Capacity for Change
This resource brings together frameworks, tools and other materials
that may be helpful for community learning and development
practitioners in taking forward their role in building community
capacity.
Please note: The contents of this document were originally prepared and published in 2009.
2 | Capacity for change
Contents
Planning
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
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The principles of planning
Strategic planning
Operational planning
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
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Making links with communities
Building community skills and confidence
Supporting community activity
Considering equality and inclusion
Maintaining momentum
3.0
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
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The principles of monitoring and assessing impact
Developing an assessment framework
Involving communities in assessment
Gathering evidence
Using your findings
Building and sustaining
Assessing impact
3 | Capacity for change
Capacity for change
Section 1 - Planning
This section focuses on planning community capacity building. It will
help you to understand why planning is important, how to plan, and
who should be involved. It includes case studies and examples as
well as sources of further information.
The principles of planning
Why planning is important
Any organisation undertaking community capacity building activity needs to plan its
own activities.
Normally, planning should involve communities. Community capacity building should
be led by communities, and involvement in planning can be an important way to build
community capacity.
However, in some cases, organisations will need to take some initial decisions about
priorities, which then drive future capacity building activity. There may be issues – like
level of resources – that communities cannot influence, and it is important to be open
and honest about the parameters within which community capacity building activity can
take place.
In other cases, your organisation may simply not have the contacts to involve
communities in planning. Building up trust and relationships takes time, and capacity
building activity may be required even to begin planning.
Find out more
Effective planning is a requirement set out in Working and Learning Together 1 and the
HMIE self-evaluation framework, ‘How Good is our CLD?’ 2.
'How Good is our CLD?' is a self-evaluation framework for community learning and
development. One of the key areas for assessment is ‘Policy Development and
Planning’. Key areas to assess performance against include:
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involving service users and other stakeholders in policy development and
planning – particularly around aims, activities and measuring performance
•
developing, implementing and evaluating plans – and linking these with the
community plan and CLD strategy
•
using performance information and planning for sustainability.
1
Working and Learning Together http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2004/02/18793/32157
2
How good is our CLD? (2) http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/hgio2cld_tcm4-684586.pdf
Develop your practice
How could your organisation plan community capacity building activity? Explore your
organisation’s readiness to offer community capacity building support, thinking about
these questions:
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What resources are available to support community capacity building?
Why is the organisation dedicating resources to support community capacity
building?
Who does the organisation wish to support to build capacity? (This could be
geographically or thematically.)
How will staff identify what capacity building activity is required?
Who is responsible for community capacity building activity within the
organisation?
Does the organisation have the skills to deliver effective capacity building
activity?
How does the organisation's activities link with what others are doing?
How does planned activity link with local and national priorities?
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The community capacity building
cycle
The planning process is an ongoing cycle that
incorporates a series of different stages. The
outcomes of one stage may change the next
stage of the plan. One way of thinking about the
stages involved in the planning cycle is:
Each stage feeds into the next, making
planning an ongoing activity that is closely
linked to evaluation.
Reviewing progress at each stage is essential,
thinking about factors such as outcomes, costs,
future priorities, or a range of other measures.
This ensures that you do not create a plan of action only to discover that you cannot,
for example, afford the level of investment it requires.
While this provides a useful overview of how planning could operate, community
capacity building activity cannot always be planned following this cycle precisely –
particularly at an operational level.
Planning with communities needs to build upon where the community is now, taking
time to identify strengths, opportunities and priorities, and it needs to go at a pace that
suits the community. Sometimes earlier stages of the planning cycle will need to be
revisited and adapted based on the changing context.
Develop your practice
View the planning cycle diagram above, and consider the question:
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Is there a capacity building context you can explore by using the planning
cycle?
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LEAP planning framework
In Scotland the most commonly used framework for planning community capacity
building activity is LEAP (Learning Evaluation and Planning). Produced by the Scottish
Government, this framework supports the planning and evaluation of CLD activity,
based on community involvement in the process.
LEAP sets out the planning and evaluation process as a five-step cycle, with each step
feeding into the next.
The five steps are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
agreeing outcomes – what difference do we want to make?
identifying indicators – how will we know we made a difference?
action planning – how will we go about making the difference?
monitoring – how are we making sure it is happening?
evaluation – have we made a difference, what are the lessons we have
learned?
LEAP is based on the principles and values that underpin a community learning and
development approach to change. This framework is central to planning community
capacity building, as it provides a useful overview of how the planning and evaluation
cycle should work. But remember, in reality planning does not always happen in this
way. Planning with communities can be a more organic, ongoing process.
Develop your practice
Read one of the worked examples from the LEAP planning document 3 (page 52
onwards).
•
How does this example help you understand the LEAP process?
3 LEAP: A manual for Learning Evaluation and Planning in Community Learning and Development:
Revised Edition http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2007/12/05101807/0
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The five key questions
Before beginning any planning process it is useful to think about five key questions:
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What needs are we planning to address?
Why are we planning?
How will we plan?
Who is to be involved in the planning process and what is their role?
When will planning take place?
What?
Planning should be a need-led process. It should respond to the experiences,
ambitions and concerns of communities and target issues of inequality.
Why?
Planning should be change or outcome focused. It should aim to achieve real and
measurable change in the quality of personal and community life.
Planning should be concerned with continuous improvement. It should promote
reflection and allow lessons learned to be built into future action.
How?
Planning should be participatory. It should involve all those with an interest in the
desired change, particularly communities.
Planning should be concerned with building partnerships. It should build and develop
relationships between agencies and with communities.
Who?
Planning should seek to build on capacity and develop the assets of individuals,
groups and communities.
When?
You should be clear about the timescales for the planning process, allowing plenty of
time to involve communities and partner agencies.
Develop your practice
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Choose your own community capacity building context then use the five key
questions to help you explore it.
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Strategic planning
Overview
Strategic planning essentially means an organisation, team or group of organisations
deciding on their overall mission, their priorities, their activities and how these will be
monitored, measured and evaluated.
Strategic planning – the planning cycle
Strategic planning should follow the planning cycle, including:
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Assessing the context – understanding the environment that you operate in
and agreeing the overall purpose and direction for the organisation.
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Agreeing outcomes and indicators – agreeing what difference you want to
make and how you will measure this.
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Agreeing actions – exploring the options for meeting these outcomes, and
developing a written action plan setting out what you will do.
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Monitoring and evaluation – reviewing the difference you make, and building
this back into the planning cycle.
Strategic planning at different levels
In the field of community capacity building, strategic planning can take place at many
levels. For example, it may involve:
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The Community Planning Partnership agreeing the overall outcomes and
indicators it is working towards, and how community capacity building can
contribute to these.
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The Community Learning Partnership or a Community Capacity Building
subgroup agreeing outcomes and activities for capacity building.
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Your own organisation or team planning its own priorities and activities.
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Case study: The North Alliance - Strategic planning for staff development
The North Alliance is a network formed to promote access to training and development
opportunities for CLD staff in northern Scotland.
Background
The North Alliance is a network of seven CLD Partnerships from Shetland, Orkney,
Highlands, Western Isles, Moray, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen City.
This Alliance was established because CLD staff in northern Scotland felt isolated and
unable to access national training and development opportunities. Access issues
included the costs and difficulty (both to employers and individuals) involved in
travelling from the islands or remote areas of north Scotland to national training
events.
The Alliance intends to:
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improve training opportunities by making organisers aware of such difficulties
promote the effective use of CLD funding for partnerships
enhance the sustainability and longevity of this network of CLD practitioners.
In 2008, fuelled by WALT funding, the Alliance commissioned consultants, Devlin
Beattie partnership, to address the current needs and issues of the CLD workforce.
The project is two-phase, with phase one recently completed and work beginning on
phase two. Phase one was an analysis of training and development needs of the CLD
workforce. Phase two is the construction of a business plan that will address these
needs and requirements.
The first phase involved:
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an online questionnaire about workforce needs targeting those working with the
Alliance
focus groups with staff in each of the areas
an event in October 2009 to report and gain feedback on the research findings,
and share practice.
Impact - achievements
1. The dialogue in focus groups and at the event enabled people to discuss
issues and experience of best practice and therefore see an immediate
outcome of the project. These discussions also brought like-minded individuals
together and encouraged further connections.
2. Following phase one analysis, a Virtual Learning Environment is being
developed to enhance communication links.
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3. Additionally the Alliance is planning two events per year, one for generic
community learning and the other for specific issues such as youth work, adult
learning and community capacity building.
Lessons learned and advice to other organisations
Attendees at the event said one day was not long enough due to the distances some
people were required to travel. It was suggested two days would be more effective.
The success of the Alliance is based on the focus on workforce needs, which in turn
directs robust and sustainable future partnerships.
More information about this development is available on the Working and Learning
Together (WALT) blog 4.
4
Working and Learning Together blog https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/WALT/workforcedevelopment/#north
12 | Capacity for change
Strategic planning with partners
Often community capacity building activity is best planned jointly. This is largely
happening through Community Learning and Development Partnerships or sub
groups.
This can help to ensure that there is strategic co-ordination of:
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what is meant by community capacity building
what outcomes partners are working towards
mapping and understanding the activity already taking place
assessing need and prioritising activities
linking activity to wider strategies and plans
agreeing roles, responsibilities, resources and timescales.
This means that lots of different organisations – often with different agendas, priorities
and cultures – all need to work together. This can create challenges for community
capacity building. Sometimes, partners may feel that they are all too busy actually
undertaking capacity building work, and that they do not have time to step back and
plan. But in the longer term, investing time in planning and working together can result
in real savings – as resources are pooled, activity is streamlined and people work
more effectively.
Although co-ordinating activity at a strategic level can have many benefits, it can also
be challenging. One of the most important – and most challenging – aspects of
working together is fully understanding the aims, priorities and culture of the
organisations and individuals that you are working with.
Develop your practice
In view of the challenges in this section and how to address them, consider the
challenges that you face in planning with your partners.
•
Which strategies might work best for you in overcoming these challenges?
Challenges
In community capacity building, there can be particular issues that can make it more
difficult to work in partnership.
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Conflicting organisational cultures - Organisations all work differently. Some
are comfortable with empowering communities, but others can find this difficult.
This means that approaches to planning and undertaking capacity building
activity can vary substantially between organisations.
•
Competing agendas - Organisations may want to achieve different things. In
some cases this can be resolved, but it is difficult if organisations have
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competing agendas. It can be hard to agree jointly what you all want to
achieve.
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Willingness to share knowledge and experience - Sometimes organisations
do not want to share their experience, as they want to protect their own status
and resources. This can be a particular issue if organisations are competing for
funding.
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Power, politics and equality - Some organisations can find it difficult to give
up decision-making power, and work jointly with others. Creating an equal
partnership can also be difficult if some partners bring more experience,
resources or power. Decisions about joint working on community capacity
building can be influenced by wider organisational politics, about how
organisations work together more generally.
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Co-ordinating resources - Organisations often have different budget cycles or
ways of managing their funds. This can mean that decisions are made at
different times of the year, making it hard to co-ordinate planning.
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Connecting strategic and operational plans - Joint working needs to take
place at all levels. Even when plans are connected at a strategic level, this
might not translate to what is happening on the ground.
But these challenges do not mean that planning should not be undertaken jointly.
There are real benefits of working jointly to plan and deliver community capacity
building activity. It is worth investing time in addressing these barriers.
Addressing challenges
Different priorities or agendas
Partners can mean different things by community capacity building, be working
towards different priorities or be more committed to a capacity building approach than
others. These issues can be hard to solve. But it may be useful to:
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dedicate time to discussing priorities in an open way
try to agree a common language – agree what you mean when using different
words and phrases
agree a common vision – so that you have a shared idea of where you want to
be, even if your approaches differ
focus on the needs of communities – remember why you are building
community capacity, and think about community needs not just organisational
needs.
14 | Capacity for change
Varying timescales
Partners have their own plans, often with clear milestones and timescales attached. It
can be difficult to align these with joint community capacity building plans - and wider
plans like the Single Outcome Agreement.
Again, aligning your timescales does take time and commitment. However, it may be
useful to:
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at least gather and have a note of the various milestones and timescales for
each organisation – so that you are aware of key pressure points and
deadlines
begin to work to understand why the timescales are the way they are – and if
there is any flexibility to change them
raise awareness of the need to build in plenty time for community capacity
building activity – and the added value this brings.
Perceptions of lead role
Sometimes partners feel local authorities lead or 'own' community capacity building.
There are many other organisations undertaking capacity building activity. They may
have a different ethos and approach, but this does not make it any less valuable. To
make sure that all partners feel involved and are able to participate, it may be useful
to:
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nominate a small number of key representatives from the Council – so that they
do not dominate any meetings
invest time in understanding the activities and culture of each partner
think about agreeing a common language – what do you all mean when you
talk about community capacity building? Can you use WALT as a starting
point?
rotate where meetings are held, or who they are chaired by.
Understanding one another
Organisations involved in community capacity building may be driven by quite different
aims, agendas and timescales.
“Community capacity building is delivered by a range of agencies; work is
needed to clarify who is doing what and to what purpose.”
Learning connections: Community Capacity Building – A Review of Current Issues for CLD5
To help you to understand your partners, you may want to consider:
•
5
Why are you working together? – Is there a clear reason that joint working
will help? Do we have a clear aim and overall vision.
Learning connections: Community Capacity Building – A Review of Current Issues for CLD
http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/1046/0085356.pdf
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Are the right people involved? – Are the right strategic staff or decision
makers involved? What about front line and operational staff? And
communities?
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Do we trust one another? – To work well together, you need to have some
level of trust. This usually comes from building relationships as you work
together.
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Are communities equal partners? – Do you know how communities want to
be involved in your partnership, and have you adapted it to make sure that
people can get involved in the way and at the level they want to?
Understanding conflict and negotiation
Another challenge is how you deal with conflict. But, in itself, conflict is not always a
bad thing. It can:
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increase awareness of problems
help us to realise that there is not always a simple right or wrong
help us to think of more creative solutions
help bring people together behind a common vision.
The same is true of conflict within and between communities. Conflict can help us
realise that working to meet the needs of one group of people can have an adverse or
unintended impact on others. Community capacity building needs to recognise these
challenges.
It is how partnerships – and communities – deal with conflict that makes the difference.
