“The Community Development Process,”
Green and Haines
In
the chapter titled "The Community Development Process", Green and
Haines discuss the various types of community development, the process and the
goals. The process of and outcomes of community development are important. They
focus on three areas: community organizing, community visioning and planning,
and evaluation and monitoring.
One
main questions community developers face is the questions of how to get the
community engaged in the issue. How do people become engage, maintain momentum,
and continue to work towards a common goal? Who should be involved in
development and community organizing? And how do you identify key players in a
community?
The
article examines various theories and views on community-based organizations
(CBOs). Various types of public participation exist and the article highlights
Sherry Arnstein's "ladder of public participation" as frame work to
understanding how communities can become more involved in making decisions.
When the community has more power and control over decisions, they are more
likely to become engaged.
Green
and Haines discuss challenges that community-based organizations face,
including sustaining a ideal level of public input. This can be due to the fact
that developing programs that fit within funding guidelines can alienate the
community members and organizing communities can be a slow process.
The
article also discusses why people choose to get involved. Sometimes it is
because the issues directly affect them or because of social relationships. If
someone they know and respects is involved, they are more likely to jump in
too.
Some
barriers people face when trying to get involved in CBOs are the lack of child
care, transportation, accessibility for the disabled, lack of advanced
information, time restraints, lack of communication, and residents not being
able to see a direct benefit of their actions having a impact on the issue.
Green
and Haines present various forms organizing can take; unions, constituency,
issue, and neighborhood/community. Community organizing is different from the
others because it involves people in a specific geographic area.
To
organize residents, CBOs use social action campaigns and the development model.
Social action campaigns include picketing, strikes, and sit-ins. The
development model helps residents work towards development goals. Examples of
community organizing models are The Alinsky model (involving a professional
organizer), the Boston model (contacts welfare clients), and the Association of
Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN). The ACORN model combines the
previous two and is more politically focused.
Community
visioning is key in community development. A common vision is needed for the
community to organize around and beings a common desired end state. What do
they want their community to look like? If your community was a perfect place,
what would it look like to you? Visioning focused on the strengths of the
community and the strength needed to be developed in order to reach the desired
end product.
Green
and Haines review different planning tools there are used to guide development
and growth: Comprehensive - Rational Planning, Advocacy Planning, and Strategic
Planning.
One
common corporate-style strategic planning approach is the SWOT analysis. SWOT
stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It can be used to
build agreement within an organization and help identify areas of growth.
Towards
the end of the chapter, Green and Haines give a quick over view of Monitoring,
Evaluate, and Revise, all of which are key in community development. Monitoring
and evaluating reveal where corrections revision are needed. They can focus on
specific accomplishments and determine outputs and outcomes.
Questions
for the class:
Have
you engaged in community development or organizing? What was your experience?
Do you have examples of when the visioning stage was missed?
Has
your place of employment used a Strategic Planning tool, such as SWOT? What has
been your experience?
I was previously employeed at a large macro level nonprofit and their format for creating the foundation of the 5-year strategic plan was nearly identical to SWOT . Stakeholders attended numerous meetings to discuss needs, goals, and aspirations for the plan. We also researched through focus groups, personal interviews,and email surveys. Major donors, partner agencies, and other community stakeholders were also surveyed. This information was then used to identify strategic directions, strategic goals, objectives and tactics. It is a logical and successful framework that I assume we will see repeatedly in community based social work.
ReplyDeleteI have had experience in community organizing during my undergraduate for a senior project. The class went to Baltimore and i was assigned to be on the transportation group. We had to complete a SWAT analysis, and create a community strategic planning model with suggestions and improvements that could be made. The problem: transportation had 4 separate systems that did not connect with eachother (bi state, metro link, subway, light rail) Solution: find a way to connect all three systems so that commuters could catch a subway, then hope on the light rail within 15-30mins rather than waiting 1-2hours. The vising was completed by each group depending on the topic we where assigned. I am not sure if my current employer uses SWOT, but I would assume so or they are on their way to starting it. I say this because I have filled out a survey in regards to the SWOT model.
ReplyDeleteChildren's Division has not officially used SWAT. Children's Division does send out mass surveys to foster parents, foster children, and workers to access strengths and weaknesses. These are used to improve practice for children and families. They don't call it SWAT, though.
ReplyDeleteI work at a mid-size social service agency in Jefferson County and as employees we participate in SWOT every year. It is helpful to spend time as staff to communicate what was done well and what needs improvement. After working there for a few years now, I have become aware that in the past when people have been honest in their constructive criticisms of the organization, they have received pretty negative push back. I find this unfortunate and contrary to the original intention of strategic planning approaches, like SWOT. I have also learned that those people are no longer honest in their surveys because they have not seen change and because they would rather have things stay as they are instead of having some staff become upset about their comments.
ReplyDeleteThe Salvation Army uses SWOT analysis during the strategic planning each year for the Tree of Lights Campaign. Just this February for example, after completing the final count of all the donations, the development team looked at what methods were employed this year as opposed to last year, comparing and contrasting which methods worked and which did not. The team looks at all the moving parts of the campaign for its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Some examples of strengths this year was the corporate sponsorship from Bommarito, who gave away a Cadillac. An opportunity was starting bellringing a few days earlier in November. One of many threats could be bad weather, but this is not something that can be controlled for. Another threat is sticky bandits (https://youtu.be/qMIF-8kFL0c?t=30m41s), which is why all kettles now have locking one-way lids. One of the weaknesses is a lack of giving from foundations. There are plans that have were developed in February for this years Tree of Lights Campaign to build on the strengths and opportunities as well as address weaknesses and threats. With that being said, I personally am not involved in any of the strategic planning or SWOT analysis.
ReplyDeleteI'm employing a SWOT analysis of the funding plan from a non-profit for my NP Leadership class. It seems to be a useful tool for making various assessments about an organization. I'll use the results to build my own version of a development plan for them. Sherry Arnstein's "Ladder of Public Participation" casts a light on the nuances of community interrelationships when it comes to power and participation and I can imagine many examples of these interactions in everyday life. Now we have the luxury of looking back at the Model Cities Program to see if any of the predictions of "participation without redistribution of power" came true.
ReplyDeleteWow! It has been so interesting to read how various organizations in the area are putting the tools and techniques described in the literature to use on a regular basis. SWOT analysis seems so straight forward. Sometimes practices described in the reading seem really daunting or impractical fro use in real life, but I thought the way it was described made it a very user-friendly analysis to do. The fact that so many people are using that and similar methods really reinforces that idea for me.
ReplyDelete