Communities of Ukraine: On the Way to RebirthPART VI

BUILDINGCOMMUNITYDEVELOPMENTPROGRAMS

By the end of this part

You will be able to

explain the difference between conventional methods of research and Participatory Action Research

find potential partners in your community for further work

analyze the efficiency level of your community as a community development actor.

work with a community to develop the necessary action plan based on real community needs.

Introduction

The work areas described in this chapter focus on creating programs and projects to carry out the communitys new vision in a systematic and practical way. An important first step can be a participatory action research (PAR) process designed to help community members reflect systematically on their situation in a way which leads to effective action and to building the bonds of unity and trust needed to carry out that action. It is also important to collaborate with a broad range of partners in order to access resources needed to carry out the communitys plans. Often community people need to create organizations or other structures to implement activities and programs which support the community to do things in a new way.All of this work is described in terms of the following four community development action areas:

Participatory action research

Program planning, implementation and evaluation

Networking with resources and allies

Building effective organizations

1. Participatory Action Research (PAR)This section describes a tool called participatory action research (PAR) which is central to the approach to community development explored in this manual. We have created a separate section for this tool because it can be used in many of the work areas described in other chapters: assessing community needs, mobilizing community residents through core groups, developing community programs and evaluating the results of our efforts to date so that we can make new plans.

In community development, we must often create new solutions to the problems we face because the old ways of thinking and acting are not giving the results we want. To achieve this goal, we need a research process (to uncover the knowledge which we can use to understand our problems and find new solutions). This research must be directly linked to action (so that people find more effective ways to work together on those solutions). And finally, both the research and the action must be carried out in a participatory way (one that involves all those who share the problem and all those who have to work together to solve it). When we put all three of those ideas together, we get participatory action research or PAR.

How is Participatory Action Research Different from Other Types of Research?

Usually when people first hear the word research, they think about the work done by special experts, such as sociologists, demographers, or political scientists, to study an issue using scientific methods. Some of the strategies that are commonly used by these experts to study communities include surveys and other types of questionnaires, key informant interviews, as well as the gathering and analysis of statistical information from government records. Also used are technical studies related to aspects of the physical environment such as water, soil and air quality. All of these research methods can be very useful for understanding and working on community problems, but they will not achieve some of the goals that are such an important part of community development. Before we look at why this new type of approach, participatory action research, is also needed, we will summarize some of the major differences between PAR and other research:

Conventional Research

1. Expert-Driven Outside experts define the research questions, choose the research methods and carry out the research. Community members typically participate by providing information through questionnaires, surveys or interviews.

1. Objectivity It is important to keep the contact between researchers and community respondents free from subjective influence.

1. Numerical (Quantitative) Measurement Where possible, experts assign numbers to social categories of persons and to behaviours to facilitate statistical summaries.

1. Rigor This characteristic is achieved through ideal or quasi-experimental research design using control groups.

1. Random Sampling Researchers try to avoid over-representing any one group or any one portion of the population by choosing respondents in a random or near random sample.

Participatory Action Research

1. Community-Driven Community members define the research questions, choose the research methods and carry out the research. If facilitators from outside the community are involved, they work under the direction of the community.

1. Subjectivity Research data is gathered through empathetic dialogue between community researchers and other community members.

1. Qualitative Approach to Data Collection Numerical measurement is typically used to clarify or add to qualitative data which is generated through community dialogue, interviews and other PAR techniques.

1. Rigor Achieved through Triangulation Triangulation means using three or methods and data sources to collect and analyze information.

1. Informal Sampling What is important is incorporating the views of as many types of community people as possible (taking into account such factors as gender, age, socio-economic status).

Why Are Participatory Action Approaches to Community Research Needed ?

As explained in the introduction to this section, participatory action research can be an important tool for carrying out needs assessments, for core group formation, and for program planning, implementation and evaluation. We have defined community development elsewhere in this manual as an approach to addressing human problems which helps groups of people build the bonds of trust, unity and cooperation that they need to work together to understand and analyze their problems and build just and effective solutions.