There are different strategies, but effective conflict resolution is more likely through
collaboration:
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avoid – withdraw and do not discuss the conflict
accommodate – give in, and go along with the others
compete – stick to your own perspective until the others give up
compromise – agree to give a little, so long as the others do too
collaborate – try to work through a joint solution.
These descriptions of approaches to conflict resolution were suggested by Thomas
and Kilmann:
http://www.kilmanndiagnostics.com/catalog/thomas-kilmann-conflict-mode-instrument.
Some of the approaches will work far better than others.
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Example: Strategic co-ordination of capacity building
In Renfrewshire, the Community Learning and Development Strategy Group has set
up a Community Capacity Partnership Group. The group includes representatives from
Renfrewshire Council, Renfrewshire CVS, Equal Access, Renfrewshire Community
Health Partnership, Paisley Partnership Regeneration Company, and Reid Kerr
College. This group co-ordinated a 'snapshot' review identifying capacity building
provision across Renfrewshire. It then reviewed the mapping exercise, and agreed:
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to develop a Capacity Building Prospectus – setting out a directory of provision
and a service map with key facilities and resources
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to work with the Chief Executive's department and the Single Outcome
Agreement group to agree a small number of key outcomes on community
capacity building
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to develop and promote appropriate monitoring arrangements for community
capacity building that will allow outcomes to be tracked effectively within the
Single Outcome Agreement.
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Involving communities in strategic planning
Communities should be involved in strategic planning because:
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Capacity building is about working with communities to establish what they
want to be able to do, and what skills and experiences they wish to develop to
do this. Planning community capacity building activity needs to be participatory.
•
Communities will add strengths to your planning process. People bring
extensive knowledge of their local area or community and a broad range of
skills and expertise.
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The need and demand must be driven by communities themselves. This means
that communities need to be involved at every stage of the planning process.
Develop your practice
As you read the information and the examples highlighted in this section, you should
consider:
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How would you go about involving communities in the planning process?
Ways of involving communities in strategic planning
There are a number of issues about how to do this in a fair and equal way that you will
need to think about:
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Who should be involved? – Often those who are most ready and able to get
involved are those who least require capacity building support. More organised
and active communities can find it easier to tap into decision making structures
than more dispersed or vulnerable groups.
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Are there clear routes for becoming involved? – Obviously you cannot
involve absolutely everybody in the planning process. So it needs to be clear to
people how they can get involved.
•
Does everyone have the opportunity to get involved? – Could there be
barriers to involvement for certain individuals or groups? Maybe you need to
think about targeting people from specific equalities groups, to make sure
everyone has the chance to be involved.
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What can communities influence? – Your organisation will almost always
have some parameters that are inflexible – at least in the short term. The most
obvious of these would be budgets and resources. Or sometimes the law and
best practice would dictate what is possible. It is important to be honest and
open with communities about the extent of influence that they can have over
your strategic planning.
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Designing planning arrangements to suit communities
There are many different ways that you could involve communities in your planning
activity. The best way is to ensure that communities have opportunities to participate at
the same level as all other stakeholders, if they so wish. This means that if you have
set up a planning group, you should think about how to involve communities in this.
You may need to rethink your planning arrangements to make sure that they are
designed to suit the way in which communities want to be involved, and that your
communication is accessible to everyone.
It is important that communities get what they want and need from involvement in the
planning process. This is an opportunity for capacity building itself. At the start of the
process you should find out what people want to achieve from their involvement, and
make sure that they are supported towards this.
Example 1: Supporting 'equalities champions' (Aberdeen City Council)
One approach taken by Aberdeen City Council is to work towards supporting
'equalities champions'. These are members of the community who will take
responsibility for raising awareness and advocating equalities issues within their
community organisations. These champions are likely to already be engaged with the
community, for example some women involved in the regeneration committee are also
working in the women's alliance, but Aberdeen City Council will work with them to raise
their capacity to take on the role of 'champions'.
The aim is for these champions to cover the seven strands of equalities, such as race,
age and sexual orientation. Equality champions already exist among staff at Aberdeen
City Council. They will also oversee a programme of Equality and Human Rights
Impact Assessments.
Example 2: Planning capacity building with people from equalities groups
(Highland)
In Highland, the Community Planning Partnership Equality and Diversity Group wanted
to find out what issues people from equalities groups wanted to address in their
communities, and what capacity building support they wanted to achieve this.
The group had already consulted on the issues that were important to people from
equalities groups, and found that influencing and accessing services was a key issue.
As a result, the group organised a series of five events across Highland to explore if
and how people wanted to influence service provision, and what community capacity
building activity was required to achieve this.
These events used a wide range of methods to hear what people had to say, including:
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storytelling approaches using video, audio, art and words to record people's
experiences
19 | Capacity for change
•
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'visioning' or 'imagining' to get people thinking about what a fair and equal
Highland would look like, and how communities could influence this
prioritising – asking people to vote on the two priorities they thought were
vital.
The events were aimed at both getting a vision for how communities could build a fair
and equal Highland, and taking a realistic approach to prioritising the most important
activities.
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Assessing the context
Assessing what capacity building activity is needed
An important early stage in planning is to assess what community capacity building
activity is needed. To do this, you need to fully understand:
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the strengths of the communities you are working with
the opportunities and barriers experienced
the needs of communities and how capacity building could help
the demand for and interest in community capacity building activity.
Sometimes this stage of planning can focus very much on what the needs are. But
need is a fairly negative term. It usually implies that something is lacking. Sometimes
talking about needs can imply that there is something lacking in communities. It is
important to understand what people need and want, but also to understand what
strengths and skills there are already within the community.
Focusing on strengths and opportunities
A more useful approach to assessing the context involves focusing initially on the
strengths and opportunities that exist within every community, and then moving on to
the needs and demands – what needs to change.
“We aim to reduce worklessness. The partners are also trying to get better at
measuring positive change. One idea is to think in terms of 'multiple
inspiration' – the spirit, talent, skills and imagination of communities – not
'multiple deprivation'.”
Dundee Employability Partnership
Find out more about this approach, which can be known as Asset Based Community
Development: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/94257/0094034.pdf
What to explore
Group size and profile
Gathering information about the context might initially be as simple as finding out the
size and profile of a community or group:
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How many people are in this group?
What is the age profile?
What is the profile of the group – and the community – in terms of health,
employment, income, education, housing?
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Underlying issues
It may be more 'sophisticated' to look at the underlying issues facing communities or
groups of people:
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Do some groups differ from the majority population? If so, how?
Do some groups experience any particular problems or barriers?
What are the main priorities for the community?
Are there any differences between what the statistics tell you and people's
perceptions?
Are there any gaps in community capacity building activity for this group – or
barriers to use of services?
What support, opportunities or assistance do communities want? For
example, some individuals or groups may value support with accessing
written or numerical information.
Links with wider priorities
You may also want to think about how community capacity building activity can link to
wider priorities and activities in your area:
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What similar, overlapping or complementary activities are taking place?
What outcomes and priorities could community capacity building activity
contribute to?
It is vital that at this stage you think about equality, and making sure that support does
not simply go to those who shout the loudest. Sometimes more disadvantaged and
excluded communities will need more support to ensure they have the same
opportunities as others.
Useful techniques
To help to assess the strengths, opportunities, needs and demands of communities, a
number of different techniques may be useful:
A community strengths assessment
Steve Skinner and Mandy Wilson have produced guidance on assessing community
strengths in planning community capacity building. The approach focuses on what
communities have to offer and contribute, rather than just on problems. It values
groups’ skills and talents and specifically asks about achievements.
www.jrf.org.uk/publications/new-approach-assessing-community-strengths
Community profiling
Community profiling means gathering as much information as you can about a
particular community, whether geographical or thematic. It uses a range of techniques
to gather both quantitative and qualitative information about communities and presents
this in a useful way.
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You can learn more about community profiling in the book ‘Community Profiling: A
Practical Guide: Auditing social needs’ 6.
PEST
PEST evaluates the political, economic, social and technological factors shaping the
external environment.
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Political – issues such as political stability, party-based policy positions,
regulations
Economic – issues such as rates of growth, deprivation, public sector funding
trends
Social – issues such as demographics, cultural trends, social attitudes, health
Technological – issues such as rates of technological change, research
developments, IT
Find out how to do a PEST analysis http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools/pestle-swot/.
SWOT
SWOT is used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
involved in an initiative or an organisation.
•
Strengths – internal qualities of the organisation that can help to achieve the
objective
Weaknesses – internal qualities of the organisation that make achieving the
objective more difficult
Opportunities – external conditions that can help to achieve the objective
Threats – external conditions that make achieving the objective more difficult
•
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Find out more about how to do a SWOT analysis
ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-andresources/swot-analysis/main
Develop your practice
•
6
Compare the different techniques suggested in this section for assessing
community strengths. Which approach do you think would work best in your
situation and why?
Community Profiling: A Practical Guide: Auditing social needs (Murray Hawtin and Janie
Percy-Smith, 2007)
23 | Capacity for change
Agreeing visions and outcomes
Developing a vision
When planning your capacity building activity, it is often useful to develop a shared
vision – setting out what you are planning towards. A vision helps you to articulate
what you hope to achieve in the long term and becomes the starting point for thinking
about the changes you want to bring about.
It should:
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be aspirational (rather than practical)
focus on the impact on the outside world – not what is happening within the
team or organisations
not be time bound
be understood and shared by the people responsible for delivering it
be set out in a clear written statement
involve communities.
Once you have agreed your vision, you then need to set outcomes – which are the
changes you intent to bring about for and with people. Your outcomes should set out
what, collectively, you want to achieve through community capacity building.
Everything you are working towards – all of your outcomes – should:
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be achievable, but challenging
describe the end state (rather than what you will do to get there)
focus on specific priorities (like a target group)
be developed involving communities.
Setting indicators and targets
Anything that you are working towards needs to be measurable. This means that it is
important to set:
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indicators – ways of measuring the difference you are making
targets – which define the speed at which you want to make change happen.
Both targets and indicators need to be linked to your outcomes, and not individual
activities. So, for example, a target probably should not be about participation rates,
but about the outcome of participation (that is, what changed for the people involved).
You might also think about setting different targets for the speed at which change will
happen with different communities.
Example outcomes and indicators:
•
•
Outcomes: Our community has influence over service design and delivery.
Indicators: Percentage of people who believe that they influence service
design and delivery.
24 | Capacity for change
Example targets:
•
•
Twenty per cent of the community feel that they influence service design and
delivery by 2010.
At least 25% of young people feel that they influence service design and
delivery by 2010.
Example: Agreeing outcomes in East Renfrewshire
In East Renfrewshire, a programme of work is underway to support people working in
the Community Planning Partnership develop the skills and knowledge needed to
effectively plan in an outcome-focused way. As part of this, a group of community
capacity building staff worked to ensure that their priorities and activities linked to the
Single Outcome Agreement. They worked through a series of facilitated workshops, to
jointly agree:
•
•
•
•
•
•
definitions of outcomes and community capacity building
a vision for community capacity building
how the vision should be communicated and link to the Single Outcome
Agreement
medium- and long-term desired outcomes
how current activity contributes to these outcomes
an action plan to work towards these outcomes.
Develop your practice
What vision do you have for change in your community?
•
Develop some statements about the outcomes and the indicators that these
outcomes have been achieved.
25 | Capacity for change
Detailed action planning
Once you have set out the outcomes you would like to achieve, you should then think
about what needs to happen to help you achieve them. This will form the basis for your
detailed action planning.
Action planning techniques
Some examples of techniques that you could use to think about this are:
•
MindTools provides information on a range of useful decision making
techniques
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_TED.htm
•
The Community Toolbox provides information on using a problem solving
approach to planning community capacity building activity
http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/analyze/analyze-communityproblems-and-solutions
•
Tools for strategic planning: What works best provides an overview of
techniques that can be used
http://nsagm.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/0/3/12030125/toolsforstrategicplanning
report.pdf
Prioritising activities and linking with others
It is important to remember that you cannot do everything all at once. You will need to
prioritise activities, thinking about:
•
the strengths, needs and demands you identified earlier in the process
•
the responsibility for taking these forward – making sure that this is
balanced
•
the likely timescales – making sure that you get a good balance between
quick activities and longer term ongoing ones
•
the needs of equalities groups – would some disadvantaged groups gain
more from community capacity building than others?
An important part of strategic planning is ensuring that your action plans link with
others in a complementary, not competing, way. In your area, you may have a range of
plans relating to community capacity building, including:
•
a dedicated community capacity building action plan or strategy
26 | Capacity for change
•
a plan which includes capacity building as some element – such as plans for
health improvement, education, tenant participation or regeneration
•
a local authority Community Learning and Development Strategy
•
a community planning Single Outcome Agreement
•
local community plans, community engagement and community involvement
strategies
•
individualised plans for work with communities or community groups.
Equality impact assessment
You may find it useful to undertake a very simple Equality Impact Assessment on your
planning process. This is a way of helping you to think through the impact of certain
actions or activities on people from different communities. You can carry out an
Equality Impact Assessment at any stage of planning or delivering a service. You
should always complete one for new services or provision, and it is good practice to
carry them out on existing services as well.
Develop your practice
Review the three suggested action planning techniques:
•
Which approach do you find most helpful and why?
27 | Capacity for change
Implementing change
Once you have agreed the vision and planned the activities required to take it forward,
you are ready for implementation.
Regardless of how you plan your community capacity building activity, it should always
result in communities having more influence over their lives. This can mean that your
organisation or partnership needs to review how it has operated so far, and think about
how it is placed to respond to increased power and influence from communities.
Sometimes, people can feel very threatened by the idea of communities having more
power. This can be a particular issue for those who have been elected as community
representatives – whether as an elected member, or representative within an existing
community structure. But it can also be an issue for staff in public agencies who are
not always committed to or aware of the benefits of community capacity building
activity.
“Organisations can find it difficult to balance empowerment and control.”
Event attendee, guidance testing
Promoting the importance of community capacity building within your own organisation
or partnership is therefore a major task for those who are dedicated and committed to
increasing community power and influence.
How others have dealt with change
In one area in Scotland, a lot of work has gone into building the capacity of young
people to influence what happens in their communities.
The young people are now at the stage that they want to start getting involved in a
wider range of activities, influencing how public services are delivered. But there has
been some resistance from senior staff within the organisation, some of whom feel that
young people should not be involved in these decisions.
