This toolkit is designed as a basic guide to effective project planning, application for funding, implementation, management and maintenance for community groups and organisations, interested community members, community development workers and workers who are new to the human services field.
The toolkit has been designed to assist communities establish, design and deliver their projects.
Checklists of the main tools are provided at the end of each section. Space has been left at the end of each section for you to add any 'tools' you think might be helpful. Each organisation and project will be different, so only use the tools that you think are relevant to your situation. Links to community resources available on the World Wide Web are provided throughout this kit and a list of resources is provided at the end.
We thank the 20 projects funded under the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy (2000-2004) across Australia that provided the background information on which the kit is based. Information about these projects is provided in the Appendix.
Section 2 Coming together and working together
Why have you come together?
Yo u have a passion for change, imagination and vision about what could be different in your community, and first-hand knowledge of an issue or problem you are concerned about. You understand and have an affinity with the life of the neighbourhood or your community, and are motivated to work with others to make a difference. There is also an overriding concern to work towards process goals, such as confronting and challenging disadvantage. You have an eye for the interconnections between what happens in your local community and the bigger macro context (i.e. political, social and economic).
Community development and early intervention projects encompass the above ingredients. These projects aim to work towards a vision for change in ways that support and expand local efforts. The term 'community capacity building' is used increasingly to explain such processes. The Stronger Families and Communities Strategy has embraced this term, which brings together three sets of ideas:
Community: 'a group of people with one or more common characteristics or interests, and living within a larger society. It need not be geographically defined'. (SFCS glossary)
Capacity: 'power of containing, receiving, experiencing, or producing' (Oxford Dictionary, page 147)
Building: 'construct by putting parts or materials together' ...'gradually establish itself' (Oxford Dictionary, page 129)
Community capacity building as outlined above describes dynamic and forwardlooking activities within communities that build on what already takes place within them. In other words, it is using the combined influence of a community's commitment, resources and skills to build on community strengths and address community problems and opportunities.
Identifying an issue that the community wants to address can provide a practical focus for capacity building.
Community capacity building processes are central to the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy, and community approaches that seek to support early intervention and prevention, and local solutions through community organisations working together.
Is the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy the right funding for your group or organisation's project?
Coming together and seeking funding means that you may already have some ideas around your community and what you want to achieve. It is useful to find out about opportunities for applying for funding to support your work and to look at the available application processes.
The Stronger Families and Communities Strategy is a funding program that aims to support the empowerment of communities to develop local answers to locally identified issues. The Strategy has a strong focus on the early childhood years.
One of the four initiatives under The Stronger Families and Communities Strategy, Local Answers, provides short-term funding for community-based projects. Where projects are connected to developing and supporting ongoing services, there may be funding available to assist with developing the capacity of services, working towards better engaging families to link them to the services, or developing demonstration projects which other agencies intend to support once they are established.
You will need to access current information about the different available funding for community-based projects.
For information about the Strategy, the application form and processes refer to the website.
After accessing this information about funding processes, it is worthwhile to ask:
- Will your ideas fit with the types of projects that the Program funding aims to support?
- If so, how appropriate is the funding to your ideas and proposal?
- What is the application process for project funding?
- Does it have funding rounds? When is the next funding round?
The fit seems right for us
If you decide this source of project funding fits with your ideas and proposal, preplanning can assist you with the process of fleshing out your idea and how it might work.
A useful place to start is to retrace where you have come from with the idea:
- What has been the trigger for your idea?
- What is the issue or need that you are seeking to respond to?
- Who are you trying to help?
You may find that the project you are seeking to develop and gain funding for 'has legs' already, that is, there is a history behind this idea's evolution. It may build on previous initiatives. Even so, it is important to canvass community groups and other relevant organisations about your idea. This will help you gain a broad range of perspectives on your intended idea up-front, which can open up imagination and possibilities. You will need to know whether there evidence to support the merits of your idea.
If your proposed project is a new initiative, talking with others gives you the opportunity to learn from past experiences so that you can build on previous efforts and lessons learnt. You should be confident that your idea has wide support and that other people also think that it is a good idea.
You might also find that there are potential partners you have not considered previously, so that rather than replicate unnecessarily something else that is happening, you might want to work more closely with others. Doing this sort of canvassing in your community presupposes that you have a sense of a 'community' with whom you are seeking to work.
Affinity with 'community'
The workers at the Centre know their 'community' as residents of the local public housing estate because they are part of the networks and life of the community. This knowledge is also about the complexity of the local area and the differences with in com m unity groups
(Collingwood Community Information and Drop-in Centre program).
An affinity with the 'community' that you seek to work with is an ingredient that can assist in the development and implementation of the project. Community can at times be a taken-for-granted idea and assumptions can be made that we all experience, understand or seek to build 'community' in the same way. There are many ways to describe 'community', but sometimes we can overlook the fact that community is also an experience that is shaped by values and beliefs. The Stronger Families and Communities Strategy operates from a definition of community that refers to groups of people who have some characteristics and interests in common, including where they live.
