
development processes could include the following elements:
1. From the very beginning, a plan to hold regular monitoring
and evaluation meetings at the management level (preferably
monthly) and with the community (at least quarterly) needs to be
made.
1. A monitoring and evaluation coordinating team whose task is
to watchdog the process and to serve as a feedback and course
correction mechanism.
1. Project staff (if any) and volunteers should all participate
with the evaluation team in setting up the evaluation framework,
formulating the guiding questions and determining the indicators of
progress. In this way, they will understand what they should be
watching for on a daily basis, and which warning signs will tell
them that immediate action is needed.
1. Simple checklists, guiding questions and other tools that can
be easily understood and used by community members should be
prepared to guide the process.
1. All program stakeholders must somehow be engaged in
monitoring and evaluation. By stakeholders, we mean individuals and
groups who are contributing to and benefiting from the process. It
is also very important to consult critics and opponents, who may be
able to provide insight others may miss.
1. Each stage of the (monthly) monitoring and (quarterly)
evaluation process should be documented to provide the possibility
of correcting your activities, if it will be necessary. Besides
this process, you need to write down all changes you made.
1. After each monitoring and evaluation session, the project
team needs to reflect deeply on its analyses of the situation, its
current strategies, its habits of working, who it works with, and
its up-coming plans. All of this should be on the table for
adjustment, or major change if necessary. Whatever changes are made
should be documented as well and fed back into the monitoring and
evaluation system for further consideration in the next round.
Case Study
Removing Garbage from Your House
The problem of polluting the environment with household waste is
relevant for the majority of Ukrainian cities, towns and villages.
This issue was identified in the town of Pustomyty at the
first-ever community planning meeting, when about 80 people
attended a meeting to identify and prioritize some of their
community needs. As a result of the meeting, Ptakh (a youth center
based in Pustomyty, Lviv oblast), decided to try to work with the
community to tackle the problem of waste removal from the
territories belonging to Pustomyty City Council. This included
Pustomyty town, Navaria village, Lisnevychi village and the Hlynna
micro-district. The Ptakh Youth Center operates primarily in the
sphere of local community development and training community
leaders for Ukrainian society. While Ptakh is not an ecological
organization, the issue of waste removal was perceived by the
members of the organization as an opportunity to unite the
community around solving a specific problem that was equally
important and relevant for all of its members.
Ptakh started the process by developing a core group of about 20
of its members to work on the project. Utilizing the information
they heard from the community consultation meeting, they developed
the idea of implementing a new and effective garbage disposal
system.
After discussing their idea with City Council, it was agreed
that this was an important community issue and City Council
provided some start up funding for the project. Ptakh also
presented their idea to the Civil Society Community Roots Project
and received some further supplementary funding. Following approval
from City Council, Ptakh decided to first introduce an experimental
one-month garbage removal system in a limited territory.
In order to gather more information from the community, a
questionnaire that would help them develop the system and schedule
of garbage removal was developed. Twenty volunteers then went from
house to house to survey the people and gather the needed
information. Once the data was gathered and analyzed, the following
method of garbage collection was designed:
People would buy garbage bags from the driver of the garbage
truck.
The price of the bag included a garbage removal fee, which would
be used to gather on-going finances in order to provide
sustainability of the system.
People would put their garbage bag on the street in front of
their house according to a pre-set schedule of garbage pick-up.
A specialized service would then collect only the specific bags
displaying special I.D. stickers and take them to the landfill.
In order to remove large loads of garbage, people could call the
service and agree on a specific time for collection.
During this first implementation stage of the experimental
garbage collection system, a survey of public opinion was conducted
to find out what the people liked about the system and what could
be improved. This feedback was taken into consideration and some
adjustments were introduced to the system.
Finally, after tests and trials of the original idea, an
agreed-upon new garbage collection system became a reality. A final
schedule was printed and delivered to the community, and people
began using the service. The system was so successful that one
month after it was introduced, the Pustomyty City Council agreed to
finance the introduction of this system in the second part of the
town. A final evaluation indicated that 70 percent of the town now
uses this new system.
