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Outcomes from community capacity building
CLD practitioners and partnerships will need to be clear about the purpose of building community capacity, and about the outcomes of effective work. One way to understand this is to consider the characteristics of the communities that CLD should aim to achieve. At the first level, the outcomes are those associated with effective community organisations, for example:
- Community organisations having relevant knowledge and understanding of community planning processes and outcomes, and an awareness of how these can be influenced
- Community organisations being able to assess the knowledge and skills they have and need, in order to be effective in providing services and in working for change
- Community organisations having ready access to the resources and supports they need to enhance their knowledge and skills
- Continuous improvement in the engagement of community organisations in the community planning process
Such outcomes are likely to lead towards positive change for people in communities, because they would be more aware of and involved in decisions, would have more knowledge and confidence and thus be better able to exercise choice and access services, as well as influencing and improving service delivery.
There would also be a positive impact on community infrastructure, in the form of financial knowledge, intellectual support and physical resources to support effective activity. Such resourcing would be based on community needs, and serve to enhance community assets. It would increase the capacity to solve problems and exploit any available opportunities.
The quality of community life would be enhanced: there would be less alienation and apathy, a sense of optimism and community pride, more stability, stronger leadership, more trust and an equalisation of power - essentially the characteristics of social capital.
These impacts would, in turn have an effect on the quality of engagement and partnerships. These might become 'genuine' partnerships within which communities would be able to be assertive, would take responsibility and would build the levels of trust that would encourage collaborative, creative approaches and tangible products. This would encourage communities to play an active role in social and economic regeneration.
An expression of this discussion in the form of a set of outcomes from CLD activity in community capacity building can be found in the report 'Delivering Change: understanding the outcomes of community learning and development'. It sets out the expected outcomes from CLD activity, within which the outcomes in relation to community capacity building are described as follows:
CLD supports people to be confident, skilled and active members of the community.
Through being involved in CLD, adults and young people:
- are more confident about working with other people in their
- community;
- have more skills and knowledge they can use in their community;
- are more able to use what they have learned in different situations in their community; and
- are more able to see how things in their community can change for the better.
CLD supports communities to be active and have more influence.
Through being involved in CLD, adults and young people are more able to:
- make links with other people in their community and build working relationships with them; and
- take action together on the issues that are important to them.
Through support from CLD, community organisations:
- have more influence on the issues that are important to them.
CLD supports community organisations to get access to resources and to deliver services effectively.
Through support from CLD, community organisations are more able to:
- access resources (like meeting places, equipment and money) that allow them to work on the issues they think are important;
- control assets (such as buildings and equipment) that allow them to work on the issues they think are important; and
- deliver services, where this is the most appropriate way of dealing with an issue they think is important.
CLD helps community organisations plan, manage and assess their work effectively.
Through support from CLD, community organisations are more able to:
- find out about and understand issues for the community;
- develop a plan of action on issues the community has identified;
- manage themselves well; and
- learn lessons from what they do and act on them.
CLD supports community organisations to include a wide range of people in their work.
Through support from CLD, community organisations:
- are more aware of different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs within their community;
- value and use the positive contributions of people who have a wide range of experiences, abilities, backgrounds and beliefs; and
- are more able to work well with other organisations which represent people who have different experiences, abilities, backgrounds and beliefs.
CLD supports productive networks and relationships.
Through support from CLD, community organisations are more able to:
- make links with organisations from other communities and build
- working relationships with them; and
- develop and keep working relationships with other organisations and services in their area.
'Delivering Change: understanding the outcomes of community learning and development' is wholly consistent with the HMIE framework for self evaluation and inspection, How Good is our Community Learning and Development?2 ( HG1OCLD?2)
http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/hgio2cld.pdf
HG1OCLD?2 is an important tool for quality improvement in all aspects of CLD.
Both Delivering Change and HG1OCLD?2 are also consistent with LEAP (see page 17), which is a tool for participatory planning and evaluation.
All these tools can be combined in ways that suit particular circumstances to help focus community capacity building work clearly on the outcomes for communities.
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