Participatory research, designed and carried out by community people themselves, helps people understand and analyze their problems as they share and think systematically about what they already know and carry out activities to gather new information. The research they do is not simply theoretical; it is practical and action-oriented in that it is aimed at finding solutions which will lead to greater well-being and prosperity. Because the community owns and controls the research process, it builds bonds of trust, unity and cooperation. In this way, participatory action research is at the heart of community development. It is one way of describing its key processes and dynamics.

How is Participatory Action Research Carried Out ?

Participatory action research is a way of categorizing a number of related strategies and techniques. These techniques and strategies have their philosophical foundation in community liberation work in Latin America and community organizing work in Asia related to poverty alleviation. Some of these approaches were further systematized at the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University in Britain into an approach called participatory rapid appraisal. In the past decade or so, some form of participatory action research has become a recommended part of development work for many World Bank and United Nations programmes.

Most participatory action research processes begin with the creation of a community research team. This team is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the research process, but it is important for them to involve as many others as possible in every step. Often the first task of this team is to build a clearer understanding of community conditions. Participatory action research has many tools for understanding and analyzing community problems. These include using a variety of approaches to structuring community dialogue (such as the medicine wheel model described in Part Three of this book) as well as techniques which rely less on words such as using maps, diagrams, charts, and pictures. It might also include carrying out specialized research to gather information about the community which is not readily accessible (for example, determining the incidence of a particular problem such as drug abuse or teen pregnancy). The important thing to remember is that, as much as possible, community members carry out this research (with support and training from outside experts if necessary). It is when community members themselves uncover what is really happening in their community that they will have the will, knowledge and courage to undertake the challenging work of building new patterns of life.The participatory action research process might also involve organizing community members to gather other information essential to building an effective solution. This might mean finding out what other people with similar problems have tried. It could mean designing and trying many different initiatives to work on the problem. All of these steps continue to link research and action in a dynamic process. Throughout this work, which might take many months or even years, the research team continues to meet regularly to reflect on what has been tried and what has been learned through this joint action. New participatory research is carried out as the need for additional information becomes clear and new actions are tried on the basis of what is learned.

Features of Participatory Action Research

PAR happens in the context of a community.It is something that people do together. If there is no real community, the first step in a PAR process is building connections based on mutual or collective love, respect, shared purpose, commitment and a common sense of identity. These make community possible.

People in PAR address their practical needs experienced in the daily life of a community.Such needs, along with a common desire to fulfill them, form the starting point of PAR. PAR deals with the realities of life, working to create a sustainable and meaningful future free from oppression, poverty and despair.

People in PAR build knowledge and deepen their understanding of the current situation so that they can take action.Building knowledge in PAR involves taking and validating information from different sources such as oral tradition, previous research and individual experiences. It honours many ways of knowing. The research in PAR is an investigation into the foundations of current situations, the root causes of problems, and the consequences of ongoing efforts to change things.

PAR always leads to, or flows from, action.People do things in order to change their current situation. They reflect together on what they have done and then take further action. Without action, the research would be disconnected from reality.

People in PAR develop an organizing framework for community change.In a community, people do things and talk about what happened all the time. PAR can be a way of consciously bringing together such action and reflection into a framework for change. In this way, PAR processes are cycles of action, dialogue and learning that build on each other with the explicit goal of changing the current situation.

People in PAR empower their community.Communities gain the research capabilities to analyze the root causes of their situation and develop locally appropriate strategies. As groups reach their goal of meeting a need, participants begin a journey through which they gain confidence develop a deeper facility for collective action, strengthen their unity of purpose and vision, gain greater access to resources, become more powerful, conscious and liberated, and become more self-critical in a healthy and productive way.

PAR is an organic process, tied to the rhythm of community life.It has ups and downs. There may be periods of great enthusiasm and movement, and corresponding periods of disillusionment and stagnation. The process can be very slow, and there are no shortcuts. A PAR process does not unfold according to a schedule. Over time, people create a momentum, building faith in the process of knowing, taking action and reflecting together. One change gradually leads to another.

PAR often has some form of outside intervention.The PAR process only truly starts when a group of people themselves connects and become researchers into their own lives. It is not something that outside researchers can do independently, although they can play a vital role in creating the conditions for PAR to take place. Like gardening, the gardener does not grow the seeds any more than the seeds line themselves up in orderly rows. The work of the gardener lies in preparing the ground; understanding the properties of the earth, plants and seasons; removing obstacles to the natural growth of the seeds; and enabling growth to take place. It is the same with PAR. An outside person cannot do PAR to a community; rather, she can do things that enable a PAR process to take root and mature within a group or community.