It is important to point out that the main prerequisite to
success of this initiative was the involvement of the community in
all stages of planning, starting from the initial identification of
their needs, right through to the evaluation stage. Working in
cooperation to plan and implement this project, Ptakh Youth Center,
the Pustomyty City Council, and the rest of the community have
successfully addressed the issue of garbage removal in their town.
They can now enter the third millennium with clean streets and a
new sense of community ownership and pride.
Think and try to answer:1. Should the way your organization
identifies community needs be carried out in a more participatory
way?
1. Do the seven components of program planning presented here
compare with your current group plans?
1. How do you communicate your program plan to others?
1. How can your project implementation be monitored to ensure
that it is in line with the vision, goals and objectives identified
by the community?
1. How did you make sure you involve your community throughout
the process?
1. Networking with Resources and Allies
Traditionally, when we hear the word resources in relation to
organizational and project work, we often think of financial and
material resources. In the sphere of community development,
however, resources can refer any aspect of the community that can
contribute in a positive way to the development of a project,
activity or organization. Resources in this case can include things
like ideas, support, information, relationships and people, as well
as financial and material resources. Resources are the tools that
help us implement our ideas, achieve desired results or make needed
changes. That is why the process of finding resources for community
work is a vitally important task that requires responsibility and
specific skills. In many communities there are only a few activists
working on a broad range of issues. For this reason, they need to
work collaboratively and coherently so that their efforts will
harmonize to achieve the goals defined by the community.
Networking can start with the many organizations and
institutions whose activity is closely connected with the life of
the community. Most communities already have a variety of
resources. For example, there may be local governmental
authorities, schools, churches, departments of social assistance
and organizations implementing economic development or
employment-related programs. Many of these community resources can
become your allies and partners in your efforts to mobilize the
community to work together on common problems.
The task of finding and nurturing these partners is an important
area of work. You can begin by making a map showing all the public
and non-governmental agencies in or near the community. Then you
can visit them and find out how they see the needs of the community
and what they are doing to address them. You have to remember that
they will have some questions for you as well. It is important to
be sincere in these meetings in trying to learn from others rather
than simply using the occasion to promote your own project or to
look for a way to get some resources from others. Do not forget the
advice to seek first to understand and then to be understood. Maybe
these agencies also have some needs which you can assist them with.
In other words, the goal of these meetings should be to build true
partnership relations.
On the basis of such meetings and interviews, you can find
allies who are willing to work with you to improve the life of your
community. The next stage involves identifying specific activities
or projects on which to collaborate. One of the most common errors
people make when they first begin building community partnerships
is to make assumptions about each other rather than negotiating
specific agreements. People and organizations soon lose patience
with endless meetings to discuss what should happen when there are
no concrete results. Creating partnerships in community work also
does not mean that people should give up the specific mission of
their own organization to join with another one. Good partnerships
are based on clear agreements about what the joint work is and what
the specific role and contribution of each partner will be. The
final test for a successful partnership is the real results that
are seen in community.
Sometimes partnerships between community organizations evolve
from a series of joint activities to the point where some type of
inter-organizational structure that belongs to two or three
different sectors of society (i.e. the business-sector, the civil
society sector and the public sector). These can be as basic as
some type of inter-agency committee that meets regularly to discuss
community issues such as child poverty, for example, and to propose
joint strategies. Inter-sectoral initiatives can also evolve into
other structures such as coalitions, lobby or policy groups,
community foundations, or a regional community development agency.
Longer-term inter-sectoral partnerships can play an important role
in finding effective solutions for community problems by bringing
together the individual interests and resources of organizations
that belong to these sectors. Non-governmental organizations
representing the civil society sector can not only speed up the
process of democratic reforms and protect the rights and interests
of those people who are in the most vulnerable positions, but also
solve specific social problems that the state cannot solve at the
moment (such as supporting peoples employment and creating
additional jobs).
