Cara Taylor Swift, MPA Rural Statewide Initiatives Coordinator Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Transcription

1 Cara Taylor Swift, MPA Rural Statewide Initiatives Coordinator Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence Resource: Community Tool Box

2 Obtain an understanding of community Identify the components of assessing community needs and resources

3 While we traditionally think of a community as the people in a given geographical area, the word can really refer to any group sharing something in common.

4 This may refer to smaller geographic areas such as A neighborhood A housing project A rural area Or to a number of other possible communities within a larger, geographically-defined community

5 These are often defined by race or ethnicity, professional or economic ties, religion, culture, shared background or interest. Examples: Catholic Community/ Faith Community African American Community Homeless Community LGBT Community Elderly Community Haitian Community Deaf Community Others? How might these communities overlap?

6 Knowledge! Reality talks. Knowing the facts is a stark way of determining the size of the gap between your vision and the reality in which you live. It s an excellent way to show the magnitude of the problem

7 Credibility Counts! Being about to easily talk about the issue in exact numbers/ real stories Writing down information you collect as part of grant applications or project summaries for potential funders

8 Awareness leads to change! You can use the information you collect to raise community awareness How serious the problem is How well/poorly your community is doing in relation to other communities or to the nation as a whole How well your coalition/task force is currently addressing the issue

9 Two ways Use information that is already out there Collect new information yourself Perhaps most importantly be prepared to learn from the community

10 1. Agree on the value and purpose of information to be collected 2. When to use the data 3. What you want to know 4. Who will find the information 5. Identify possible sources of information 6. Set limits as to how much to collect 7. Collect the data 8. Identify gaps in your knowledge 9. Redo the process to fill in the gaps 10. If possible, compare data to other communities

11 Describe the makeup and history of the community to provide a context within which to collect data on its current concerns. Include information that best describes the community Demographic Historical Political Key leaders Past concerns Geographic Assets Language spoken

12 Describe the sources of information obtained Public records Local people internet Maps Library newspaper

13 Identify community assets and resources and describe how you obtained this information. Public forums Listening sessions Focus groups Community exchange sessions Interviews Surveys Observation

14 Assess the quality of the information Describe the strengths and problems you heard about

15 Describe what matters to people in the community Include a description of what changes are important to the community What are the issues the people in the community care about? How important are these issues to the community?

16 What methods did you use to listen to the community? Public forums Listening sessions Focus groups Community exchange sessions Interviews surveys

17 Don t forget the people behind the statistics Individual stories

18 Develop a plan for identifying what matters to key stakeholders. Conduct surveys Determine service utilization What do stakeholders want to know about the issue?

19 For each issue identified, describe the evidence indicating whether the issue should be a priority issue Collect information about the issue Obtain feedback from the community and stakeholders about what they feel is important Community-level indicators related to the issue Frequency of issue How many are affected by the issue How feasible is it to address the issue Possible impact and/or consequences of addressing or not addressing the issue

20 Community-level indicators try to determine how individual events affect the community as a whole. Provide "bottom-line" evidence of the impact of the initiative Help determine the effects of key components of the initiative Help push issues to the forefront of the public agenda Indicators that show positive results can help secure more support for the initiative

21 Community context or situation that might make it easier/harder to address the issue Barriers or resistance to solving the problem or achieving the goal and how they can be minimized Denial of discounting of the issue Reframing the issue

22 Based on your assessment select and state the priority issue(s) to be addressed.

23

24 Share your experiences with accessing your communities unique needs.

25 Community Tool Box- Take Action; Create Change: A Community Organizing Toolkit - New Organizing Institutehttp://neworganizing.com/toolbox/ VERA Institute of Justicehttp:// The DART Center- thedartcenter.org