OL 203 Assignment Five Homework Instructions
Online Learning: OL 203 Designing and Funding Non Profit Projects. The Community Focus
Center for Sustainable Development
https://nonprofit.csd-i.org/ol-203-designing-and-funding-non-profit-programs-3/
This week’s resources:
OL 203 Assignment Five Discussion
Magee Example Project 203 Assignment 5
OL 203 A5 Lesson Plan – Forming a Community Management Committee/Team
Specific Resources to use for Assignment 5
Example Search Terms: engaging community members in community development
Community Heart & Soul Field Guide
Orton Family Foundation Resources
Forming Your Heart & Soul Team
Orton Family Foundation
https://www.orton.org/resources/forming-your-heart-soul-team/
Strategic Volunteer Engagement
RGK Center for Philanthropy & Community Service
http://www.volunteeralive.org/docs/Strategic%20Volunteer%20Engagement.pdf
Top 10 Tips for Inclusive Engagement
Nonprofit Quarterly
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2014/03/11/top-10-tips-for-inclusive-engagement/
A Guide to Engaging the Community in Your Project
Artscape DIY
http://www.artscapediy.org/Creative-Placemaking-Toolbox/Who-Are-My-Stakeholders-and-How-Do-I-Engage-Them/A-Guide-to-Engaging-the-Community-in-Your-Project.aspx
Who Are My Stakeholders and How Do I Engage Them?
Artscape DIY
http://www.artscapediy.org/Creative-Placemaking-Toolbox/Who-Are-My-Stakeholders-and-How-Do-I-Engage-Them.aspx
Engaging Community Partners for Positive Youth Development
ACT for Youth
http://www.actforyouth.net/youth_development/communities/partners/
Engaging Traditionally Disenfranchised Residents in Community Development
Research Center for Leadership in Action: NYU Wagner
http://wagner.nyu.edu/files/leadership/FifthAvenueCommittee.pdf
Building Partnerships: Key Considerations When Engaging Underserved Communities Under The Mhsa
UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities
https://health.ucdavis.edu/crhd/Pdfs/resources/Building%20Partnerships(yellow).pdf
Community Engagement
Community Planning Toolkit
http://www.communityplanningtoolkit.org/sites/default/files/Engagement.pdf
Assignment Five. Sustainability through Community Engagement Committees/Teams.
Part 1.
I typed in some simple search terms and got a pretty good diversity of subjects ranging from community development to underserved communities to mental health programs—but your projects cover a much greater diversity of themes. So my suggestion is to look at the resources above in order to get general ideas—but then do a quick Internet search to find resources for developing community committees within your own projects focused on the theme of one sub-goal of your project.
Search using Google or Google Scholar for a handbook, manual, or scientific paper that includes information about how to establish a community-based committee for helping with the implementation and potential long-term management and maintenance of a program that relates to the sector in your project for which you are setting up this committee (after school programs, community gardens, homeless shelters, social justice, etc.).
Provide the link to the resource that you discovered and a very short two or three sentence paragraph summary of the resource.
Part 2.
The resource above called ‘Forming Your Heart & Soul Team’ has good information on identifying potential committee members and methods for developing appropriate governance. It even includes sample forms for use in working with potential candidates. I would suggest scanning this information—but also realize that it may be more sophisticated than is required for this assignment.
One suggestion to use during your workshop might be to propose electing or appointing an interim committee who over the course of six months will develop the ultimate committee, develop its structure, establish committee member selection criteria, ensure gender inclusiveness and marginalized group inclusiveness, set goals and management responsibilities, determine training requirements, establish a project implementation plan, and establish a monitoring and evaluation plan.
At the end of this interim period (based upon the committee member selection criteria), the interim committee could be elected for a second term — or they could be replaced by new members. Taking this approach might make it easier during next week’s workshop for workshop participant’s to select committee members if they realize it’s simply for an intern basis.
One other thing that I’m going to do, at the end of the workshop, is to ask the newly formed committee, as their first formal activity, is to look at the list of project activities and make a list of those specific activities that they feel community members would like to do on their own, or activities that they would like to do in conjunction with your nonprofit staff. This will accomplish several things. It will continue building on project ownership, it will provide hands-on training on project activities so that the community will be able to maintain the project after your nonprofits grant term has ended, and it will ensure that the community has provided input into the project.
Part 3.
Aside from developing your materials, I would begin organizing the workshop itself a week in advance. If you arranged the workshop for the Saturday of next week, then you really have almost two weeks of preparation time.
Make sure that you have all of your materials together—like large sheets of paper, and pens and markers for doing the drawings. Because this is an all day workshop (unless you break it into two shorter workshops) you may also need to plan snacks, drinks, and lunch.
My suggestion would be to have two three colleagues accompany you to help with the workshop. This will be especially useful if you decide to break the participants down into sub-groups (men and women, or teenagers and parents). Also, if you are considering providing snacks and drinks—or lunch, you should put someone completely in charge of that (including a helper or two) so that you aren’t distracted with the details and are free to focus completely on facilitating the workshop.
Be sure to have somebody in charge of taking photographs and that they first read my field guide on Capturing Compelling Photographs from the Field. Three simple things that you can do are to check the screen in your camera after taking a photograph to make sure that the lighting is good and the photograph is in focus you probably do not need to use your flash—the quality of the photo will be higher. Don’t take pictures of the back of people doing things—take pictures of the front of people doing things.
These photos really help me in working with you to understand the context of your community—and are excellent to use for your own communication work such as newsletters and reports.
The homework to turn in will be:
1. Provide the link to the resource on forming committees that you discovered and a very short two or three sentence paragraph summary of the resource.
2. A lesson plan for the workshop—and when and where the workshop will be held.
Go to Magee’s Example Project Assignment 5, and the example lesson plan template to see what this could look like.
See you next week.