The Scottish Government

Capacity for Change

Building Community Capacity: Guidance for staff working with communities

Access both the online version of the guidance and also a downloadable pdf version.

What is it and who is it for?

This guidance is for staff involved in community capacity building. It gives practical advice about how to build community capacity; brings together existing materials and tools and provides examples of what others have done.

The guidance was commissioned by Learning Connections Division, Lifelong Learning Directorate and has been developed both for and with those involved in community capacity building.

You can dip in and out to find information which is most relevant to you. The guide is useful whether you want to know more about the process of building community capacity from planning to evaluating, or find resources to support existing work.

********************************************************************************************

The following resources (developed independently of Capacity for Change) are also available to support Community Capacity Building

Building Community Capacity: resources for CLD Practice

This on-line community capacity building resource guide is aimed at helping community learning and development practitioners take forward their role in building community capacity. It offers a single point of reference to over 40 frameworks, tools and other materials that are helpful in informing practice.

The seven sections in this resources guide are organised around the outcome headings in 'Delivering Change: understanding the outcomes of community learning and development':

• Section one: General resources for Community Capacity building - including both general introductions to and overviews of community capacity building and collections of resources that cover a wide field.
• Section two: Skills, confidence and activity - describes the resources that support people to be confident, skilled and active members of the community.
• Section three: Active and influential communities - covers the resources that support communities to be active and to have more influence.
• Section four: Effective, resourced community organisations - includes the resources that support community organisations to get access to resources and deliver services effectively.
• Section five: Planning, management and assessment - includes the resources that help community organisations plan, manage and assess their work effectively.
• Section six: Inclusion and involvement - covers the resources that support community organisations to include a wide range of people in their work.
• Section seven: Networking and sustainability - includes the resources that support productive networks and relationships.

Access the full on-line resource.

Strengthening Scotland's Communities Programme

The Strengthening Scotland's Communities programme was developed to support best practice in community capacity building and used to promote the on-line community capacity building resource guide. The conference and workshop programme ran at the beginning of 2008 and involved 20 events across Scotland. These included Strengthening Scotland's Communities Briefings; Planning a Community Capacity Building Strategy; Achieving Community Change and Effective Community Organisations.