Case Study

Oleh and Natalya work at a youth drop-in center in the downtown area of their town. Many of the young people who frequently come to the center are from families with many problems. Some of their parents are unemployed and the family really struggles to meet its basic needs. Some of their parents are addicts, and other families experience a great deal of conflict and even violence. Some of the young people are in trouble with alcohol and drugs themselves, and many are not doing well in school.

Natalya and Oleh have been talking about what they can do to really make a difference. They know that the drop-in center is a safe and comfortable place for the young people to spend some time, but they would like to do more. After attending a community development workshop, they decide to try a participatory action research approach to figuring out what their next steps could be. They understand that the young people themselves know their own world best and will be able to identify the most appropriate approaches that the center can try.

They are sure that the young people will not be interested in a research project that involves a great deal of reading and writing and will probably also not want to sit down and spend hours analyzing their situation. So Oleh and Natalya decide they will ask the young people if they would like to take pictures to create a photo exhibit about their lives. The youth respond enthusiastically and they are each given a disposable camera. Natalya and Oleh encourage each of them to take pictures both of the things that make them happy and of the things that they would like to change.

A week later, the pictures have all been developed and the young people gather in an excited group to see each others work and to talk about why they chose to take those particular pictures. Oleh and Natalya help the young people organize their pictures into themes that explore different aspects of their lives and to add short stories and captions. Some of the themes that they find include relationships with friends, family life, getting into trouble, feeling lonely, scared and hungry.

Once the pictures are organized and prepared for an exhibit, it is easy for Natalya and Oleh to help the young people identify particular issues that they could work on together at the youth center. The young people decide that they would like to learn more about how to have better relationships with their friends how to support each better, how to avoid conflicts, how to communicate better, and how to deal with relationships between boys and girls. Natalya works with one group of young people to find information about these topics on the internet and in the drop-in centers resource library. Oleh works with another group of young people to prepare the photo exhibit for display at the town hall. They also organize a meeting with the director of the Department of Youth Affairs for the same week that the exhibit will be held. In this way, they hope to get support for a weekend retreat at a youth camp with special youth trainers where they can gain leadership skills.

Think and try to answer:

1. Does your community have a problem about which more information is needed before people can understand it clearly enough to begin to take practical action?

1. How will you help community members understand participatory action research, how it differs from other types of research which might be familiar to them, and how it can help them understand that problem better and find effective solutions?

1. What initial thoughts do you have about how a participatory action research process could be organized in your community?

1. Which tools and strategies might be used and how will you help community members learn enough about these techniques that they will feel confident as researchers?

2. Program Planning, Implementation and Evaluation

In this section, we consider the challenge of program development in the context of community development. A program is usually seen as something professionals (or community elite) do for, or to the community. Community development is usually defined as something the community does for itself. We are combining these two concepts to define community development programming to mean an organized and sustained process the community does for itself.

In the 1920s, James Yen, founder of the Rural Reconstruction movement in China, provided the following guidelines for development programs:

Go to the people

Live among the people

Learn from the people

Plan with the people

Work with the people

Start with what the people know

Build on what the people have

When a community group decides to become involved in community development, it will at some point need to move towards the action of addressing a community need. Moving towards action requires the community group to undertake several activities: reflecting on the needs assessment results (and, possibly undertaking further assessment of community needs), action planning, planning implementation, and evaluation of the process and outcomes. Again, it is important to emphasize that, while there is a tendency to think of these activities as individual steps in a linear process, in real life, these steps are, in fact, overlapping and inseparable. For example, effective implementation of a community development project needs to constantly be informed by updated information on community needs and realities. Likewise, action planning requires periodic and on-going evaluation of its effectiveness.As a result, instead of understanding this program cycle as a series of separate and distinct steps, it is more accurate to view these actions as an on-going process.The diagram below is drawn in a circle to show that the cycle may be entered through any of the doorways, and that each part is influenced and changed by actions taken in every other part.

