Building Community Capacity

Building Community Capacity For: Foundations of Community Vitality Workshop and/or Resource Packet Presented By: Steve Grabow, Professor and Community Development Educator UW-Extension, Jefferson County Office Will Andersen, Professor and Community Development Educator UW-Extension, Iron County Office Resource:David G. Hinds, AICPProfessor EmeritusUniversity of Wisconsin-Extension DRAFT 7/31/2014

Introduction to Building Community Capacity Review of…Community Transformation Community Capacity Model

Community Development… • Includes the idea of transforming communities • Which, in turn, includes the concept of building community capacity

Transforming Communities • Development in the community • Community is seen as a given • Development is seen as enhancing this existing entity • Clearly defined outcomes, and their achievement means success and the end of development • Development of the community • Enhances the social realm and the relationships between people • A process of interaction, communication, and collective mobilization • Accomplished through community action and the purposive interaction of community members

Community Transformation Occurs When a Community… • Develops a sufficient organizational and network base that enables effective participation, communication, and collaboration • Acquires and becomes proficient in the knowledge, abilities, skills, and tools necessary to address successfully challenges and achieve desired purposes

Community CapacityMancini, Martin & Bowen • The degree to which people in a community demonstrate a sense of shared responsibility for the general welfare for the community and its individual members • The degree to which they also demonstrate collective competence by taking advantage of opportunities for addressing community needs and confronting situations that threaten the safety and well-being of community members

What are the various “communities” that you regularly work with as an Extension professional? Exercise Question 1:

Types of Community Development Knowledge • Knowledge about substantive matters of an issue (e.g. child development, economic development, farm management, housing) • Knowledge about how communities are identified and defined • Knowledge about individuals, organizations, and networks and how they function • Knowledge about purposeful action strategies (e.g. planning, learning research, evaluation, etc.) • Local knowledge

The Importance of Purpose • The concept of purpose is essential to any successful effort • Purpose means “intent” • In community development purpose means focus, decisions, and consensus around what is to be done • Purpose also brings content or concern into what is to be done

A Model for Community Capacity Community Environment Community Structures Purpose-Based Action

Community Environment The capacity and ability to define a community, describe and understand its unique environment, and take responsibility for community issues and common purposes.

Sense of Community Chaskin • …a degree of connectedness among members and a recognition of mutuality of circumstance • One component may be the existence of a threshold level of collectively held values, norms, and vision • It may include both an affective dimension (including a sense of trust, ownership, belonging, and recognized mutuality) and a cognitive dimension (including ways in which community members ascribe meaning to their membership in a group) • Shared social interests and characteristics (language, customs, class, ethnicity, etc.) can be used to define a community

Community S.A. Small & A. Supple • …social relationships that individuals have based on group consensus, shared norms and values, common goals and feelings of identification, belonging and trust.

Basic Way to Define Communities • Communities of place • Defined geographic boundaries • Communities of interest • Groups of people united, cooperating, or interacting with regard to a common topic, concern, interest, or shared history, culture, ethnicity, etc. • Communities of practice • Groups of persons in a particular profession or discipline interacting around their common interest

What is the nature of communities? • Some sources say communities are forms or structure. • Other sources try to say they are function or process. • In reality, though, they are, in themselves, neither. • S.A. Small & A. Supple describe communities as “setting.” • A more generic, systems-related term is “environment.”

Community Environment • Communities are not the means but the milieu or context in which form is created and function carried out • Communities have unique environments • The idea of communities should be thought of in the broadest possible ways

Community Structures The capacity and ability to create, manage, and maintain appropriate community structures that address community issues and achieve community purposes.

Definition of StructureChaskin • First he asks “Where does community capacity reside, and how is it engaged?” • In this sense he is viewing structure as the first part of his definition of capacity: the idea of containing (holding, storing) • He answers his question by proposing that capacity resides in three levels of social interaction or social agency: • The individual • Organizations • Networks of association

Forms of Community Capital • Individuals – Human capital • Organizations – Organizational capital • Networks – Social capital

Interim Structures • Created to accomplish short-term purposes or as a means of creating permanent structures • Created at a stage in community development when there is no need or desire for a permanent structure

Interim Structures - Examples • Study committees to identify and frame community issues • Informal sponsor groups to gather resources for and legitimize special projects • Study groups to gather information and conduct community learning • Planning & design committees to modify or create new community systems or propose changes in policies • Special task forces to investigate and correct specific problems

Community Structures • Are not part of community environment—they are (or should be) created as a part of a solution. • Are form, and need to be created following the determination of function. • Are not what needs to be done; they are part of how something gets done.

Exercise Question 2: What are examples of “community structures” that you work with and what is a typical need for Extension assistance?

Purpose-Based Action The capacity and ability to take appropriate actions to address community issues and achieve community purposes.

Purposeful Activities • Diagnosis should lead to determining which purposeful activity should be pursued… • Learning • Research • Planning & Design • Evaluation • Operating & Supervising

Fundamental Purposeful Activities • Operating & Supervising – operate and supervise an existing solution or system • Planning & Design – create or restructure a situation-specific solution or system • Research – search for causes, seek generalizations, and attempt to disprove hypotheses • Evaluation – evaluate performance of previous solutions or other purposeful activities • Learning – gain skills and acquire knowledge about existing information and generalizations

Secondary Purposeful Activities • Make a decision • Maintain a standard of achievement • Resolve a conflict • Make a model of or abstract a phenomenon • Develop creative ideas • Establish priorities • Practice and exercise • Focus and motivate individual efforts

Skills • A learned power of doing something competently, a developed aptitude or ability • A combination of applied knowledge, experience and learned behaviors • Effective use involves knowing what to do, why something is to be done, how to do it, and also when and where to do it

Learning skills Teaching skills Leadership skills Group membership skills Listening skills Interviewing skills Diagnostic skills Facilitation skills Organizational skills Analytical skills Conflict resolution skills Computer skills Some Important Community Development Skills

Tools • A tool is something used in performing an operation or necessary in the practice of a vocation or profession. • “Tools are relatively small, often parts of a larger unit; they do something; each is designed for a very specific purpose.” Nancy Tague • Tools are not designed to be used singly, as ends onto themselves. They generally do not provide any context or sense of overall strategy. • Tools are most effectively used in combination, in the context of the overall strategy.

Examples of Tools • Generate ideas and information • Brainstorming, surveys, observation tools • Organize information • Hierarchies, diagrams, classifications • Aid decision making • Decision matrix, decision tree • Analyze data • Statistical tools, Pareto Charts • Evaluate performance • Pre-test/post-test analysis, performance index, surveys, focus groups • Enable learning • Practice exercises, learning/study circles, systems thinking • Involve community stakeholders • Nominal Group Technique, Charette, World Café, public meetings • Manage projects • Gantt Charts, PERT/CPM

SUMMARY

A Community Capacity Model

Community Capacity Elements • The capacity and ability to define a community, describe and understand its unique environment, and take responsibility for community issues and common purposes. • The capacity and ability to create, manage, and maintain appropriate community structures that address community issues and achieve community purposes. • The capacity and ability to take appropriate actions to address community issues and achieve community purposes.

Exercise Question 3: What are ways that you have the most impact in applying one or more of the purposeful activities with community structures?

Exercise Question 4: How does this Community Capacity Model help conceptualize capacity building?

Exercise Question 5: What are some ideas toenhance the capacity of community leaders and key “communities”?

Building Community Capacity