This has created tensions and difficulties for the youth participation workers. In some
cases young people have become disillusioned as they have attended meetings but
others have not taken them seriously or listened to their opinions.
But, staff have continued to reinforce the importance of involving young people, and
worked to ensure that all staff understand this. This is a long-term effort, and will
require ongoing activity to change perceptions and organisational culture.
Develop your practice
•
How can you promote the importance of community capacity building within
your own organisation or partnership?
28 | Capacity for change
Operational planning
Operational planning of community capacity building should take place with
communities – and be driven by them.
Planning your support activities
Operational planning of community capacity building should take place with
communities – and be driven by them.
As a staff member, you will have a number of roles to play in planning, including:
•
planning how to make contact with communities, and work with communities
to assess strengths and needs
•
planning how communities can best be supported to meet their objectives –
whether through support from you and your team, or from other organisations
•
supporting communities to plan their own activities – helping communities to
use the skills, resources and expertise that they have
•
planning how to work jointly with other staff and organisations to make the
most of the resources available to support communities.
These roles are often interlinked.
Why is operational planning important?
The process of working with communities to plan their own activities will highlight
areas where support is required. This will ensure that activities are tailored to the
needs of communities. This process is in itself an important part of building community
capacity.
Sometimes, communities will come to you and will be very clear about what they need
and want. But often you will need to initiate the process – getting in touch with
communities, and working to assess strengths, needs and demand for capacity
building activity.
This is particularly important to ensure that different communities have the opportunity
to participate in community capacity building. Often the communities that need support
the most can have the most difficulty engaging with existing structures and expressing
what capacity building activity is required.
29 | Capacity for change
Best practice
When thinking about planning community capacity building activity, the National
Standards for Community Engagement are a useful tool. These set out best practice
and standards expected when planning community engagement activity.
The main requirements are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
all stakeholders should be involved from the start
there is a clear purpose for community engagement
participants should be able to agree timescales and roles and responsibilities
resources for community engagement are clearly identified
intended results are agreed and recorded
constraints, challenges and opportunities are assessed
plans are reviewed and adjusted following evaluation.
These are very relevant for community capacity building activity, and again
demonstrate the cyclical nature of planning.
Example: Midlothian Youth Platform
In Midlothian, young people had set up a series of area forums. In 2008 they decided
that it would be good to have a voice for young people across Midlothian. A local
authority wide forum had previously been in place, but was inactive at the time.
Representatives from each of the area forums came together to talk about how they
could build a voice for young people, and what needed to change.
Example: Planning contact with communities in Highland
In Highland, the Community Planning Partnership's Equality and Diversity Group
recognised the need to explore whether people from equalities groups wished to build
their capacity to influence what happened in their communities.
The group held a planning event to get advice on how best to make contact with
communities. Over 25 people attended this event, from community, voluntary and
equalities groups, as well as community planning partners. At this half-day session, the
group discussed all of the barriers and challenges to making contact with people from
equalities groups, and explored how these could best be addressed. Ideas for how to
engage with communities to explore capacity building requirements were debated.
These ideas then informed a series of five participatory events with people from
equalities groups across Highland.
30 | Capacity for change
Building trust
Your work with communities will need to happen at a pace that suits the communities
you are working with. It is important to invest time in working with communities to
ensure that they are able to work together to agree:
•
•
•
•
what needs to change
what role they would like to play
what strengths and experiences they bring
what capacity building support is required.
Once communities understand their collective strengths and experiences, they can
then think about what capacity building support is needed.
It is important that communities fully understand your role, and how you can support
them to achieve their aims. This could be through providing support yourself, or
through supporting communities to access the support available from other
organisations locally.
Sometimes, communities will not want to participate in community capacity building
activity. This could be because the community already has the strengths and skills it
needs to have the level of influence it wishes. Or it could be because influencing what
happens in the community is not a priority – maybe people are happy with the way
things are at the moment, or feel it is someone else's responsibility to change them.
If you receive a clear message that people do not want community capacity building
activity this should be respected. But, make sure that you don't give up too early.
Make sure that everyone knows about the opportunities available to them, and that
you take time to work to see if you can build up relationships and contacts first of all.
Often just having social contact within and between communities can be a useful
starting point – or getting people involved in other activity first, before thinking about
capacity building.
31 | Capacity for change
Case study: Community Toolkit - Skye and Lochalsh
The Community Toolkit was originally developed by Skye and Lochalsh Council in
response to identified gaps in the provision of information for local community groups
in the Skye and Lochalsh area.
The Community Toolkit 7 is an online resource developed for and with community
groups, providing a wealth of information. The resource aims to improve skills and
knowledge and bring benefits to local communities. It includes guidance on topics
including setting up and running a community group, legal requirements and good
practice, planning and fundraising.
The Community Toolkit was first realised through a partnership involving
representatives from the voluntary, public and private sectors and attracted European
funding. In the first year of the funding award, a range of community groups across
Skye and Lochalsh were consulted through focus groups with the resulting feedback
used to construct the Toolkit website.
The online Community Toolkit went live in 2004. The success of the resource was
immediate, and, later that year, Skye and Lochalsh CVO were invited to showcase the
resource as an example of good practice at the annual Council for Voluntary Service
(CVS) Conference.
This kindled interest from across the CVS network in Scotland and, in response to that
interest, Skye and Lochalsh CVO made the resource available for other CVS to
integrate into their own websites. This generates income to help with the sustainability
of the resource.
In 2007, the Community Toolkit won a COSLA Excellence Award.
Continuous feedback from individuals and organizations is essential to the ongoing
development of the resource.
Achievements
Since its launch in 2004, the resource has grown from a local to a national resource. It
is now not only being used by local groups in Skye and Lochalsh, but also by voluntary
organisations across Scotland and beyond. Syndicating the content of the resource
enables other CVS to integrate the resource into their own website, giving it their own
local context.
The monthly Community Toolkit e-bulletins sent by Skye and Lochalsh CVO maintain
visitor usage of the site and alert to new content and developments.
A key success factor has been the commitment of Skye and Lochalsh CVO to keeping
the resource up to date and well maintained. Involving local groups in the content and
topic choices has also contributed to the resource success.
7
Skye and Lochalsh Community Toolkit
http://www.slcvo.org.uk/Community-Toolkit/ctoolkit?PageName=toolkit-home.htm
32 | Capacity for change
Lessons learned and advice
From the success of the Community Toolkit, it is clear that local consultation and
integration in the development process was, and still is, essential. The challenge for
Skye and Lochalsh CVO is the commitment to resource maintenance and the
innovative approach that they have taken toward this end. Feedback from resource
users is essential to keeping it relevant and fit for purpose.
There are local versions of this resource in:
•
•
•
Argyll - http://argyllcommunities.org/community-toolkit/
Orkney - http://vaorkney.org.uk/index.php/help-for-groups/community-toolkit
Skye and Lochalsh - http://www.slcvo.org.uk/CommunityToolkit/ctoolkit?PageName=toolkit-home.htm
Develop your practice
•
How might you go about building trust with a community and helping them
understand your role as a capacity builder?
33 | Capacity for change
Agreeing outcomes
It is important to be clear about what outcomes you are working towards in work
directly with communities. This means being clear about the overall difference that
communities want to make.
Individuals will often have very clear expectations about what they want to achieve. It
is important to think about what the outcomes will be both for individuals and
communities. But, it is important not to be too rigid. Often, community capacity building
activity needs to be very flexible and responsive on an ongoing basis, as community
needs and priorities fluctuate and develop. It can be useful to have a broad idea of the
purpose of community capacity building activity, but with enough flexibility to provide
support and assistance around a much wider range of issues.
Prioritising activities
When thinking about the difference you want to make, it is important to be realistic.
This generally means working with communities to prioritise activities – everything
cannot happen at once.
To do this you need to know what is available to you to take your plans forward – the
resources. Resources could include people (staff and the community). Ideas, energy
and motivation are also resources, as are the budget and equipment you have.
When prioritising activities you may find that you need to bear in mind both the
priorities of the communities you are working with, and those of your team,
organisation or partnership. Sometimes there can be some tension between strategic
community capacity building plans – which need to link with national outcomes – and
local priorities.
A quick and simple way of identifying priorities for change is to write up all of your
ideas and stick them onto walls around the room. Then give each participant the same
number of sticky dots, and get them to use the dots to vote for the ideas they think are
best. This is a quick way of gauging priorities, and encourages everyone to get
involved. It is then important to discuss and develop this further and in more detail using this as a starter for discussion.
Recording your plans
An important stage of planning is writing down and recording what you have agreed.
Your written plans should set out:
•
•
•
•
•
what will happen
who will do it
when it will happen
how it will be taken forward
why it is happening – what it will achieve.
34 | Capacity for change
These plans should be developed working with communities and should be accessible
to all members. You may wish to have agreements with individual communities or
groups about planned activities. It is important that both communities and staff are
clear about plans for the future, and know their roles and responsibilities.
35 | Capacity for change
Supporting communities to plan
An important element of community capacity building is supporting communities to
plan their own activities. This might range from helping communities to plan how they
will get involved in a specific decision making process, through to providing business
or action planning support to established, experienced and very well managed
community or voluntary organisations.
Although planning needs to happen at a pace and order which suits communities, it is
normally useful to take a structured approach to planning.
Useful resources to support the planning process
Useful resources to support the planning process for community groups and
organisations include:
•
Supporting Communities Northern Ireland: Information Factsheets - Useful
factsheets which you can order by email or as hard copies.
http://www.supportingcommunitiesni.org/Info_Factsheets.aspx
•
National Council for Voluntary Organisations - NCVO has lots of resources to
support community and voluntary organisations to develop their activities.
https://www.ncvo.org.uk/
Case study: Involving local people in designing wider community engagement
activity
The Calton Area Association Committee is a new group of committed local residents
formed in November 2008. Some members had no previous committee experience at
all, while others had joined from another group which had just disbanded. The group
wanted to tackle a variety of issues facing their community. To help prioritise activities,
the group chose to plan a community consultation event to find out what changes local
people wanted to see in their area.
They also wanted to use the event as a way of raising their profile, telling people about
their committee, and getting more people involved in the work they do.
Planning a large scale event was a new activity, and nothing like it had been done in
over 15 years in the Calton area. The timescales for the event were very tight and the
group decided that they would meet weekly over eight weeks. After the event a
community action plan would be drawn up and presented to both the community and
the relevant agencies.
To plan their engagement activity at the event, they were supported by workers from
Thenew Housing Association and Glasgow East Regeneration Agency to look at four
issues:
36 | Capacity for change
•
What they really liked about events they had been to before – the groups
discussed what had worked well at consultation events they had previously
attended, and what they could learn from these. They also discussed how
events like this can be misused, perhaps to justify decisions that are already
being taken by local agencies.
•
Imagining what people would say the day after a fantastic community
consultation event – working in small groups committee members discussed
the kinds of things they would like people to say the day after their event. Staff
supporting them used a discussion guide to push them on different issues, and
ensure they thought about different aspects of the event.
•
Identifying ‘tell them’ and ‘ask them’ messages – these were key questions
they wanted to ask local people, and messages they wanted to get across.
•
Choosing appropriate methods – workers explained different methods that
could be used, and discussed the National Standards for Community
Engagement. The group discussed different methods and how useful they
might be. They considered barriers to participation for particular groups. The
committee chose to run a Planning for Real ® workshop at the event, because
it was participative, looked at local issues and would help them identify
priorities. Because of literacy issues, they wanted to use a video questionnaire
instead of a paper questionnaire.
The staff (from Thenew Housing Association and Glasgow East Regeneration Agency)
who support the committee felt it was important it used its weekly meeting times more
effectively, and assessed / built on their existing skills. To make sure they worked
together as effectively as possible, the committee spent their first meeting agreeing
ground rules for managing their meetings.
The community capacity building workers at Thenew Housing Association carried out a
basic training needs analysis with the committee, to look at the skills they needed to
develop as individuals. It looked at the existing skills and strengths they already had
and could build on.
Working in small groups, people wrote down what they brought to the committee and
their area: this included skills, knowledge, values and experiences. There were lots of
things that were common amongst the committee members – like their commitment to
improving the area. Committee members learned about important skills they just didn't
know about the other members!
The event was hugely successful, and local people and key agencies were really
impressed – and sometimes surprised – with what had been achieved in such a short
time period.
37 | Capacity for change
During a review meeting after the big event, the committee members talked about how
the process had helped them work together more effectively.
They talked about having a better attitude, and appreciating the skills that different
people brought. They thought practical steps – like have ground rules, and keeping to
time between meetings, clear delegation and sharing the workloads – had been
helpful. They also like the participative approach, and the open attitude of the workers.
As well as identifying local priorities, the planning process has been a learning
experience for the committee members and workers. The committee members feel
they are now able to do things they would not have attempted before. For example,
one committee member highlighted she was now better able to ask local people for
their views, get the resources they might need to organise a similar event and be more
confident about speaking to people in local agencies.
Quotes from the project
Never underestimate a community's reserves!
Thenew Housing Association staff
Before people [on the committee] didn't gel well together. But now I have admiration
for others on the group and for the way people have worked together.
Committee member
To start with, I thought the workers might want us to work to their agenda. But I
realised they weren't against us but wanted to help us.
Committee member
I have learned so much!
Committee member
38 | Capacity for change
Joint planning at an operational level
The importance of working together
Community capacity building is about supporting communities to increase the
opportunities that they have to influence and take control over their own future.
Because of this, it involves tackling lots of very complex and wide ranging issues.
For example, if a community is keen to improve the facilities in the local area, it needs
to consider lots of different issues – like transport, health, employment, education and
community safety. None of these issues can be addressed by one organisation
working alone – they are all interlinked.
This means that even within the same local authority there may be staff working on
community learning, capacity building, adult literacy, youth work, tenant participation,
and community consultation and engagement. There will also be staff working in local
voluntary organisations and national organisations. Although many of these staff may
sit within a community learning and development team, others may not.
Taking time to co-ordinate work with communities within your team, your organisation
and with your partners can have very positive results.
It is important to work jointly with other organisations on an ongoing basis as you are
undertaking your community capacity building activity. By working together at an
operational level, you can make sure that you link with communities in a consistent
and co-ordinated way, and build community capacity in a complementary way.
Different ways of working together
Working jointly does not always mean setting up a partnership. There are lots of
flexible and informal ways of working together, including:
•
Simply sharing information about what staff in each organisation are doing
can be a straightforward but extremely valuable step.