Needs Assessment A Systematic Process for Listening to the Community

Listening to the community identify its own needs has two important outcomes for successful community development projects. First, it ensures that a genuine community need is identified. Second, it will build commitment and support among the community for any actions taken to address the need they identify. This is critical to maintaining on-going community participation in a community development project.

A needs assessment usually grows out of an increasing awareness within the community that the communitys situation needs to be changed in some manner. Such community tension may simply bubble under the surface of community life, occasionally reaching the surface through informal complaining among community members (Bopp and Bopp, 1998). The point of a needs assessment is to give a structured voice to this informal community tension. A needs assessment provides a forum for people to discuss their situation and to mobilize them to begin the process of changing it.

Undertaking a needs assessment involves bringing community people together to analyze their current situation and their desired future situation. This enables a community to discuss where it is currently at and where it would like to go in the future.Many of the other work areas already discussed in Chapter IV can be part of the needs assessment process:

Harnessing Community Tensioninvolves a growing awareness in the minds and hearts of the people involved in a community development process that things are not the way they should be.

Facilitating Consultation About CommunityReality and Needshelps to systematize the description of community realities that will serve as a springboard for community action.

Developing a Common Vision of a Sustainable Futurehelps the community assess its present conditions in the light of the future it is willing to work to create.

Networking with Resources and Allieshelps the community recognize the resources it already has, where the gaps are, and who will be willing to dedicate time and energy to the community development process being considered.

These community-identified needs are the foundation for moving towards action. All planning and implementation must be focused on addressing these needs in some manner. It is therefore critical that the information from the needs assessment is documented properly. This will allow a community group to spend time reflecting on the information gathered in the needs assessment and to think of planned solutions for the needs identified by the community.

The community group should reflect on the needs assessment results to gain clarity on the exact nature of the community-identified needs. Such a process may result in the group realizing that some information is incomplete, missing or vague, or that additional information is required for effective planning. This may require doing further needs assessment. This should not be seen as a step back in the process. Rather, it is a natural part of the reflection and action process of the community development cycle.

The development of programs to address specific community issues often means that key information from the participatory action research processes described above (and in further detail in Section 6 of Part IV) will need to be adapted, integrated and documented appropriately in order to facilitate planning processes around that issue.

Think and try to answer:

1. How does your community or organization decide which issues are important?

1. How does your community or organization make plans?

1. Who works to implement these plans and how is the decision made about who will be involved?

1. How are community activities and programs evaluated and how is the information from these evaluations distributed?

Program Planning and Design Planning solutions to address the community needs identified through a needs assessment is at the heart of action planning. Just as community participation is a central part of a needs assessment, so too must participation be central in action planning.Everyone whose participation is required for carrying out a plan needs to be involved in making it.

Tools for Planning Community Development Programs

The following guidelines can help ensure that program planning supports community development processes rather than shifting the momentum from community people to the technical support providers whom often are familiar with the criteria and skills needed to develop program proposals.

0. You cant plan for other people. You can only plan for yourself.

Community development processes require planning at several levels, and each level needs to ensure that it is not making plans for the others. Some of the planning levels typically found in community development work are:

Integrated Community Planning This is a broad-based community consultation process that can be used to assist the community to reach consensus about goals and strategies to address specific community development issues. This process can result in the development of an integrated community plan that can serve as the foundation for all the other types of planning that are needed.

Community Core Groups, Families and Individuals These groups should be assisted to develop their own plans for carrying out their part of the integrated community plan.

Community-Based Agencies and Organizations These plans outline the actions these groups will take to facilitate community participation in the community development processes; they identify their roles in implementing the integrated community plan. The agencies and organizations should be certain that they are not developing plans for the community about what community members will do.

Outside Helpers- These plans outline how they will support the community members and organizations with their community development plans.

0. Community Development program plans need several components.

Designing a planned solution to address a community need requires that the community group write a structured action plan.This plan should involved several components:

Vision Statement Written by the community group when it formed, this should outline the desired future state of the community. The pursuit of this vision is the primary purpose for which the community group exists. The vision statement therefore answers the question of why the group exists.

Goal Statement Goals describe accomplishments that need to be fulfilled in order to realize the vision. The goal statement therefore answers the question of what?

ObjectivesObjectives provide specific, measurable targets, accomplishments and timelines that will need to be realized in order to reach the goals. They further refine the question of what?

