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Section five: Planning, management and assessment
Title Assessing community strengths: A practical handbook for planning capacity building | Author(s) Steve Skinner and Mandy Wilson |
Date 2002 | Publisher/ web link Community Development Foundation
www.cdf.org.uk | Geographical focus UK | Theme / topic focus Planning capacity building |
Size 160 pages | Accessibility Clearly written, and full of practical aids | Cost £18.95 | Coverage Community organisations and infrastructure |
Type Practice handbook and tools | Primary audience Practitioners, community activists |
Summary of content Covers surveying the level of community organisation, the support available and planning for action based on the strengths and needs found. It provides guidelines and step by step guides for each stage, with actual questionnaires, lists of action points and other tools to use. |
Comments / assessment Although the book talks about 'community profiles', the emphasis is firmly on helping people to survey what community organisations and support infrastructure exist and how well they function (rather than more general features of a community). For people who want to do that, this is the obvious resource to use. It appears to be easier to use as a whole package than for dipping in to for help with specific points. |
Title Changing Places: Changing Lives- Understanding and developing the impact of your organisation | Author(s) bassac (national umbrella organisation: bassac supports organisations helping deprived neighbourhoods across the UK) |
Date 2005 or 2006? | Publisher/ web link BASSAC http://www.bassac.org.uk/* | Geographical focus England | Theme / topic focus Impact assessment |
Size 20 pages | Accessibility Brief, to the point and well presented | Cost Free download | Coverage Community groups, especially 'anchor organisations' |
Type Introductory booklet | Primary audience Activists and staff in groups |
Summary of content Prepared to support a national programme to support community impact assessment. Provides a short guide to the issues involved in understanding why impacts matter, understanding and mapping them, with 'ideas for action'. Gives links to several resources, mostly not reviewed in this report. |
Comments / assessment Apparently the only guide focusing specifically on this subject, though LEAP and other resources cover some of the ground. Relatively jargon free, it could be an ideal starting point for groups beginning to think about how they affect the quality of life in their communities. Specifically English references are minimal. |
* http://www.bassac.org.uk/uploads/File/community_impact.pdf
Title Planning for your community: a Sourcebook | Author(s) Alan Caldwell Associates |
Date 2004 | Publisher/ web link Joseph Rowntree Foundation/South West of England Regional Development Agency
http://www.jrf.org.uk/* | Geographical focus South West England | Theme / topic focus Regeneration |
Size 211 pages | Accessibility Well presented, in a lively style with plenty of graphic devices etc | Cost £49.50 (free download) | Coverage Local planning and partnership building processes |
Type Practice handbook | Primary audience Regeneration partners, both statutory and community |
Summary of content Prepared initially to support those involved in the Market and Coastal Towns Initiative for the South West, but intended to be of relevance to others involved in urban and rural regeneration. It covers all stages of the process, including: getting started; establishing a steering group; preparing a plan; developing a local organisation; and finding the resources to make plans happen. Each of these is divided into sections (e.g. 'involving the wider community and partners', 'monitoring and evaluating your plan'). Every section contains an introduction to principles and practice, 'the big issue', 'the wicked issues', 'key challenges', a case study, skills needed, links to tools and other resources, and a self-evaluation checklist. |
Comments / assessment Aimed at supporting smaller scale community-led regeneration rather than existing initiatives. The document as a whole contains many specific references to the SW area, but the direct naming and description of e.g. 'wicked issues', the self-evaluation checklists etc are very useful resources that could all very easily be extracted and used by anyone in a broadly similar situation. |
* http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/resourcebook.pdf
Title A. Action Checklists for Capacity Building
B. Capacity Building Action Checklists: A Guide for Community Groups | Author(s) Adept Community Development Agency Ltd |
Date A)1998 B) n/a | Publisher/ web link http://www.adept.org.uk/* | Geographical focus Coventry, Warwickshire, and Solihull | Theme / topic focus Regeneration |
Size A) 60 pages B) 29 pages | Accessibility A) is a simple idea, well presented. Though B) is specifically aimed at groups, it is not really any more accessible | Cost Free downloads (not in print) | Coverage Community organisations and partnerships |
Type Checklists | Primary audience A. Partners in community-based regeneration
B. Community groups involved in regeneration |
Summary of content A. After introductory explanations, the resource presents checklists on eight aspects of 'resourcing community organisations' (Premises, Training etc) and six on other aspects of capacity building ('Identifying and Involving the community', 'Building structures' etc). Each, after a short summary of aims and general considerations, is simply a checklist of points to answer with space to record a response and actions taken. B. Is based on the former but shifts the emphasis from professionals thinking about what resources communities might need to communities thinking about how they can be effective. However it appears to cover much the same ground, with questions merely listed in the text |
Comments / assessment The checklists were prepared for Coventry and Warwickshire Partnerships Ltd and published in conscious recognition of their wider applicability. They are very simple devices, but if they fit a user's local situation, they will help to clarify thinking and could very easily be used directly as they stand. |
* A) http://www.adept.org.uk/resources/actchexpdf.pdf