•
Communicating jointly to communities – working together to make sure that
communities get all of the information they need.
•
Networking - to share experience, knowledge and skills with other staff
involved in community capacity building in your area.
•
Providing co-ordinated support to communities – building on the strengths of
the staff in each organisation.
•
Building strong signposting systems – so that communities know where to
go for different types of help and support – can also be useful.
39 | Capacity for change
•
Running joint community strengths assessments or problem solving
sessions to help you to co-ordinate your work and jointly understand
community needs.
Develop your practice
Review the Scottish Government joined up working how to guide 8
•
8
How might this help you work well with others?
Joined Up Working How to Guide
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/BuiltEnvironment/regeneration/pir/resources/tools/JoinedUpWorkingHome
40 | Capacity for change
Capacity for change
Section 2 – Building and sustaining
Once you have planned your community capacity activity, you can
then begin work to take it forward – jointly with communities.
Making links with communities
Often the first stage in work to build community capacity involves building and
strengthening links with communities.
You need to identify the people that would like to participate in community capacity
building activity. This should happen at the very early stages of planning your activity.
But the planning stage will often identify the need to work with a much wider group of
people than those involved in planning the activities.
Making initial contact
When making initial contact with communities, there are a few things you should think
about:
•
Working jointly – find out who else is working with communities, both within your
own organisation, and in partner organisations. This means that you can build on this
work, and make sure that you are not duplicating effort. Linking with existing
networks can help people to feel more confident getting involved in something new,
because it is linked to an organisation they know and trust.
•
Asking advice – if you have contact with a small number of people within the
community, ask them what they think about the best way of involving others.
You will probably get lots of good new ideas.
•
Taking time – it can be time and resource intensive to make links with
communities, particularly if these are communities that you have not worked
with much in the past. It is worth taking time to invest in supporting the
development of groups, organisations and networks at the outset, as this will
help the community to be in a much stronger position in the future.
Some top tips
•
Do not expect people to be representative – remember everyone is an
individual. Although people are from a certain area or community, this does not
mean that everyone has the same views, attitudes, life experiences and
priorities. It is good to make sure that people with different experiences are able
to get involved. But do not expect people to represent their community just
because of where they are from or because of a personal characteristic.
•
Remember to get beyond 'representatives or activists' – some people see
themselves as representatives or community activists. This is often very
valuable, as they are more active and often keener to get involved. But it is
important to make sure that others also have the opportunity to get involved.
•
Do not expect people to come to you – make is as easy as possible for
people to get involved. If there are groups or places that people already meet,
42 | Capacity for change
go to them rather than expecting people to come to you. Investing time in
visiting places like sports centres, parents groups, religious centres and so on
can be a really valuable way of making contact with people that you may not
normally engage with.
•
Make the potential benefits clear to communities – explain that the need for
this activity was identified by communities themselves. Be clear about the
purpose of what you are doing, the scope for communities to influence it, and
what is expected from people who get involved. If there are responsibilities –
for example, by becoming a board member or volunteer – be clear about these
too.
Develop your practice
FRAE Fife dedicated time to working closely with minority ethnic communities to
increase the number and capacity of community groups. In the longer term, this helped
to bring together communities and service providers.
Look at some of the examples of projects from the Frae Fife website 9:
•
9
How has this organisation put into practice some of the tips for initial contact
outlined above?
Frae Fife http://www.fraefife.com/
43 | Capacity for change
Removing barriers
People can face barriers to being involved in community capacity building activity. Part of
addressing these barriers involves thinking about practical barriers – like childcare,
transport, translation and physical access.
It is also important to think about the timing of activities, including considering cultural
holidays and festivals, working patterns and family responsibilities.
There are a number of ways that you can work to address these barriers.
Communication
An important part of building links with communities is ensuring that everyone is able to
communicate effectively. Following simple good practice will make it easier for everyone to
take part:
•
Don't use jargon or abbreviations
•
Commit to writing and speaking in plain English
•
Be clear about what terms like 'capacity building' mean.
You should also think about the communication needs of particular groups, including:
•
•
•
•
people who are not confident about reading, writing and numbers
people for whom English is a second language
people with hearing or visual impairments
people with wider communication support needs.
To remove barriers, you should consider communication accessibility at the beginning
of the process.
You also need to think about the atmosphere when people come together, including:
•
•
creating an open and honest environment
ensuring that people feel they can ask questions and debate issues.
One way of doing this could be through establishing some ground rules for how
communities interact with one another.
“We developed ground rules for how the group would manage meetings. This was a
good chance for everyone to stand back and agree how they would treat each other
and work together effectively. Members were asked to work in small groups, and jot
down things they felt should be included. All the ideas were discussed, and a short list
of ‘ground rules’ was developed. Importantly, we also discussed and agreed how to
police the ground rules, and deal with issues when people didn't follow them.”
Calton Area Association
44 | Capacity for change
Develop your practice
•
Try developing your own set of 'ground rules' for effective communication when
meeting with community groups and look at how you would police these rules.
Making it interesting
People will be much more likely to get involved if the issue is interesting, important and
relevant to them, and opportunities for getting involved are easily accessible and fun.
Example: Ayrshire Initiatives
In 2007, Lochside, an area in Ayrshire, was undergoing redevelopment. Houses were being
demolished and local people felt that this had 'killed off the community' leaving very few
community structures.
Ayrshire Initiatives wanted to get people involved in the process of what would happen
to their area during regeneration but wanted to make it fun, and attract those who
would not be comfortable sitting in public meetings, or being involved in a more formal
way.
Ayrshire Initiatives started by targeting young people in the community. They worked
with an organisation called Fable Vision who conducted street work with young people
living in Lochside. They worked with 25 young people to produce a film about their
experiences of living in Lochside. The young people interviewed the adults and
recorded their thoughts. This film was then premiered in a marquee in the area with a
large turnout of local people and media interest.
The film allowed a core group of young people to become very involved and Ayrshire
Initiatives have gone on to fund a multimedia youth group who are using film and
computers to produce a website and blog about the area and their experiences of
living in it.
Ayrshire Initiatives also lent digital cameras out to local residents to get them involved
in recording the regeneration of the area. They have held two exhibitions of the photos
and are in the process of producing a booklet with images of the area, taken by local
residents.
Example: Highland equality and diversity events
In Highland, a series of five events was held to find out how people from equalities groups
wanted to influence what happened in their communities, and what support they would like
to achieve to this influence.
To attract people, the events were branded 'Imagining a Fair and Equal Highland'. A
drop-in session was held at the beginning, giving people the opportunity to pop in for a
short time. Tea and coffee were available, as well as home baking, to give an informal
feel. A series of storytelling opportunities was also available, allowing people to tell
their own stories using video, audio, written word and art. Stalls also gave various
opportunities for people to express what a fair and equal Highland would look like to
them, and what needed to happen to get there.
Later, a more structured hour long session was held to gather more detailed views.
People worked in groups to:
45 | Capacity for change
•
•
•
imagine what a fair and equal Highland would look like
identify where they were now
build bridges between now and the future – setting out what needs to happen.
Geography
It can often be easier to build links with communities in urban areas, where communities
are more concentrated. Building links with communities across large rural areas can be
challenging. It can also be more difficult to:
•
•
•
build a sense of community where people are very dispersed
encourage people to come together
identify common issues across more dispersed communities.
But it is possible. And there can be challenges in urban areas too – like territoriality
and community identity.
If you are having difficulty building links with communities in rural areas, you might
want to think about:
•
How have we defined the 'community'? – Is there a sense of community
amongst this group? Maybe you need to start smaller – at village or hamlet
level – and then work to build links between these places.
•
Do we need to build structures first? – Community capacity building is a
long-term activity. Often you will need to invest time in meeting with people
socially, dropping in to places where people might come together – like
employers, religious centres or local clubs.
•
Do we need to invest in support? – Transport can be the biggest barrier in
rural areas. Putting on transport, or covering expenses like childcare or respite
care, can really help to get people together.
•
Are there local networks? - Even in very remote rural areas there are ways in
which communities link with one another. There may be existing information
networks that you could tap into – including community newspapers, websites,
notice boards, radio stations or social events.
Case study: Building links between communities - South Lanarkshire Rural
Partnership
The South Lanarkshire Rural Partnership worked with local communities to set up a project
aimed at building community capacity through enhancing links between three rural villages.
This is an area with significant pockets of poverty and disadvantage.
The Gettin' Mair Fae Fair Share project was designed to build the capacity and leadership
skills of new and small groups across the rural area who had little experience or confidence
in applying for funding. The project was run on behalf of a consortium of local organisations
by ALVO, the CVS for the area.
46 | Capacity for change
This project employed two development officers for just over three years to build the
capacity of groups to plan, deliver and monitor projects and to access external funding
streams.
The project provided 'seedcorn' grants of up to £250 for organisations to cover their initial
costs in developing ideas for projects. The project set what had seemed a very ambitious
target of bringing £1 million of new funding to the area - in fact, the area substantially
exceeded this target.
•
•
•
A total of £1,484,574 was raised by 41 different funders
62 groups were helped with support and advice on a total of 148 separate projects
214 applications were made, of which 155 were successful, demonstrating a
success rate of 72%.
Applying for funding was a capacity building exercise for the groups and individuals
involved, and success in applying for funding built confidence and aspiration.
Once the initial capacity building phase of the project had been completed a leadership and
skills development programme was delivered in conjunction with the Social Enterprise
Academy - called Leading for Local Regeneration. This nine month programme recruited
‘community leaders’. These were ordinary people who had done nothing like this before but
who had been through the initial capacity building and raised funds for their project.
The programme brought people from projects across the area together for inter-village
work and skills development, leading to an Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM)
award.
Joint projects were developed for the first time, overcoming the traditional views and
competition in the area.
The skills and relationships built through the project are seen as both a legacy of Fair
Share and a major contribution to the longer term sustainability of the voluntary and
community sector in the area.
Develop your practice
The above questions refer to rural areas.
•
Consider how far the questions on this page might help you with the challenges
of building community capacity links in urban areas.
Individuals’ skills
Community capacity building focuses on building the collective skills of the community.
But sometimes supporting individuals to strengthen and develop their own skills can be an
important first step. For example, by building the confidence and leadership skills of
individuals, these individuals can then play an important role in bringing communities
together.
47 | Capacity for change
Sometimes people will be very clear about their strengths, and the areas they want to
develop further. Other times it can be useful to work with individuals to assess their
skills against wider frameworks.
The Scottish Government’s Learning in Regeneration Skills Pack 10 is a useful starting
point. It allows individuals to look at the skills that are most often needed in
regeneration, and assess strengths and learning needs against these.
Many public and voluntary organisations will run learning and development courses
that can help to develop individual skills. This can include dealing with language and
numbers; developing IT skills; confidence and leadership; and much more. Most local
authority websites will have a list of the available learning opportunities in their area.
Develop your practice
•
10
Work through ‘Find out what you need to learn’ 11 (section 2 of the Learning in
Regeneration skills pack) to identify the skills you need to develop in your role in
community capacity building.
Learning in Regeneration Skills Pack
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/pir/SkillsPack
11
Regeneration Skills Pack: - Finding Out What You Need to Learn
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/pir/SkillsPack/WhatYouNeedToLearnpdf
48 | Capacity for change
Maintaining and strengthening links
Building links with communities is an ongoing activity. Firstly, you always need to make
sure that more people are aware of the opportunity to get involved. For example, as new
people move to the area, or reach the stage that they want to get involved. Secondly, you
need to make sure that a good mix of people are able to get involved. You might find that
you have excellent links with young people, but not such good links with 25 to 45 year olds,
for example.
Example: Strengthening links with young people
Midlothian Youth Platform grew quickly over a year to include approximately 20 young
people. To strengthen the group and make it more diverse, the Youth Platform introduced a
buddying system. Each member of the Youth Platform was matched with a buddy who was
interested in getting involved.
An away day was held to build links, and integrate new members. This was challenging! The
members of the Youth Platform had become comfortable with one another, and found it
slightly difficult to get used to new members. But in the longer term this approach worked,
and the Youth Platform now has almost 40 members.
Example: Strengthening influence over housing decisions in Dumfries
In Dumfries and Galloway, there is an active network of Registered Tenants Organisations.
These organisations are involved in the decisions that Dumfries and Galloway Housing
Association makes. An evaluation of tenant participation activity in 2008 12 found that all
were involved in a constant cycle of attracting new members. Even though some had over
40 members, it required ongoing effort to retain this. Some had tried introducing social
events, like cheese and wine evenings or family fun days. These were effective, but needed
to be continued to keep membership levels high.
12 Scottish social landlords’ progress on tenant participation (Report)
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Research/by-topic/Planning/report98
49 | Capacity for change
Building community skills and confidence
Supporting the development of active and confident communities is central to community
capacity building.
Building on and enhancing existing community skills can be a significant step in supporting
communities to influence what happens in their communities, and can have wider personal
and community outcomes too
Identifying development needs
Communities should determine and prioritise their own development needs. There are
some helpful frameworks that help to guide this discussion, and provide learning resources
to develop skills.
•
•
The Learning in Regeneration Framework 13 includes 22 skills that people working in
regeneration should have, but it could easily be adapted to suit communities.
The checklists within Stirling Council’s Skills Toolkit 14 can be very helpful in
assessing community strengths and skills development needs.
“The range of 'strategic', 'practical' and 'process' skills covered [in Learning in
Regeneration] are broadly those required for community capacity building.”
Building Community Capacity Resources for CLD Practice 15
Top tips
13
•
Communities all have skills and strengths, and it is important not to forget about
these when thinking about skills development.
•
Some people can find the idea of assessing their skills threatening. Make sure you
explore skills in a supportive and participatory atmosphere.
•
Community capacity building plays an essential role in supporting communities to
become more equal through supporting disadvantaged communities to develop
opportunities and skills.
•
As community capacity building is led by communities, it is important that
communities are skilled in thinking about equality and diversity. It is therefore vital to
think about equality in skills development.
Learning in Regeneration skills Park
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/pir/SkillsPack
14
Aspire Project – skills in the workplace
http://my.stirling.gov.uk/services/community-life-and-leisure/adult-education-and-communitylearning/i-want-to-learn/aspire-learning-for-work
15
Building Community Capacity: Resources for CLD Practice
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2007/12/10132433/0
50 | Capacity for change
Develop your practice
•
Try using the Stirling Council Skills Toolkit to identify development needs for a
community organisation in your area.