We have been discussing the work of collaborating with resources
and allies from within the community. Community development work
sometimes also draws on resources from outside the community. All
living processes requires external support. For example, plants
need sunshine and rain, as well as nutrients from the soil. In
community development, the role of outside assistance is crucial;
however, an idea or project should not start with the contribution
of resources from the outside. If outside resources are responsible
for starting some action, that action becomes dependent on the
outside resources. It is then likely that once the provision of
those outside resources are stopped, the action will also stop.
When outside partners are too much involved in development
processes, the community loses its ability to develop.
Therefore, we have to keep in mind that control over the
development process should not be given up in exchange for
resources necessary for development in a short-term perspective.
The key to networking and developing resources is that an idea or
project already exists and that outside resources enhance that
idea. In this way, ownership of the project remains with the
community and the idea itself will begin to gain support from
others as it becomes more known and more people become involved in
contributing to it.
Outside support can involve material resources, but it can also
mean technical support through consultative advice. Clearly, the
establishment of sustainable communities often requires the
assistance of professionals from outside the community. What is
important is that this aid should be given in the framework of a
true partnership, in which professionals are really guided by the
recommendations and requests from the community. The main task of
outside professionals in community development work is to help
people learn how to solve their social and economic problems by
themselves.
Community members themselves should move towards creating the
conditions for the sustainable life of community. This is why we
have to remember our traditional proverb: Water will not flow under
a lying stone, which can become our slogan in the work on
attracting resources for the third sector activities.
A brief note about fundraising
Some of the most common fundraising methods used by Ukrainian
NGOs are the following:
1. Receiving grants for implementing the projects from
international donors
1. Membership fees
1. Contributions from sponsors (such as businesses)
1. Subsidies from state institutions
1. The organization of various events, concerts, evenings and
fairs
1. A box for private donations for NGO needs
1. Establishing a financial committee inside charitable
organizations that consists of local businessmen and is charged
with not only supervising expenses, but also with fundraising
issues from their colleagues-businesspeople
1. The creation of an untouchable capital fund that will give
some small money coming from the interest rate on this deposit
account
1. Starting up their own businesses
Regardless of which of the above strategies are chose, the
fundraising process can be briefly presented as follows:
Create an idea.
Write a proposal (description of problem, aim and action plan,
outcomes, budget).
Compile a list of potential sponsors, donors.
From among the sponsors (donors), find out who and what can be
given to your project (it may be free goods and services).
Write a letter of request.
Organize events to advertise your project (publications,
handouts, announcements, speeches etc.).
Negotiate with sponsors (fundraising).
Implement the project according to its developed plan.
Publish public reports on the use of funds and achieved
results.
Thank allies and maintain friendly partnership relations with
them.
Think and try to answer:
1. What kinds of resources does your organization use?
1. Which of these resources are available in the community and
which need to come from outside the community?
1. Do you have partnership relationships with other community
organizations? With government? With the business sector?
1. How do you nurture and maintain these relationships?
Case Study
At The Crossroads
Vona or She is a growing, Kyiv-based women's organization
struggling for identity.The group sprang into existence along with
a multitude of community-based organizations after the fall of the
Soviet Union and the emergence of an independent Ukraine in 1991.
Along with many such newly formed organizations, Vona sought both
to unite individuals holding common interests, as well as to fill
the gap left in society by the collapse of the Soviet command
economy and social safety net. In fact, at one time, Vona was part
of a larger international organization that also sought to
cooperate with women and women's groups throughout all of Ukraine
and in the neighboring countries of Belarus and Moldova.
Since 1997, however, Kyiv-Vona has registered as an independent,
non-profit community organization in its own right and does not
cooperate with other Ukrainian chapters of Vona on a regular basis.