It may be helpful to ask:
- Has your group had the opportunity to talk about what it is that you have in common?
- What are your different perspectives and interests?
- What is the basis of this difference?
Giving these differences and com mon factors a vo ice early on will assist you in com ing together and developing a range of ways that you might approach this project idea. Having done this, you need to ask:
- Are there other groups and interests that you would like to involve at this stage in your project's development?
You might identify that you have a lot in common as a group but that you may not collectively have strong knowledge about the views and interests of the community with whom you want to work. You may like to ask:
- Are there other people you might want to talk with?
- Is there some further reading to be done?
Moving outside your own network can help test out your ideas. If your idea is to support low-income families with small children in your local area, for example, you need to ask:
- How well do you know the group your idea plans to support?
- Do you know enough about what the issues are from a range of perspectives?
- Are you predominantly one cultural group?
- If so, how does this reflect the wider community that you want to engage with?
Build a broad picture of 'community'
Gatheringthis info rmation req uires yo u to build a broader picture of your co m m un ity's dimensions. This will give yo ur pro jectto promote stronger fam ilies and co m m un ities an anchor, as 'community' can be a slippery and romantic notion. The aim is to ensure that you gather enough information to make the best decision about the strategies and actions that will produce your intended changes.
Who is the 'community' you want to work with?
At this stage of developing your proposal, useful strategies for mapping the dimensions of the community you seek to work with include:
- community audits;
- community profiles;
- network and collaboration maps.
A community audit of a local suburb or geographic-based community involves the following steps:
Identify population numbers and a socio-economic profile
This includes descriptive material such as the numbers of people who live in the area, their ages, household structures, gender and ethnicity, and socio-economic backgrounds. You might want to know about the businesses in the area, where people work, where people attend school or other services, i.e. do they travel out of the local area? You might also want to know about comparisons over time. What are the anticipated future demographic or socio-economic changes in the area? Have there been shifts in population, such as new people moving in, or closures in businesses and a rise in unemployment? Is there a new housing development that will lead to more families with young children moving into the area?
You can get this information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the local library. Local councils also do community profiles.
Identify issues that the community are concerned about
There are many ways to obtain information about community issues and how these are perceived. Some of the best ways are:
- Talk with people residing in your community. Start with your own networks, and then move out of them to canvass a wide range ofviews, not just those similar to yours.
- Ask what people in the community see as the issues.
- What do people in the community see as these issues' causes?
- What do community leaders see as the issues? (i.e. the local councillors).
- Read the local paper to keep abreast of local issues and who the power players are. Approach the local council for information about local issues. Many councils undertake needs assessments and have social planning documents that you can access.
Identify what services and groups already exist for the community.
There may be many community groups and services in the local area that aim to promote families and communities. Ask:
- How well do you know this part of the 'community'?
Useful strategies to help you find this out include:
- Access local government community services guides. These will provide you with information on residents' groups, community organisations and services.
- Follow up particular groups or services by making personal contact.
See the community builders website for help with this.
Working together
Another important pre-planning task is to ensure that yo u have the right composition within your group to undertake the planning and application development process:
- Think about the skills you will need to do the project
- Make a list of the balance of skills, knowledge and attributes of the people around the table.
- Have you got people with the commitment in terms of both motivation and time to work towards realising this project idea?
- Think about who else needs to come on board - approach them. It may be useful to involve representatives from early childhood services or other human services in the local community.
- Think about the composition of your group in terms of the community you are seeking to target.
- Think about what might happen to your project idea and your group if your project idea is not funded?
You will need to ensure that the group can work towards fulfiiling the specific requirements of applying for funds, as you will need to respond to those eligibility requirements in your funding application. It is imperative that you explore the following issues in the pre-planning process:
- Is your organisation incorporated, so that you can fulfil the legal and financial responsibilities of receiving government grant money?
- What organisation will support the application and project?
- Are you affiliated with an organisation that can provide the organisational infrastructure to support this project idea?
Checklist
Ask yourself:
- Why have you come together?
- What do you want to achieve?
- How does your idea of community capacity building and strengthening fit with the funding Program interpretation?
- Is it the appropriate funding body for you?
- Can you meet the specific eligibility requirements?
- If so, what is your vision for the project?
- What is the trigger for the project?
- Does the project 'have legs already'?
- What can you learn from past experiences?
- Have you consulted with community members or groups about your idea?
- Do you have an understanding of and affinity with the local community?
- Do you have access to a community profile? (e.g. socio-economic, socio-cultural, age etc. demographics)
- Are you aware of the issues that concern members of the local community?
- Are you in contact with the local council?
- Are you aware of services or groups that already exist in the local area?
- Have you built a broad enough picture of the community?
- Do you know the members of your working group?
- Do you have the right balance of members in your working group? (take into consideration the community you are targeting)
- Are you aware of your legal and financial responsibilities?
- Do you have organisational backing?
- Have you accessed relevant resources to gather background information?
- Do you have alternative plans if the funding application is unsuccessful?
- Are you ready for the next step?