B) http://www.adept.org.uk/resources/theguide.pdf
Title Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit | Author(s) Horizons Community Development Associates |
Date Website - subject to updating | Publisher/ web link Horizons Community Development Associates
http://www.horizonscda.ca* | Geographical focus Canada | Theme / topic focus Community health |
Size Difficult to assess -
comes in separate sections;
quite substantial | Accessibility Clearly worded and presented, but proposes a large and elaborate process | Cost $250 (free download) | Coverage Effectiveness of established groups |
Type Self assessment kit | Primary audience Community groups, with facilitation |
Summary of content The kit is "a tool to help community groups reflect on the way they work, and think about whether and how to build on existing strengths". It is based around a survey schedule that asks about the background of the groups' members, about the way groups work together, and about the way groups work with other groups. Eight of its sections are designed for completion in discussion together, and the other five sections to complete individually. |
Comments / assessment The most comprehensive source of practical questionnaire based tools. On a brief reading, it would appear to be feasible to use the questionnaires directly with a Scottish audience, though in practice they may be seen as a resource that could be adapted. They are in any case designed for use with a facilitator. There are specific references to community health in some sections only. The Resource Kit also provides guides to help groups to interpret their responses, but these assume that data processing has been carried out through a service available in Canada. Given the scale of the surveys, most groups in Scotland would require external help with analysis. |
* http://www.horizonscda.ca/projects/ccmkit.html
Title A good practice guide to participative community appraisal in Wales | Author(s) Communities First Support Network |
Date 2004 | Publisher/ web link Communities First
http://www.communitiesfirst.info/ | Geographical focus Wales | Theme / topic focus Participative appraisal |
Size 33 pages | Accessibility Simple questions and checklists are used to present the material | Cost Free download | Coverage Participative appraisal |
Type Practice handbook | Primary audience Practitioners in any sector planning to commission and carry out PA |
Summary of content The core of the document is 'Guidance On How to Plan, Run and Evaluate a PA'. Ways of getting people involved are also discussed, and the pros and cons of using consultants. Summary templates for using the guidance are provided. |
Comments / assessment Since participative/ participatory appraisal is a widely used technique for assessing community needs, and a model for more ad hoc activities, a guide to the approach is a useful resource. This appears to be a full but succinct example. |
* http://www.communitiesfirst.info/uploadedFiles/Useful_Resources/ENGLISH%20 newest.pdf
Title Communities count! a step by step guide to community sustainability indicators | Author(s) Alex MacGillivray, Candy Weston & Catherine Unsworth |
Date 1998 | Publisher/ web link New Economics Foundation
http://www.neweconomics.org/ * | Geographical focus UK | Theme / topic focus Sustainability |
Size 144 pages | Accessibility Longish, but full of practical checklists and guides to activities | Cost Free download | Coverage Defining and collecting indicators |
Type Practice handbook | Primary audience Partners and community groups involved in sustainability or regeneration issues |
Summary of content A step-by-step guide to involving communities in, planning and carrying out the collection of indicators of sustainability, and to communicating and using the results. Sustainability is defined in the broadest sense to include a wide range of aspects of social, economic and community life. |
Comments / assessment Though the focus is on 'sustainability', the guide sees 'community-based indicators' mainly as an aid to get people working together and realising community potential. This is one of the most comprehensive guides to community based research - both processes and products - available, and is presented throughout in easy step-by-step formats with examples and comments. However the examples of sets of indicators from various areas, given at the end, suggest that this may in practice be useful more for local-authority-wide than at neighbourhood level work |
* http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/uploads/doc_2310200074852_CCto Use.doc
Other resources
The Aberdeenshire Organisational Health Check materials (page 30) also offers a small scale example of a resource for needs assessment.
We have included one resource on Participatory Appraisal. Others are available. For a distinctively Scottish account, there is "Have You Been PA'd? Using Participatory Appraisal to shape local services" (published by Oxfam and available as a 20 page download. In this report, two community health projects in Glasgow reflect on their use of PA. However, though the report follows the projects through the process, it is not designed as a 'how to' guide. http://www.oxfamgb.org/ukpp/resources/downloads/Oxfam_Glasgow_report_final.pdf
The main text on PA that is commonly cited is 'Participatory Learning and Action: A trainer's guide' by Jules N Pretty, Irene Guijt, John Thompson and Ian Scoones, published by the International Institute for Environment and Development, 1997 (270 pages, £34.95). We have not reviewed this.
We also looked at the Guidance associated with the Scottish Community Action Research Fund ( SCARF). At present, some brief guidance on 'developing a research plan' and 'carrying out the research' is available online, and a paper spelling out the requirements for a research plan in more detail is available for use with SCARF funded groups. However, although these contain advice on points of general applicability to community-based research, much of the content is closely geared to the specific processes of SCARF funding. http://www.scdc.org.uk/uploads/scarf_guidance_note___final.doc
Community Research - Getting Started, from ARVAC is a useful, straightforward guide to running community research projects.
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