That fact also reflects what Vona and other describe as the
sometimes stiff competition among NGOs that has evolved alongside
the development of the Third Sector itself. That competition takes
many forms: competition for funding from cash-strapped federal,
regional and municipal governments, for funding from wealthier
international organizations and foreign partners as well as
competition simply for status and recognition.
Vona maintains a full-time volunteer staff of three and a
regular membership of around 50 women. Like many smaller community
based organizations, Vona is very much shaped by the personality of
its leader. The founder and president is Tanya Kovalenko, an
energetic, former teacher with a personal commitment to bettering
the lot of women in the new Ukraine and who is able to pursue this
goal on a full-time basis with the support of her family.
Around the leadership of Mrs. Tanya and the executive, Vona
began to move in many directions at the same time, trying to find a
niche that could make a positive social impact, as well as operate
in a sustainable fashion.
At that point Vona encountered new allies and partners which
ended up having a strong impact on the future of the organization.
A local youth development organization had begun a process of
contacting many groups in the area in their efforts to expand their
work from merely serving their current members to more actively
reaching out to vulnerable groups in the community. They had an
exploratory meeting with Vona, and a result was that Vona was
invited to send a participant to upcoming training sessions related
to community development in which the youth organization also
participated. These learning sessions seemed to open a whole world
of new possibilities for Vona. The leadership gained new skills in
creating a vision for the organization and in participatory
planning. They also gained a new confidence and passion in their
work which helped them reach for goals which might previously have
seemed beyond their grasp.
As a follow up to these community development training sessions,
a number of inter-sectoral meetings were held in the area of the
city where Vona and the youth organization had their offices. By
this time, some strong bonds of respect had developed between Vona
and the youth organization. The energy and insights of the young
people exposed Vona to aspects of society which they did not
usually encounter and to new ideas about how to make a difference
in the community. Also attending the inter-sectoral sessions was a
local government employee who was committed to improving the
well-being of the citys residents by supporting civil society
organizations. As these discussions progressed during the course of
some months, Vona gradually developed an idea for a project which
they wanted to undertake to address a specific and urgent need in
the community. They realized that far too many young women were
becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases and that these
young women lacked the knowledge, skills and self-esteem to make
the necessary changes in their lives to preserve their health.
In order to take on the challenge of serving these young women,
Vona realized that they would need several types of new partners.
They would need the support of experts in the field of sexual
health, they would need access to young women who were in need of
this help, and they would need funding support. Drawing on the
skills they gained during the community development sessions, Vona
was, over the period of many months and with passionate
persistence, able to find and win over the partners they needed.
They were able to find the technical expertise they needed through
the Institute of Health in the city and a local technical school
was happy to host the project since they too were concerned about
the well-being of their student population. Finally, the
professional way in which Vona managed to secure these partners and
to present their well thought out proposal won them funding from a
foundation in Ukraine which is dedicated to the development of a
healthy civil society.
The long-held dreams of Vona were finally to be realized. It was
time not only to undertake this exciting new work but also to
celebrate their success. Just what all the next steps will be are
not completely clear, but Vona knows it will be able to continue to
make a contribution with the help of its many supporters.
Think and try to answer:
1. What role can be played by every sector (state, business,
NGOs) for the development of your community?
1. What input can they make into cooperation and how useful
would cooperation be for them?
1. What methods do you use in your community to attract
resources?
1. What is, in your opinion, a basis for stable and fruitful
relations with allies?
1. What state or business structures exist in or near your
community? Did you turn to them for help?
4. Building Effective Community Development OrganizationsAt
first glance, the wordeffectivenessseems clear to everyone. For
example, it is often used when speaking about work, solutions and
tasks. When referring to organizations in community development,
however, the idea of effectiveness is not nearly as clear. Lets
start thinking about what this could mean by reflecting on the
types of organizations which are commonly involved in community
work.
Many organizations that exist in Ukraine today were created to
address the needs of a particular vulnerable group in society whose
needs are not being adequately met through government services.