Setting goals
Having worked with communities to identify the skills that are required, it is then important
to set goals for learning and skills development. You should work with communities to set
their own goals.
These goals should be SMART:
•
•
•
•
•
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-bound
It is also important that goals are prioritised. One simple and easy way of doing this could be
through using a 'traffic light' system:
•
•
•
Green – very important, an immediate priority
Amber – a medium term priority
Red – a longer term priority
Ways of developing skills and confidence
The process of developing confidence and skills is ongoing, and there are many different
ways that this can be done.
There is no one best way of developing confidence and skills. People all learn and develop
in different ways. Often a mix of opportunities helps to develop skills in the most rounded
way.
Training
Dedicated training sessions can be a very useful way of supporting communities to develop
their skills. There are lots of different ways that you can do this.
One way to support skills development is through formal training courses and events, for
example, training and events run by:
•
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO)
http://www.scvo.org.uk/events/
•
Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC)
http://www.scdc.org.uk/
51 | Capacity for change
•
Community Health Exchange (CHEX)
http://www.chex.org.uk/what-we-do/training-development-support/
You could invite experts – whether local organisations, individuals or training organisations –
to run sessions with communities on particular issues.
Community members all have very different skills. Make the most of this through training. If
someone has experience of a particular issue, encourage and support them to talk about it
with others. This can happen both formally and informally. Often peer input to a tailored
training course can make the training more immediately relevant.
Training can get across basic information to lots of people at the same time. Because people
learn in different ways, training works best if it involves different learning opportunities – not
just presentations, but also workshop discussions, activities and real-life examples.
Even if training is varied, some people will not like to learn in this way. One problem is that
sometimes it can remind people of being at school, which can have a negative impact if
people had bad experiences there.
There can also be barriers to individuals accessing training. You should think about what
these barriers might be. Barriers could include physical access, communication support
needs, timing, childcare, transport and much more. It is important to offer different
opportunities for skills development.
Volunteering
An important way of developing community confidence is through seeing the difference that
community capacity building can have. One option is through encouraging and supporting
skills development through volunteering.
Volunteering can be an effective way of learning where there is a clear purpose for
volunteering, good management arrangements, and it is driven by something that
communities themselves want to achieve.
But, it is important to remember that volunteering often means contributing a significant
amount of time, unpaid. This contribution should be recognised, but it means that
volunteering will not be the best way of learning for everyone.
Example: Volunteering in Aberdeen
Aberdeen City Council was aware of concerns among local people that there needed to be
more for young people and children in the community. Volunteers have since taken on the
role of leading different types of activities.
The volunteers tended to be those who were really quite active in the community – they
started off being those who came to adult learning classes and it 'snowballed' from there.
Now there are activities such as computer classes and arts and drama, all led by volunteers,
who are in turn supported by the Council. At the beginning it was unclear how many
volunteers would come forward – they had low expectations; now there are over 30 people
giving up their time for community projects.
52 | Capacity for change
The volunteers range between 10 years old (one girl who supports the primary one club) to
those in their 70s. There are inevitably more women than men, but there are a few male
volunteers who are giving up their time every day (compared to a youth worker who might
only come to the community once a week).
The Council support the volunteers by ensuring that every six months they have a 'mini
appraisal' which allows discussion about progress, and gives the volunteers a focus. They
also have a volunteer policy.
Every year they hold an event where they 'honour' the volunteers. Friends and family are
invited and the volunteers are presented with certificates totalling the number of hours
volunteering they achieved.
Some volunteers have gone on to giving their time to other projects, while others have
gained confidence to go on to college or university.
Example: Community capacity building through volunteering
Paisley Partnership has a team of six community capacity building staff. This team has
supported many community members to develop their skills and confidence through
volunteering. When supporting community groups and organisations, the staff worked with
individuals to undertake a training needs analysis and explore the skills that people would
like to develop further. The initial aim was to strengthen the community groups in which
these individuals participated.
Over time, it became clear that as individuals developed their skills and experience, they
became valuable sources of support for others. Paisley Partnership worked to train these
individuals to volunteer to support other groups and individuals on a wide variety of issues
including funding for community groups, health and fitness, suicide prevention and youth
leadership. Through volunteering these individuals were able to not only develop their own
skills further, but also pass these on to others in the community.
Through volunteering, Paisley Partnership was also able to support the development of new
community facilities. A new gym was opened staffed by volunteers, aged 20 to 65.
Volunteers were trained in funding, gym induction, first aid, health and safety, and other
issues. The gym is entirely staffed by volunteers and now has 400 members.
Paisley Partnership operates in areas of exclusion and disadvantage, but staff feel that by
supporting communities to make a real difference to the place that they live they are creating
a more positive atmosphere.
Example: Developing skills through volunteering in North Ayrshire
In North Ayrshire, there are high levels of unemployment and there was a feeling that some
communities had become disheartened. North Ayrshire Volunteer Centre established a
project to engage with local people, and to provide training to volunteers, to build up
confidence in different skills, such as IT.
The training takes place two or three days a week for six weeks and then the volunteer is
given a placement for six weeks to try out their new skills. The volunteer placement can put
volunteers into almost any situation – including volunteer cafes, helplines and outdoor work.
The volunteer centre also works with people to create their own volunteering opportunities.
53 | Capacity for change
Word is spreading that the volunteer centre can make a real difference to people who want
to get back into work. Often people who have finished their volunteering placement continue
volunteering in the longer term.
The main evidence of success has been the anecdotal feedback from people who have
become involved. People have become active in their communities and so the project is
making a significant difference.
“Since I completed the course it's been a tremendous thing - I feel
confident, and I want to be back doing things.”
Participant
Over 100 people went through the course in one year. In the future, the Volunteer Centre
would like to align their training in line with SQA qualifications so that at the end of the
training, participants could get a qualification. This would make a huge difference in
confidence when applying for jobs or other volunteering opportunities.
Ongoing activity
Most people learn best through doing. But it is important not to damage confidence by
putting people in situations that they are not ready for. Supported activity to develop
confidence and skills is therefore an important stage. This could include:
•
•
•
Building confidence through social activities and networking
Supporting communities in new activities
Using the capacity building process to develop skills.
Building confidence through social activities and networking
Often, the first stage in building confidence and skills is working with communities in an
informal social setting. Networking between community groups can also be a very powerful
way of building capacity, through discussing what has been achieved, and what people have
learned from their experiences.
Supporting communities in new activities
Providing practical support to help communities to try out new ideas, or get involved in new
networks and structures, can also help build confidence and skills. Often, if people are able
to see that their views do make a difference and are valued, their confidence will grow. But
there is a need for practical support - including support attending meetings, holding premeetings, and building skills and knowledge around key issues.
Using the capacity building process to develop skills
The process of planning, undertaking, sustaining and evaluating capacity building activity
offers opportunities for skills development. Simply supporting communities through these
processes – and using techniques like participatory evaluation and action research to build
community confidence and experience – can in itself contribute greatly to skills development.
54 | Capacity for change
Recognising existing skills
It is important that skills development is recognised, to ensure that people have a sense of
progress and achievement.
Some training and skills development opportunities are credit rated and are mapped to the
Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework 16. This may be of benefit to community groups
and individuals as their locally developed training and development is formally recognised.
As well as formal recognition through qualifications, skills are developed through informal
training and development. Ways of doing this can include:
•
Reviewing skills on a regular basis – It can be easy to forget the progress you
have made. Taking time to speak with communities, and consider progress in skills
development can help with recognising this – and assist in future planning and
ongoing learning.
•
Certificates and celebration events – Often this type of recognition can give people
a real sense of achievement.
Informal recognition of achievements can also be a good way of demonstrating that people
are valued.
Example: Recognising volunteering achievements in Aberdeen
In Aberdeen, local people were involved in the community planning partnership for the city.
They were concerned that there needed to be more for children and young people to do. As
a result, Aberdeen City Council supported volunteers to take on responsibility for running
community projects. Initially, the volunteers were mainly those who came to adult learning
classes, but it 'snowballed' from there. Now over 30 people give up their time for community
projects. The volunteers range between 10 years old (one girl who supports the primary one
club) to those in their 70s.
Aberdeen City Council supports the volunteers by ensuring that every six months they have
a 'mini appraisal'. This allows discussion about progress, and helps to give the volunteers a
focus. Every year they hold an event where they 'honour' the volunteers. Friends and family
are invited and the volunteers are presented with certificates totalling the number of hours
volunteering they achieved.
Some volunteers have gone on to giving their time to other projects, while others have
gained confidence to go on to college or university.
16
Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework http://scqf.org.uk/
55 | Capacity for change
Supporting community activity
A central part of community capacity building is supporting communities to influence
decisions about their community. This involves building the capacity of communities to be
active and influential, and to be involved in their community and wider society in a fuller
way.
Here it is important to remember that capacity building activity must be driven by the needs
and demands of communities themselves.
Supporting communities to influence decision making
There are different ways of supporting communities to influence decision making. People
can influence decisions in a wide range of ways. This can range from campaigning and
lobbying from outside the decision making process, to becoming involved in the processes
of decision making.
Campaigning and lobbying
Campaigning and lobbying are ways of trying to influence decisions from outwith the
decision making process. Sometimes when people are outwith decision-making structures
they feel able to be more independent, and focus on one important issue – rather than to
have to get involved in a wide range of decisions, many of which may not relate to what is
important to communities.
There is a considerable bank of existing guidance on how to campaign and lobby
effectively. As a general guide, you should try to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
identify a clear issue.
gather clear evidence - why is this issue important?
involve people affected by the issue – people's individual stories can be an extremely
powerful way of getting a message across
understand your audience – who do you need to influence?
work jointly – other communities or organisations might share your aims
stay on message – do not get distracted by other things.
There can be some tensions around the support that is provided to communities on
campaigning and lobbying. At times, the community you work with might want to lobby your
own organisation, to change its approach. This can put community capacity building workers
in a difficult position.
If your organisation is truly committed to capacity building, this should be fine. Your role
would be to support the community to represent its views as best it can, while the
organisation would respond and engage on these issues. Provided you don't have to fulfil
both roles – representing and responding – this has the potential to work well.
Often though, there is a limit to the commitment to community capacity building within
organisations. Some organisations may be unhappy with their staff supporting a community
to express a view that conflicts with theirs.
There is no easy answer to this. As a staff member, you do have to follow what your
organisation wants. You should be guided by senior managers on the extent to which
capacity building for campaigning should be pursued.
56 | Capacity for change
Develop your practice
Take a look at the effective campaigning resources from the National Council for Voluntary
Organisations https://www.ncvo.org.uk/policy-and-research/campaigning-policy
•
Consider how useful this information is helping you support community groups to
effectively campaign.
Responding to community consultation
Communities can have a positive influence over service delivery simply through responding
to consultation opportunities – if used well. This approach works where the consultation is
genuine, and communities have a real chance to influence decisions through the responses
they make.
Supporting communities to take advantage of consultation opportunities is an important part
of capacity building. But it is important that this activity takes place only if there is a demand
from communities! Capacity building is not about meeting the consultation needs of
organisations.
The types of activity that may be required include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
raising awareness of opportunities to participate
supporting opportunities for discussing the issues
providing training or briefings on context and key issues
working with communities to agree responses
supporting individual responses
ensuring equalities issues are considered
supporting communities to express their response
ensuring feedback is provided to communities
providing information about how to get more involved.
Involvement in decision making structures
Essentially, capacity building is about supporting communities to implement change. An
important part of this is supporting involvement in decision making structures. This can
include:
•
working within existing decision making structures – including partnerships like
Community Planning Partnerships, or involvement in the boards or committees of
individual organisations
•
influencing new decision making structures – supporting communities to express how
they would like to be involved in decision making, and enable this to happen.
This can mean that you need to:
•
•
•
support communities to understand and influence decision-making structures
support communities to select representatives to attend decision-making structures
ensure that representatives have the skills, knowledge and background information
they need
57 | Capacity for change
•
support communities to set up mechanisms for representatives to gather and feed
back views.
There can be tensions in making this a reality. Some organisations can be resistant to
communities having an increased role in decision making. Sometimes there can be
significant differences between what communities want, and what organisations want. And
there can be very different opinions within communities too.
Example: Linking with community planning structures: Dundee Partnership
In Dundee there are five community regeneration forums, which are community led
organisations. These organisations are part of the Dundee Partnership structure, the
community planning partnership for Dundee. The aim of the forums is to put local
communities at the heart of urban regeneration, bringing together active residents living in
the most deprived parts of the city.
Each of the five Forums involves up to 15 elected residents, with one acting as chair. Each
of the forums has £150,000 annually to allocate grants for youth activities, environmental
and physical improvements, and discretionary small grants. The forums have provided an
important focus for regeneration, ensuring that communities can take decision over how
money is spent on local priorities.
Controlling budgets and owning assets
Communities may be interested in having more power in the decision-making process,
through controlling budgets and managing or owning community assets. Often, communities
are extremely well placed to decide how community assets are managed – this could range
from managing a local play park to running a community centre.
This can have benefits, through building on and developing the skills of local communities,
improving the way facilities operate, helping to drive change and ensuring that people feel
part of their community.
But, it is very important that communities actually benefit from this. Sometimes taking
ownership or management responsibility for local facilities can be a liability rather than an
asset.
•
Public asset transfer - The Scottish Government and Development Trust
Association Scotland have produced a report and case studies on asset transfer to
communities
http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/1031/0098558.pdf
•
Community Assets: The benefits and costs of community management and
ownership - this report explores the benefits and lessons of community-based
organisations taking control, either as managers or owners, of the 'assets' used by
their communities
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120919132719/http:/www.communities.
gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/151999.pdf
58 | Capacity for change
Communities influencing funding and budgeting decisions
In some cases, communities may wish to influence how decisions are made about budgets
and funding, rather than actually managing or owning facilities themselves.
One useful technique for supporting communities to think about how funds are allocated is
participatory budgeting 17. This can help communities to think about relative priorities, and
make informed choices about how they would like resources to be allocated.
Develop your practice
•
Read the case studies in appendix B of the Development Trust Association
Scotland’s public asset transfer report and identify the appropriate community
capacity building support given to make these transfers successful.
Supporting community organisations to develop
Developing strong, effective and influential community groups and organisations is a core
purpose of community capacity building.