Often these organizations are struggling to overcome many obstacles
such as a lack of adequate resources, apathy on the part of
community members who continue to expect someone to solve their
problems for them, disunity among the organizations leadership or
members, and a feeling that the no matter how hard they work, the
problems keep growing. Almost all such organizations, at a certain
point in their development, realize that they need new information
and skills, and perhaps even values and attitudes to become more
effective.
The same holds true for a new type of organization which is
beginning to arise in Ukraine. This type of organization does not
start with a particular need, but rather with a community of people
who live in a certain place and have a desire to improve life in
their environment. As people begin to analyze their lives, to
develop a common vision of the future they want to create together,
to build bonds of trust and cooperation, to plan activities and
programs, and to learn the skills they will need to work in new
ways, they often need to create organizations to systematize their
joint work. These organizations face many of the same types of
challenges which were listed above related to maintaining healthy
human relations, to ensuring the participation of a broad sector of
community people, and to the fair distribution of tasks and
responsibilities It is not uncommon for the organization itself to
become an obstacle to the development process.
The material that follows has been prepared to assist you
whether you are already involved in an existing community
organization or if you are just starting your work with a community
which has not yet formed formal organizations. If your organization
was created before you found out about the idea of community
development that seemed innate to you, then try to use the
necessary skills to improve the current situation in your
organization. What you read below should help you think of the
possible methods of involving the people your organization serves
in community development. If, on the other hand, you are among a
group of people who have just decided to tackle the complicated
issue of working with people, this section will help you to better
understand the importance of the organizational processes in
community development.
The material which follows consists of several important
sub-points that will help you structure your knowledge in creating
effective organizations. It will help you to put emphasis on the
right things in creating your own organization. It will help you
analyze the current situation in the community, avoid
misunderstandings and make effective decisions.
The creation of community organizations needs to fit into the
natural flow of development processes.
The process of community development can be thought of in three
stages that reflect the principle that development flow from inside
to outside. In community work, many of the problems that
organizations tend to develop can be avoided if this basic
development principle is followed. Development begins with people,
who decide that they will work together on common problems, rather
than starting with formal structures, such as organizations. This
point is expanded a little more fully below. The first thing to
remember is that community development is about ordinary people
taking responsibility for building their own future. This means
that community development must start with human relationships. It
begins with people strengthening their bonds of trust and unity,
and committing themselves to a sustained relationship. This phase
is a prerequisite to the success of the next two.
From these renewed relationships, people develop the will and
the strength to take action together. They begin participating in
effective processes, such as mutual support through core groups or
participatory action research activities to identify community
needs and priorities.
It is only when human relations are strong and the community
development processes are well established that they should be
given more lasting structure through the creation of an
organization. This structure should always stay connected to the
purpose and spirit of the community development work, and not
become an end in itself.
This flow of the development process can be pictured something
like this:
The following problems may occur if an organization is created
at too early a stage in the community development process.
First,ordinary community members may never really take ownership
of the work. They may always expect those individuals who have
formal leadership positions in the organization to do the work for
them. They transfer their dependence on government to a dependence
on voluntary organizations to solve their problems for them.
Second, maintaining an organization takes a great deal of
effort. Records of meetings must be properly kept, annual reports
must be completed, and funding must be sought for the organizations
office space and equipment. All these activities can take energy
away from the critical work of strengthening the sense of common
oneness and from mobilizing ordinary people to become involved in
the life of their community.
Third, the communitys natural leaders, who may not necessarily
have the technical skills that are important for maintaining an
organization, may begin to get left out of the work. Donors and
other outside agencies find it easier to communicate with the
community people who are used to relating to outsiders. This can
mean that the grassroots leaders are ignored and their valuable
knowledge and ability to motivate the community gets lost.
There is also a danger that people will begin to look to outside
resources and solutions to solve problems rather that focusing on
their own knowledge and energy. So much energy begins going toward
projects that people forget that community development is really
about transforming relationships and that the community already has
a great deal of what it needs.