“Activities to help build confidence will contribute to community empowerment only if
they are linked to support for building effective organisations.”
Scottish Community Empowerment Action Plan 18
Community organisations can operate at completely different levels, and be at very different
stages of development. Sometimes work with community groups will involve supporting
communities to think about the structures that they want to have, and supporting the process
of establishing an organisation.
In other cases, community organisations will be vastly experienced and professional, and
may be looking for support in building on and expanding their existing effective activities. In
such cases, the most appropriate course of action may be to signpost these organisations to
specialist providers of support, such as enterprise development support.
Regardless of the scope of activity, all community groups and organisations will need to
consider:
Overall objectives
•
•
What are our needs and aspirations?
What are we trying to achieve?
The community or group has to think about their overall objectives.
17
Community Engagement How To Guide – Participatory Budgeting
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/BuiltEnvironment/regeneration/engage/HowToGuide/ParticipatoryBudgeting
18 Scottish Community Empowerment Action Plan
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2009/03/20155113/0
59 | Capacity for change
Communication
•
How will we keep the community involved in our organisation?
•
How will you let people know what you are trying to achieve, and what progress you
are making?
This could be through newsletters, e-bulletins, meetings, open days – the method will
depend on the ways the individuals like to be involved.
Roles and responsibilities
•
Who will take on the necessary roles and responsibilities?
There will be people who want to be more active than others. Set out the key tasks and
decide as a group who would be best to take on each role.
Funding
•
•
Where can you secure funding from?
What sources of grants, loans or other finance are there?
Widening participation
•
Are there opportunities for everyone to participate?
Not everyone likes to attend public meetings, or feels comfortable speaking in front of others
– make sure there is a combination of methods for giving opinions or feedback. Think about
potential barriers to involvement, and make sure there is a good mix of people involved.
Partnerships
•
Are there opportunities for joined up working?
Consider whether there are any other groups or public bodies who might benefit from
working with you?
Measuring success
•
•
Are we meeting our targets and meeting goals?
How are we monitoring this?
Are you going in the right direction? Is monitoring and evaluating taking place against your
set targets? How are you doing this? Is it effective? How will you ensure the organisation
learns from what it does?
Case study: Minority ethnic groups in North Ayrshire
Background
North Ayrshire Council Social Work department has been funding a dedicated worker to
support minority ethnic communities. This post was established so as to create links with
minority ethnic communities living in Ayrshire and to ultimately improve the services for this
group. It was also a way of building the capacity of the minority ethnic communities.
60 | Capacity for change
Working with minority groups
The dedicated worker made contact with a range of minority groups, but the Chinese
community were the most organised in terms of formal groups. There were a number of
Chinese groups established, such as an elders group, women's group and a dance group.
The Chinese community also set up an information and advice service to signpost Chinese
people to services.
Supporting minority groups
The worker helped these groups to get set up, find suitable venues to meet, to access
funding and also facilitated skills training (that was translated so it could be delivered in
Cantonese). The worker made initial contact with these groups by door-knocking and
dropping off leaflets and spending time in the community getting to know the people – the
benefit of having a dedicated worker was helpful at this stage; someone who could be
flexible about working hours and consistent to build up trust.
Ayrshire Minority Ethnic Communities Association
Other groups existed such as a Thai women's group who meet to retain their language and
culture. All the minority ethnic community groups are invited to come together under the
umbrella organisation
AMECA – Ayrshire Minority Ethnic Communities Association.
AMECA come together every few months and invites representatives of all the BME groups
in the area. Often representatives from the Police, Health Board or other services attend so
that the communities can discuss with them their concerns or ask questions, and ultimately
help inform decision making and improve services. It also gives the groups the opportunity
to come together and share their experiences.
Case study: Migrant workers' association in Banff
Background
Four years ago, there was an influx of Eastern European migrants into Banff. Many families
were coming to the area, rather than single people seen in other parts of Scotland.
Although people were enrolling in ESOL classes, there was a clear need for more support
in terms of education, social and health needs. Aberdeenshire Council community workers
set up a drop in on a Friday night called 'The Meeting Place'. This was run on a voluntary
basis and was open to everyone in Banff. Each week around 80 people attended the drop
in.
Individual support with practical issues
At first, activity focused on individual support with practical issues. Often people would
bring paperwork, like registration forms, gas bills, income tax queries and other things that
they needed help with. The community workers would make phone calls for people, and
help them to establish themselves in the community.
Widening the remit: building a community organisation
After a few years, these migrants are now much more settled in Banff, and so the remit of
the Association has changed. Members are now looking for more advice and information
on building a sustainable community organisation.
61 | Capacity for change
The women attending the drop in began to get together more and more as a support
network. They then began to take on the role of running the Meeting Place on a Friday
night, and also took on the role of arranging day trips and events for the migrant workers
and their families.
The community organisation: constitution and funding
At this point, the community development worker suggested to the group they might want
to put together a constitution to become a formal organisation. The participants decided to
call the group the 'Association of Eastern European Migrants'. The group took responsibility
for the drop in, but also took on spin off projects, such as making and selling Polish food.
This then developed into a social enterprise company – selling at local farmers markets.
The Association applied for funding and was successful. It continued to set up other
ventures such as a Polish school. And the Association also set up youth clubs, working
with Young Scot, and has run on residential weekends. Some members have also begun
to teach Council employees Polish, and have organised Polish cultural events.
Key to success
The key to success has been that nothing was done too formally, but rather took a natural
progression. Setting up a drop in was the first step in getting people to meet one another
and to build up confidence. Then the natural progression was for the participants to take
more control over how the Association operated, and for other activity to flow from this.
62 | Capacity for change
Considering equality and inclusion
Community capacity building is a way of working with people to develop their ability to
jointly influence what happens in their community.
It is a process which is driven by community need and demand. This means that it is very
important that you fully understand the needs of different individuals and groups within
communities, and make sure that different people are able to take advantage of capacity
building opportunities in the way that meets their needs.
Consideration of equality and inclusion should be integrated throughout the process of
community capacity building. There are reminders about equality and inclusion throughout
this guidance.
Why equality is important
Community capacity building supports communities to get involved in a wide range of
opportunities to influence what happens in their community. It can also be a starting point
for many wider outcomes – like creating a greater sense of community; more effective and
sustainable regeneration; more opportunities in life; and reduced inequality.
Inclusion, equality of opportunity and anti-discrimination are central principles of community
capacity building. So all activity needs to be planned on the basis that some people may
need additional support to overcome the barriers they face.
Top tips
•
Make sure that one section of the community does not dominate the process of
capacity building. Although you want your activity to be driven by community need, it
is important to recognise that what is effective for one section of the community is not
always best for others.
•
Some vulnerable and disadvantaged communities need more support to ensure their
voice is heard and they are able to have power in the decision making process.
•
Remember that everyone is an individual. People do not always like to be
categorised as from a particular equalities group. And individuals within equalities
groups will have vastly different experiences, views and opinions.
•
Be very careful about expecting people to be 'representative' of certain communities.
Unless people have been elected through some formal structure, it is not really fair to
expect people to represent the views of a whole group or community.
•
Sometimes, representatives can also be gatekeepers. It is important to get beyond
the most vocal and active people in the community, to make sure that community
capacity building activity meets the needs of all individuals.
63 | Capacity for change
Develop your practice
Think about the barriers that people might face because of things like:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
age
gender or gender identity
disability
faith
ethnic origin
sexual orientation
communication, literacy and language
income
pregnancy or family responsibilities.
The law and equality
The Equality Act 2010 brings together all of the legal requirements on equality that the
private, public and voluntary sectors need to follow. It affects equality law in delivering
services, running clubs and at work.
This new Act replaces all the existing equality law in the UK, including:
•
•
•
•
The Equal Pay Act 1970
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975
The Race Relations Act 1976
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995
It protects people from discrimination, harassment or victimisation on the basis of certain
characteristics. In providing services, it is illegal to discriminate against people based on:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
disability
sex or gender
gender reassignment
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sexual orientation
age (over 18s only).
It is also illegal to discriminate based on being associated with or wrongly perceived to have
these characteristics.
However, community capacity building is based on the principles of equality and inclusion.
Regardless of the law, it is best practice for community capacity building to actively promote
equality and good relations.
64 | Capacity for change
Mainstream or targeted services
Targeted community capacity building activity – working with particular groups or individuals
in the community – can be useful. There are advantages and disadvantages.
Sometimes targeted activity will be needed to enable everyone to participate. For example,
some women from faith communities will not be able to be involved in groups which include
men. In the same way, sometimes young people may feel more confident working with other
young people.
But, a targeted approach can sometimes be seen as divisive. There can be concerns that by
splitting people into small groups, this goes against the aim of supporting strong, inclusive
communities.
Overall, it is important to work with communities to design an approach that best suits them.
Sometimes targeted activity can be used as a first step, which could build confidence and
lead to wider participation. Other times, targeted activity could be as wide as possible – for
example focusing on working with all women, rather than just women from a particular faith
community.
Building links with people from equalities groups
If you discover that your capacity building activities are not involving everyone, you will
need to begin to build links with people from equalities groups. To make initial contact with
people from equalities groups, you should consider:
•
Contacting local equalities or umbrella groups – in some cases, one local
organisation may act as a key contact point for a range of different groups in your
area.
•
Working with Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) – many CPPs have
thematic sub-groups which focus on particular equalities themes. In some areas
these are underpinned by projects or groups which work directly with equalities
groups.
•
Community Learning and Development Partnerships – in some cases, CLD
Partnerships may already have established structures for involving people from
equalities groups in decision making.
•
Contacting national voluntary organisations – often national organisations
focussing on equalities issues can provide contacts at a local level.
•
Internet searches – In some cases, a simple online search – for example for LGBT
older people’s groups or Jewish groups in your area can provide you with an initial
contact for organisations already working with equalities groups.
(Scottish Government, Same Difference Guidance 19)
19 Same Difference
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/s/genericresource_tcm4863910.asp
65 | Capacity for change
National directories of equalities groups can be an excellent starting point, including:
•
Stonewall Scotland has an LGBT Connections Directory
http://www.stonewall.org.uk/beyond_barriers/directory/
•
Inclusions Scotland has a directory of disability organisations
http://www.ilis.co.uk/uploads/Directory%20of%20Di
sabled%20Peoples%20Organisations%20in%20Sc
otland_July%202014.pdf
•
The Inter Faith Network offers a list of interfaith organisations across the UK
http://www.interfaithscotland.org/interfaith-groups/
Develop your practice
•
Choose a proposal for change in a local community – for example, a proposal to
close down a community centre – and use the rapid impact checklist 20 (in the
Scottish Government's 'Equality and Diversity Impact Assessment Toolkit') to help
you think about the impact from an equality and diversity perspective.
20 Equality and Diversity Impact Assessment Toolkit
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2005/02/20687/52425
66 | Capacity for change
Assessing equality in community capacity building
Equality should be built in from the outset. When planning any community capacity building
activity you should be thinking about the needs of different people, and the impact of
capacity building activity on people from different equalities groups.
You should think about how inclusive community capacity building opportunities are, and
whether the opportunities will result in the same outcomes for everyone – or if certain groups
may not gain as much from the process. Ideally, this should be done in conjunction with
communities.
Equality Impact Assessments
One useful way of doing this is by doing a quick Equality Impact Assessment. It is best to
do this while you are planning capacity building activity. But if you already have capacity
building activity up and running, you can still do an Equality Impact Assessment on this
activity.
You should think about issues like:
•
•
•
•
Do we know the strengths and needs of different communities?
Do different communities have equal access to capacity building activity?
Do people from different communities want to work in different ways?
Do some communities need more support to tackle disadvantage or barriers?
67 | Capacity for change
Maintaining momentum
Communities change. New people move in while others move out. Young people grow up
and get involved in other structures and opportunities.
Making sure that these changing communities are able to access community capacity
building activity is an ongoing activity.
Even where communities remain relatively stable, it requires ongoing effort to maintain
momentum for capacity building activity. There is an ongoing need to develop new
approaches to make sure that people stay involved, and new people become involved to
ensure sustainability in the longer term.
There are a number of important factors to consider in sustaining your capacity building
activity and maintaining momentum.
Sustaining resources
The resources involved in sustaining community capacity building include:
•
•
•
staffing resources – to provide capacity building support
funding for community groups – to sustain community networks and infrastructure
community and volunteer time.
The initial investment of staff resources and funding for community groups can result in more
sustainable networks – which are then able to access funding from other sources. However,
this does not always work, and where it does, it takes time.
It can often be easier to get funding for new initiatives, rather than to sustain existing
successful ones. This means that it can sometimes be hard to provide ongoing capacity
building support to the same communities over the longer term. This is a challenge, as
capacity building is often a long-term process and needs an ongoing funding commitment.
Unfortunately, there is no one solution to this. But it is important to be aware that,
increasingly, funders are moving towards an outcomes focused approach. This means that
they are interested in the real difference that capacity building has made – rather than the
activities that you have done along the way. Being able to give clear evidence of the value of
capacity building activity is essential.
Strengthening groups and networks
In addition to thinking about resources, community capacity building needs ongoing activity
and support, including:
Thinking about diversity
Investing in ongoing development of community organisations, and the networks between
groups, is important. If the same individuals are involved in a community group for a long
time then the group can become insular and even resistant to change. While we should
recognise the value of these individuals giving up their own time to participate in capacity
building activity, we should also look at ways of reinvigorating groups and ensuring that
68 | Capacity for change
they are diverse and vibrant. Good community organisations are strong but inclusive, open
and adaptable.
Refocusing priorities
Often, people will be involved in capacity building activity because they want to address one
particular issue. If this is resolved successfully, they may no longer see the point in
participating unless there are other clear priorities that they are interested in. On a regular
basis, you should work with communities to be sure that there is a clear purpose and focus
for work to build community capacity. Setting clear milestones and timescales can also help
people to see that there is a process, with clear achievements along the way.
Building networks
Building links, relationships and contacts between community groups can be of mutual
benefit. Networking can help different communities and groups to share and pool
information, support, knowledge, resources and influence. Ensuring that community
organisations are aware of the networks of other organisations around them is an important
way of sustaining capacity building activity.
Keeping members involved
As a result of capacity building, people often become much more involved in their
communities. But it is important to recognise that community members are unpaid, and
are often investing significant time and effort in the process of influencing what happens in
their communities.