Conflicts and tensions can arise between those community members
who are working as staff members of the organization and those who
are active volunteers. Who should receive a salary or other
benefits that are associated with being a part of an organization
and who should continue to donate their time and energy freely can
become a source of jealousy and misunderstanding. How this issue
will be handled needs to be carefully considered before an
organization is established.
Theseguidelines for effective community development
organizationswill help you to respond to the situation and resolve
it on time.
When community development processes are well enough established
that an organization is needed, it is important to make sure that
the organization operates according to community development
principles, rather than to the principles by which the business
sector or the government sector organizes itself. If we use the
procedures that may have been used in many of the organizations in
which we have participated in the past, we can end up seriously
undermining our community development work. Here are some
guidelines which can assist a community development organization
prevent these problems or solve them on time if they do occur.
1. Incorporate regular opportunities for all sectors of the
community to participate in the work of the organization. One way
to do this is to schedule regular community gatherings which can
fulfill several important functions such as the following: to
reconnect people to the vision they have for a better future, to
build unity, to discuss what has been achieved to date and to make
new plans, and to celebrate. These meetings can combine a period of
inspiration, an opportunity for consultation and a time of
socializing through sharing food, music and games. How these
meetings are organized will depend partly on the culture of the
community, but care should be taken to make sure that everyone in
the community feels welcome and can contribute from his or her own
point of view.
1. Use consensus or other types of collaborative rather than
oppositional methods of decision-making. Procedures that involve
individuals presenting motions or proposals that are voted on tend
to polarize people into groups according to whether or not they
support a particular idea or a particular person.
One way to understand collaborative decision making is to
visualize the problem or issue in the centre of the circle. People
are encouraged to begin discussing the issue by contributing their
best understanding of the issue and what should be done about it
from their own point of view without reference to the contribution
of others in the group. It is important for people to remember that
the clash of different ideas can produce wonderful and creative new
ideas when it does not also create a clash between the individuals
who have these differing ideas. Once they have given their opinion,
the idea becomes a gift to the group, which they have no need to
hold on to or defend. As people listen with an open heart to what
others have to say, they will begin to refine their own
understanding and shift their thinking about what the best course
of action is.
Gradually, as the discussion unfolds, a consensus often emerges
about which idea will be most effective or about how elements of
several ideas can be combined to produce a new option which
transcends the ideas which people originally brought to the
meeting. Once a decision is made, everyone works in unity to
implement the decision, without negative comments. If they decision
is not the right one, it will soon become evident and a fresh
process of consultation will allow a new course of action to be
chosen.
1. Choose leaders in a way that focuses on unity rather than on
personalities. It can be very helpful to hold a community
consultation process before leaders are chosen at which community
members discuss the qualities that leaders should possess and the
code of conduct (or ethics) that they should uphold. It is also
important to choose an electoral process that suits community
development principles, rather than simply imitating the electoral
process used by municipal government. For example, a process can be
used which allows every eligible voter to simply choose, by secret
ballot, the individual they feel best exemplifies the qualities and
has the skills needed for leadership. In this system there are no
special candidates. Everyone is both a candidate and a voter. The
individual(s) receiving the most votes is selected for the position
for a pre-determined term.
1. Leaders need to take on the role of servants to the community
development process, rather than becoming the bosses or the ones
that take on all the work of the group. This question has been
discussed elsewhere in this manual in more detail and so is not
covered again here.
1. Organizations do not replace the need for core groups. They
are only a tool for implementing some of the more complex community
projects. Be sure that the community work keeps community core
group strong, even when a more structured process like an official
organization is in place. The functioning of core groups and their
role in community development processes has already been covered in
several previous sections.
Think and try to answer:
1. Do you belong to any community organizations? How did these
organizations start? Who is involved in them?
1. How do the organizations you know choose their leaders? What
is the role of these individuals and how do they understand their
job?
1. Do these organizations have any way of listening regularly to
community members and involving them in the work of the
organization?