It is important to make sure that communities benefit from participating in capacity building.
This means thinking about:
•
Ensuring that all capacity building activity is realistic – Make sure that people
understand the opportunities to influence decision making, and realise the scale of
the job.
•
Making sure that people see that real difference that they have made
– Providing feedback and communicating effectively with communities is essential.
•
Regularly reviewing skills and confidence – Make sure that individuals have the
chance to develop the skills they wish to, and can recognise where they have made
progress.
•
Recognising community and individual strengths – Support people to use the
skills and talents they have, and pass these skills on to others. This is important to
ensure that the skills that have been built up are not lost when the most active
members of the community cease to be involved.
•
Building the capacity of your own organisation – Community capacity building is
often most effective if it is undertaken alongside recognition that organisations also
need to build their capacity to work with communities. As community capacity
increases, your organisation also needs to think about its culture and the way you
work with people and communities.
69 | Capacity for change
Case study: K Town-FM (Kinglassie Action Group)
The Kinglassie Action Group (KAG) was initially set up in 1996 to provide a platform for
local residents to meet and discuss issues affecting their village. Through KAG, volunteers
in Kinglassie work to improve the village.
In 2006, KAG was looking to develop a new and innovative community project. The
Scottish Manager of the Community Media Association (CMA) was invited to give a
presentation on community media to KAG and other community groups. From this meeting
the local youth group declared an interest in exploring the possibility of Community Radio
in Kinglassie, which KAG offered to facilitate.
The main aims of the KTown FM project included bringing about social benefits;
empowering the community; giving that 'local factor' in radio broadcasting; and building
skills in the community. It was seen as radio 'by the community, for the community and to
the community.'
The KTown FM project was led from the beginning by KAG, who provided oversight and
administrative support for the project, and a core group of around eight local young people,
aged between 11 and 16, and the two Fife Council community project workers. They were
supported by a large pool of local and regional volunteers, who came from as far away as
Dundee and Dunfermline. The first year they had 40 volunteers and the second and third
years they had around 60.
Getting started
A series of visits to community radio stations were arranged for groups of local young
people, which sparked the young people’s enthusiasm. It was then decided to apply for
funding to establish a community radio project, to be run by local young people with KAG
and Fife Council support and guidance. The Council’s community project workers helped
the young people put together their principal funding application, and were successful in
obtaining £52,000 for a two year project.
In 2008 and 2009, they ran two 28-day (Restricted Service Licence - RSL) broadcasts.
Since then they have been able to access additional funds from Fife Council and the
Coalfields Area Regeneration Trust, which was used to run a third RSL broadcast, this time
for four weeks in July 2010.
The initial two year funding package was for a youth managed radio project. By the time
the funding came to an end in 2009, the original core of young people had dissipated,
through marriage, college, army, university etc. The 2010 funding application was therefore
based on the wider community, to reflect the great mix of ages in the volunteer pool - from
children aged 9 years old to retired people.
As at early 2011, the station is broadcasting on the internet from 4 until 8pm Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday, with the aim of expanding this service in the near future. The
station also continues to offer broadcast training for local people.
70 | Capacity for change
Successes
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The project has broken down local barriers and helped to bring people from
different communities and also from within Kinglassie together – especially local
adults and young people.
Broadcasting all over Central Fife has generated community pride and is seen as
having given Kinglassie its own unique identity.
The station is helping people to develop new skills and increasing their
employability. At least four people who volunteered at the station have gone on to
work in radio, and around ten have gone on to do related college courses - a major
achievement in such a small town.
Four young members of the radio project won a Kingdom FM Local Hero (The Child
of Achievement) award for their work with the community radio project.
The original youth group also won a YOSCAR (Youth Oscar) for their work with KTown FM.
The station was also a finalist in Creative Fife Awards.
The project was inspected by the HMIE in 2010 as part of the community learning
resource for the catchment area of Glenwood High School, Glenrothes, and was
subsequently cited as an example of ‘good practice’ by the HMIE.
Top tips
•
•
•
•
•
•
Spend time getting to know people who have experience of running a community
radio station.
Investigate thoroughly what needs to be done in order to run a radio station. There
was a large amount of research into legal issues and things like copyright, licensing
and so on. This is far more important and labour intensive than imagined.
Take as much advice as possible and join the Community Media Association.
Make sure you can secure funding – running a community radio station can be
expensive – equipment alone costs about £25,000.
Make sure you can access initial broadcasting training, either from other stations or
certified broadcast training organisations.
'Without a good technician the project just can’t happen, too much can go wrong
and the equipment is too complex for someone to just learn. You need someone
who knows what they are doing.' (Project Worker)
What next?
Because of the pressures to secure the substantial financing required to obtain a RSL, they
have decided to take a year out from applying for the licence. They are concentrating on
internet broadcasting and continuing to provide training, which will cost as little as £1000
per annum, with most of this going on the website and copyright licences.
OFCOM have invited interested parties to submit letters of an ‘Expression of Interest’ in
applying for a Community Radio Licence to decide if it was feasible to initiate a third round
of community radio licensing. KAG have applied for a licence and a decision is expected to
be made early summer 2011.
71 | Capacity for change
Develop your practice
•
Think about what might need to change in the culture of your organisation and the
way you work with people and communities in order to be more effective in
community capacity building.
Recognising achievements
Recognising achievements helps maintain momentum. You should:
•
Identify where you started from – This will give a baseline for comparison. Often,
we forget how far we have come, and may not realise the impact of our involvement.
•
Communicate success – Within your organisation, to partners, and among the
wider community. The process of talking about achievements can be a valuable way
of building community capacity in itself.
•
Record achievements – There are lots of different ways that you can record
achievements. Taking photographs or videos along the way can help give a visual
sense of progress. Or you could reflect on achievements on an ongoing basis at
meetings and events, giving a written record of achievements through minutes.
•
Find out what did not work – so that you do not repeat the same mistakes again.
Using an approach which explores what would be done differently next time, or what
lessons have been learned along the way, can help make sure that people are not
too negative and disheartened when talking about what does not work.
By feeding back about achievements, those involved feel that progress is being made and
that their contribution is making a difference.
Example Recognising achievement - Midlothian Youth Platform
At Midlothian Youth Platform, 40 people worked for a year to influence decision-making in
their area. At the end of the year, the young people produced a DVD demonstrating their
activities and achievements. This helped to remind the young people – and others – of what
they had done. The Midlothian Youth Platform then undertook a participatory evaluation,
involving the young people in finding out the difference that the Youth Platform had made to
young people, wider communities, and other stakeholders.
72 | Capacity for change
Capacity for change
Section 3 – Assessing impact
It is important to assess the impact of community capacity building
activity.
This can mean looking at things like: the difference that it has made;
what has worked best and what has not worked well; how this
compares with other approaches; value for money.
The principles of monitoring and assessing
impact
The way in which you assess community capacity building activity should be in line with the
principles that drive all of your activity.
The most important principles that apply to measuring your activity are self-assessment,
community involvement and continuous assessment:
•
Self-assessment – staff should recognise the importance of assessing your activities,
and should be committed to learning from their activities with communities
•
Community involvement – communities should determine the priorities of capacity
building activity, and how progress towards these is measured and evaluated
•
Continuous assessment – assessing impact is not a one-off activity. It needs to be
built into your activities, and the lessons learned fed back into your future plans.
Why assessment is important
Having clear evidence about how what you do makes a difference. Here are some ways that
it can help you.
•
Understand what communities need – You will see what communities value most,
what difference they feel capacity building activity has made to their lives, and what
they might like to do differently in the future.
•
Explain to others what your work achieves – This can help you to attract funding and
political support, encourage others to include community capacity building activity in
their work, and make linkages between different areas of policy and practice.
•
Encourage communities to commit to capacity building – If you are able to
demonstrate the difference community capacity building has made, people will be
more likely to see that there can be tangible positive outcomes from investing time
and effort in capacity building activity.
•
Improve your activities in future - You can identify where good quality work needs to
be maintained and where improvement is needed. It can also help you think about
how you work jointly with others in the future, to ensure a co-ordinated approach to
community support and regeneration.
74 | Capacity for change
Overall, having evidence about the value of your work means that you are far better placed
to continue doing this type of work in the future. This is particularly important when budgets
are tight, and funders are looking to see the real difference that their investment makes.
Assessing impact also helps you to learn from the past, and build this into your future
activities.
Frameworks for monitoring and evaluating
In Scotland there are three main frameworks for assessing the impact of community
learning and development. Your approach to assessing your community capacity activity
should be strongly based on these frameworks.
•
How Good is Our Community Learning and Development?(2) 21 – guidance produced
by HMIE to promote self-evaluation in CLD.
•
LEAP (Learning Evaluation and Planning) 22 – a framework to support the planning
and Evaluation of CLD activity, based on community involvement in the process.
•
Delivering Change 23 – sets out the outcomes that CLD (and specifically community
capacity building) should bring about or contribute to.
This section takes the principles set out in these frameworks, and provides practical advice
about how to assess your community capacity building activity.
Although these are the three main national frameworks. There are lots of different
frameworks for monitoring and evaluating community capacity building activity in operation
at a local level. For example, in North Ayrshire a Performance Information Evaluation
system has been established with community learning and development. It provides a
system for recording quantitative and qualitative information relating to participation,
retention, progression and achievement.
21
How good is our community learning and development?(2)
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/hgio2cld_tcm4-684586.pdf
22 LEAP: A manual for Learning Evaluation and Planning in Community Learning and Development:
Revised Edition
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2007/12/05101807/0
23 Delivering Change
http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/1046/0061097.pdf
75 | Capacity for change
The outcomes-focused approach
Increasingly, the focus is on measuring 'outcomes' – the impact of your activity.
This is a different approach than in the past, when the focus was often on what you did, how
you spent money and what activities took place.
In the community learning and development field, the move towards an outcome-based
approach was originally driven by Working and Learning Together to Build Stronger
Communities (WALT). The WALT strategy stressed that the Scottish Government wishes 'to
be able to assess more thoroughly the contribution of CLD to outcomes'. This was reemphasised in the joint statement from COSLA and the Scottish Government - Building on
'Working and Learning Together to Build Stronger Communities'.
It can take time to get used to this new approach, and the language that people use to talk
about their achievement can vary. For clarity, throughout this section we have used the
following terms:
•
•
•
•
•
Outcomes – these are what you want to achieve (the changes that happen)
Outputs – what you do to bring about change
Targets – the speed at which you intend to bring about change
Indicators – what you will do in to monitor to demonstrate change
Inputs – the resources to make change happen.
But this does not mean that communities themselves always have to think in terms of
outcomes. It can be difficult for individuals to think about the outcomes that have occurred as
a result of capacity building activity. But you can use different language to explore what
difference capacity building activity has made to people's lives, without everyone needing to
fully understand the difference between outcomes, outputs and indicators.
76 | Capacity for change
Developing an assessment framework
When you are thinking about how to assess the impact of community capacity building
activity, you need to identify what to measure, identify how to measure and think about
assessing impact on different groups.
Identifying what to measure
Whether developing an assessment framework at a strategic or operational level, the first
thing you need to think about is what community capacity building activity should achieve.
Your outcomes, indicators and targets
An important starting point is to have clear planning processes for what you want to
achieve. This could be your organisational plan, if your main focus is community capacity
building. Or it could be a specific plan developed to set out the aims of your capacity
building activity.
Ideally this should include the:
•
•
•
outcomes you are working towards
indicators you are using to measure progress
targets you are working towards.
Outcomes, indicators and targets are important at both a strategic and operational level. At
a strategic level they will normally be set out in a strategic plan or outcome agreement. But
at an operational level you should still have an agreement with communities about:
•
•
•
what communities want to achieve (outcomes)
how they will know if they have achieved it (indicators)
the speed at which they want change to happen (targets).
Even if outcomes, indicators and targets are agreed retrospectively they are still useful.
They provide the framework that then tells you what information you need to monitor and
gather to assess whether you are achieving what you should be.
Develop your practice
•
Are you currently involved in a community capacity building activity? If so, work out
your outcomes, indicators and targets at both organisational and operational levels.
77 | Capacity for change
Identifying how to measure
Assessment should involve measuring both quantitative (hard) information and qualitative
(soft) information. Often quantitative information is more about the outputs and process,
while qualitative information gives valuable information about outcomes – the real
difference.
Quantitative and qualitative information
Quantitative information: This is number-based information. For example, you might
measure how many people have moved into volunteering as a result of capacity building
activity.
Qualitative information: This is information about feelings, experiences and views. This
could include how:
•
•
•
•
•
people feel about their communities
confident people feel
interested people are in getting involved in their communities
involved people feel in local decision making
people feel about the strengths and skills in their community.
Some of this information will be gathered through ongoing and regular monitoring. For
example, you might have regular reviews, satisfaction surveys or community learning plans
that give you some of this information.
In other cases you will need to do a bit of work to find out about the difference that capacity
building work has made. Often it is easier to measure harder, quantitative information
because this is more straightforward to gather and interpret. For example, it is much easier
to monitor the number and profile of people coming to community meetings than it is to
monitor how confident people feel. But, the qualitative information is often much more
valuable, and tells you more about what difference has actually been made.
A common system for planning, monitoring and evaluating community engagement
To help everyone involved in community engagement to achieve the National Standards
for Community Engagement, the Scottish Government commissioned the Scottish
Community Development Centre (SCDC) to develop a database for planning, monitoring
and evaluating community engagement called VOiCE (Visioning Outcomes in Community
Engagement).
VOiCE can support organisations to:
•
•
•
•
plan community engagement and service user participation
conduct it effectively
monitor and record the process
evaluate the outcomes.
78 | Capacity for change
VOiCE enables all users to have a common system for analysing, planning, monitoring,
evaluating and recording that provides a common definition of terms and understanding of
different types and purposes of engagement. It will carry the records of all engagement
conducted in an area and enable analysis of patterns and outcomes of engagement.
Find more information about VOiCE on the SCDC website
http://www.scdc.org.uk/what/voice/.
Develop your practice
Read the VOiCE Key questions and handy hints 24 booklet.
•
Choose one of the sections – analyse, plan, do, review – and use the key questions
and prompts to explore a community capacity building activity you are involved in.
Equalities monitoring
It is important to assess whether different communities are seeing different results from
participating in community capacity building. This means that it is important to gather
equalities monitoring information from the people who are participating in capacity building.
Equalities monitoring involves gathering information on the personal characteristics of
participants. This means you can identify any gaps or inequalities, and work out how to
address these. Without some form of equalities monitoring it simply would not be possible
to do this.
All of the advice about equalities monitoring has a number of consistent messages:
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Always act on the information you gather – You need to be committed to
analysing monitoring information regularly, and doing something about any
inequalities you identify. Otherwise, gathering equalities information is simply a waste
of time.
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Clearly explain why you are gathering personal information – People need to
know why you need this information, and how it will be used. If this is not clear, they
are less likely to provide it.
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Guarantee anonymity – Gathering information anonymously results in higher
response rates. In most cases, anonymity should be guaranteed. If information is
linked to individuals, it is very important to treat this in a confidential and sensitive
way, and most importantly, to let service users know this is the case.
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Think about the words and categories you use – It is important to word questions
about people's personal characteristics in a non-offensive way. No-one likes being
24
VOICE – Key Questions and Handy Hints
http://www.voicescotland.org.uk/media/resources/dl_booklet___key_q
uestions_web.pdf
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categorised, and finding the right words to ask about people's characteristics is very
important. It is also important that the questions asked can, where possible, be
compared to national figures and a local baseline (if available).
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Build trust – You will have obligations to gather some data. But not all information
needs to be gathered straight away. You may want to start by gathering basic
equality information, see what this tells you, act on it, and then start to gather more
detailed information if needed. This means that both staff and service users can build
confidence in the role of the equalities monitoring system.
Develop your practice
Read through Section 7: Equalities Impact Assessments in the
Glasgow Equalities Toolkit 25.
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25
Try the self-assessment questions 26 to see how far your organisation considers the
impact of its activities on equalities groups.
Glasgow’s Learning … About Equalities Online Toolkit – Section 7
http://equalities.glasgowslearning.org.uk/equality_impact_assessment
s/about_this_section
26
Equality Impact Assessments – Self-assessment
http://equalities.glasgowslearning.org.uk/assets/0000/0047/7.6.html
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Involving communities in assessment
Assessment of community capacity building activity should be led by communities. The
success of community capacity building should be measured against the aims of the
communities you work with. This means that communities should be involved in the
process of establishing monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
How it helps to involve communities in assessment
Involving communities can help to:
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Agree a monitoring framework – by helping to identify what is important to
communities, what people want to change, and how to measure this
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Set evaluation priorities – to make sure that the evaluation measures what is
important to communities
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Agree research methods – communities will know best how they like to be involved.
Taking advice from these local experts can make sure that the approach suits the
local context.
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Encourage involvement – if people are involved from the beginning, they feel part of
the process. Involving communities in evaluation can help people to see the purpose
of it, and encourage them to take part
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Access useful engagement skills – local people are often well placed to do research
and consultation themselves. Training and supporting people to run discussion
groups or surveys can encourage more local people to get involved in the evaluation,
and can also be an integral part of building community capacity.
There are different ways in which communities can be involved:
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by taking the lead in designing monitoring and evaluation activity
by undertaking evaluation activity themselves
by participating in evaluation activity as key stakeholders with valued opinions.
This image outlines three different ways in which communities can be involved: they can
take the lead in designing monitoring and evaluation activity; they can undertake evaluation
activity themselves; or they can participate in evaluation activity as key stakeholders with
valued opinions.
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The level of involvement should be driven by the desires of the community.
You should also think carefully about how evaluation will capture the views of people who
have not been involved in community capacity building activity. For example, there may be
some people who experience barriers to getting involved, and it is important to find out
what these are.
Communities designing monitoring and evaluation
In many cases, it is useful to have communities involved in designing assessment
activities. Normally this is most useful if everyone involved – staff, volunteers, communities
and other stakeholders – all work together to design a suitable way of evaluating activity.
This approach means that everyone who is affected by a service can be involved in
deciding how to evaluate it.
Normally a group would be set up involving all of the relevant people – for example the
people who use the service, deliver it, manage it and fund it. Together the group would
decide:
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what they wanted to find out from their monitoring or evaluation activity
how they would do this
who should do this.
This approach means that communities are involved from the outset, and that the
monitoring and evaluation framework is established to meet community priorities. This kind
of approach is often called participatory evaluation.
Example: Midlothian Youth Platform (MYP)
MYP is a group of 40 young people, elected to the platform through local structures including
local youth forums, pupil councils and youth groups. MYP had been up and running for a
year, and the young people decided that they wanted to know what difference it had made.
As part of the process of piloting this guidance, the young people ran a participatory
evaluation. They agreed what they wanted to find out, who they needed to speak to and how
this should be done. The young people set the research questions and undertook some of
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the research themselves. For example, they interviewed one another using video and audio
to record views. The findings from the evaluation were presented at the MYP annual general
meeting, and built into their future work.
Communities undertaking evaluation
Evaluation can include the community in a more active sense. This means that community
members actually do the fieldwork in research or evaluation – for example running surveys,
discussion groups and so on. It is often known as action research.
This approach works best if communities have support to do this – through funding, training
and advice.
Example: Community research in East Renfrewshire
As part of the community-led health agenda, communities in East Renfrewshire are about
to pilot a project to support equalities groups to take control of their research. This means
that community groups decide upon their own research questions and conduct the
research themselves.
East Renfrewshire Council will train members of the community in research methods,
support communities to link to the voluntary sector and to community learning and
development opportunities. This way, members of the community can drive the research
based on what they want to find out, and can get actively involved in undertaking the
research.
Communities participating in evaluation
Taking the lead in undertaking the research involves a significant time commitment.
Communities will not always feel that this is the best way to use their time and skills.
Sometimes communities will prefer to have opportunities to participate in evaluation activity
without undertaking it themselves. This gives people the chance to give their opinion about
the impact of community capacity building activity as valued stakeholders.
The way in which communities get involved depends very much on the approach to
measuring community capacity building activity. This means that it is still vital that some
community members are involved from the outset in agreeing their priorities from the
evaluation (what they want to find out), the methodology, and who should do it.
There is a huge variety of ways in which communities can be involved in monitoring and
evaluation activities. The Gathering evidence section sets out some ideas about how you
could gather community views on:
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what you are doing
how well you are doing
the difference that it is making.
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Gathering evidence
An important part of assessing impact is gathering the evidence that you need to be able to
establish the difference that capacity building has made.
How Good Is Our Community Learning and Development? suggests that the main sources
of evidence for evaluation are performance data and background documentation,
stakeholders' views and feedback, and direct observations of practice.
Methodology
Before gathering evidence of the difference your community capacity building has made,
you must think in detail about the study methodology – what information needs to be
gathered, who needs to be involved, and how information will be gathered.
Initial areas to think about include:
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What are we seeking evidence of?
What are the sources of evidence?
How will we collect the evidence?
Who will collect the evidence and when?
How will we analyse the evidence?
How will we use the evidence?
Performance data and background documents
A useful starting point for evaluation is the information you – or your partners – hold
already. You should already be gathering some monitoring information on an ongoing
basis.
Often, monitoring information is gathered on an ongoing basis, but little is actually done
with it. You might need to do a bit of work to bring together and analyse monitoring
information. Here it is important to take a critical look at the information, thinking about
issues like:
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Are there any broad trends or significant variations?
Are there variations in statistics or views between different group – for example,
thinking about equalities and deprivation?
How does the monitoring information relate to the research questions, and your
overall objectives?
Are there any gaps in information that may need to be filled by new research?
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You may also have a range of background information that could help. This could include:
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baseline or feasibility studies
satisfaction surveys
annual reports or business plans
community strength assessments
local research by partner organisations or communities.
By reviewing the information you already have available, you can then focus your
consultation with stakeholders on the areas where there are gaps in existing information. It
is therefore useful to review existing information at an early stage in the evaluation
process.
Develop your practice
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If you are currently engaged in community capacity building activity, choose one
piece of work and review all the information you currently have and consider how
useful this information is in beginning the process of assessing impact.
Gathering stakeholder views
You may already have quite a bit of information on what people think about the activity or
approach you are evaluating – for example through satisfaction surveys or feedback forms.
But you may also need to gather new information on people's views. This is particularly
important in community capacity building, where often measures of success are qualitative
– they are about views, feelings, perceptions, skills and attitudes, rather than hard figures.
So, you might want to explore issues relating to outcomes and impact, like:
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What skills have you learned?
What do you know about that you did not know when you started?
In what way do you feel different?
How have you used your learning outside the group?
In what ways has it helped you?
How has it helped you to contribute to your community?
You might also want to explore issues relating to the process and quality of activity, like:
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How do you feel about the support available to you?
What do you think of the way activity is managed?
Do you think resources – like time and money – have been used effectively?
Remember to accommodate participants who may, for a variety of reasons, prefer to give
feedback verbally or by signing rather than in writing.
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Develop your practice
•
Read the example below and reflect on how you might gather information about the
distance travelled.
Example: Reflecting on the distance travelled – Calton Area Committee
During an eight-week period, the Thenew Housing Association and Glasgow East
Regeneration Agency undertook an intensive programme of support with the Calton Area
Committee. At the end of the process, the groups took stock of the distance they had
travelled.
During a workshop after the session, an independent facilitator (as part of the guidance
pilot) asked the participants to reflect on what they had achieved. They discussed each of
the outcomes they set out to achieve at the beginning, and agreed what they had learned.
They discussed their skills and confidence before and after, and identified any unintended
outcomes as well.
This process was helpful in a number of ways:
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It helped the groups discuss and agree how they might do things differently next
time.
It allowed them to step back, and look at what they had accomplished – and
understand the impact they had had.
By sharing their views, and providing feedback to others, they built stronger
relationships and trust.
‘One of the best things was hearing what other people had learned, and see that people
appreciate each other better’.
Within Thenew Housing Association, the two members of staff who had worked with the
Committee most closely developed a paper for the Board, outlining the process, outcomes
achieved of the work. On reflection, some of the outcomes were unexpected – they found
they had developed their networks and partnerships locally, and refreshed their own skills
and knowledge about community capacity building.
Direct observations of practice
Another way of gathering information to assess impact is through direct observation of
community capacity building activity. This could involve either a colleague or peer, or an
external evaluator, coming along to activity with communities, and evaluating through
observing.
This can be a useful method because:
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Ongoing observation can mean that someone outwith the capacity building process
can see the difference that activity is making to individuals and groups over the
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longer term. This can be harder to see when working with people on a more regular
basis.
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Observation can provide a valuable insight into real life behaviour. You can see
what people actually do, as opposed to what they say or think they do.
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Peer observation can allow helpful opportunities for learning and sharing practice.
But it does have limitations. You need to be very clear what you want to achieve from
observation. Some limitations include:
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If people know they are being watched they may behave differently. For example,
some people may be less confident if a stranger is in the room, while others may
make more effort than they normally would.
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Observation is quite subjective, and the views, attitudes and preconceptions of the
observer can influence findings.
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Using your findings
The most important aspect of assessing the impact of capacity building activity is actually
using your findings – and building these into your future activity. Analysing and interpreting
evidence
Analysing and interpreting evidence
Once you have gathered all of the information you need, you will then need to think about
how to analyse, interpret and use it.
One of the most challenging parts of assessing impact can be taking all of the information
you gather, and establishing what this tells you about the outcomes you are achieving. This
is significantly easier if you have established a clear vision, outcomes, indicators and
targets as part of the planning process.
Essentially, to measure your outcomes you should take what you wanted to achieve as set
out in the planning process, and use the evidence you gather to explore whether this has in
fact occurred.
Assessing impact involves spending time thinking about what all of the pieces of evidence
you gather tell you about outcomes. Often you will need to take information from many
different sources to demonstrate this. It can be useful to bring together all of the information
you have and identify the key themes emerging. One good way of doing this is by coding
common words and phrases arising in all of your sources like interview notes, existing
reports, satisfaction surveys, or feedback through video and art.
Develop your practice
Consider a community capacity building activity you have been engaged in recently:
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How far can you link the support you / your organisation provided with the
outcomes for the community or community group? Remember to think about what
your original aims were.
Linking outcomes to wider regeneration activity
Community capacity building can contribute to a wide range of outcomes. The contribution
that community capacity building makes to a wider range of policy objectives is increasingly
being recognised by the Government. Community capacity building does not simply
increase skills, but enhances access to opportunities – for example, increasing access to
employment, or creating opportunities to influence decisions about local services. But
tracking this can be challenging.
You should also be open to identifying unintended outcomes that emerge from your
findings. To ensure that you capture both intended and unintended outcomes you will need
to ask yourself questions such as:
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What evidence is there that we achieved our intended outcomes? Can we
demonstrate progress against each of the indicators that we set out?
Are stakeholders identifying other differences that have come about? Do statistics
identify any unexpected trends?
How effective were our methods in achieving our intended outcomes? Are there
better ways of achieving them?
Was the investment of time and effort justified in relation to the outcomes achieved?
Did the number of participants involved justify the investment of staff and
resources?
Building findings into future activity
Being able to find appropriate sources of evidence, and pull these together effectively is
important but it is only the first step. Equally important is what you do with this information.
There are lots of different ways that your findings can affect future activity. It can:
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help to improve practice
help to demonstrate the value of your work
help to attract continued funding
motivate participants and help people to recognise their achievements
encourage others to get involved.
It is vital that the learning from assessing the impact of community capacity building is built
into future activity.
Providing feedback
It is essential that everyone who has been involved in assessing impact receives feedback
on what was found. A common complaint is that people get involved or consulted on
issues, and then never hear what happened as a result. This can result in consultation
fatigue, and people naturally being less inclined to get involved next time.
Providing feedback demonstrates that progress is being made and that people's
contributions are making a difference. When providing feedback, you might want to
consider:
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Format – Feedback should be provided in lots of different formats. Keep the
language simple, and think about using qualitative ways to convey outcomes – not
just statistics.
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Audience – Make sure everyone involved in the evaluation and the project hears
about your findings. This helps to recognise joint achievements and create
ownership of the evaluation. Include decision makers and funders, telling them
about your achievements and your future plans.
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Tone – Feedback can be a great way of communicating and celebrating success
with all stakeholders, including communities, partners and people within your own
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organisation. But it is also important to be honest. Tell the bad news as well as the
good news. Say when you are not able to tell the full picture and give clear timings
for when more information will be available. Don't be scared to admit what didn't
work.
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