Strategies These are the specific lines of action that have been chosen to achieve the goals and objectives. Strategies should be reviewed regularly and changed as needed in order to achieve the desired results. They answer the question of how?

Activities This part of the plan outlines specific tasks that need to be done, when they need to be completed, who undertake each task, and how you will know when each activity has been achieved.

Learning Plan A learning plan outlines who requires what kind of learning in order to undertake their respective tasks in implementing the program plan. It should state who needs to learn what and precisely how that learning will take place.

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan- This outlines the process whereby information about all aspects of the program will be accumulated for all program aspects. It allows you to review how the activities of the implementation process correlate with the originally defined goals and objectives. Monitoring reveals both successes and emerging problems and changes in programming since it provides a general description of the program progress towards the established objectives. (More detailed information is available later in this section under D. Evaluation)

0. Make sure your plan is sustainable

In other words, make sure that your plan wont get stopped halfway through because it does not have all the things it needs to keep going.

0. Communicate your plan clearly

One source of frustration and hard feelings in the community development process is a lack of clarity about exactly what each partner in the process has agreed to do. Each planning level (see above) needs to communicate its plan to every other level in order to avoid conflicts expectations about what be expected to happen.

e.Use your plan

Too often Program A is developedto satisfy funding or other types of administrative requirements and then it simply sits on a shelf somewhere. A good plan can help hold everyone accountable and can serve as a standard against which to make choices about day-to-day activities and priorities.

Program Implementation

On the surface, it may seem that implementation is simply what you do between the planning and evaluation phases. Beneath that apparently straightforward surface, however, there are certain fundamental issues over which most community development programs seem to stumble.

All action is not implementation. Implementation means bringing your strategic design to life by carrying out lines of action in ways that are focused around the basic development principle so that the process itself actually leads to your original vision. Implementation is not a robotic process of carrying out what was planned. It is a living process, and anything that is alive changes, learns and grows. In healthy community development processes, the vision and plan evolve and develop as the project unfolds. If the actions as planned are not leading to the anticipated positive transformation, the plan itself will need to change. Community development program implementation always involves learning because the process requires building the capacity of people, community organizations and agencies to more effectively address the determinants of human well being and prosperity. For this reason, learning needs to be integrated into every program implementation process without exception.

Some of the most effective boards of directors of major corporations and public institutions are as effective as they are because they have a good coach. We are convinced that, in a similar vein, community development projects needs coaching and mentoring from someone who is experienced, skilled, above moral and ethical reproach, detached from the various interests competing within the process, and committed and dedicated to the advancement and well-being of the people the program intends to serve. In addition to coaching and mentoring, regular learning sessions need to be incorporated into a continuous improvement initiative at the heart of program life. Implementation is not primarily what professionals do. Until the key individuals and groups within the community are actively engaged (hearts, minds and human energy) as the authors of the process, what is occurring may be preliminary and necessary, but it is not yet community development implementation. Just as the human body utterly depends on routine patterns such as breathing, eating and sleeping for health, community development programs need routines.The fundamentals are the following:

Revisioning and spiritual anchoring This reconnects everyone to the vision and values that need to animate the program and to the living Spirit of Life.

Community building (maintaining and improving human relations) This promotes the learning, mutual understanding, skill building, healing and changing that needs to occur within and between the primary implementers so that the circle of true community is always alive and well at the heart of the program.

Monitoring A routinized program of reflection on the action occurring in light of vision, goals, and principles will lead to a continuous evolution of program design and behaviors.

Learning A planned and routinized program of learning for continuous improvement that builds the capacity of everyone involved to more effectively pursue the goals of the program is vital to success in community development work. Without it (and most programs do plod on without it), program participants are often doomed to repeat the same patterns of thinking and acting that have created the very conditions the program has set out to transform.

The routinization of these four elements (anchoring, community building, monitoring and learning) provides a sound practical framework for ensuring that implementation is what is occurring and not one of its many counterfeits, such as frenzied activism, dogmatic promotion of strategies or a structure that isnt working, or the gradual decline and demolition of trust and constructive human relations.

Program Monitoring and Evaluation The purpose of evaluation is to find out whether or not, and to what extent, the work that is being done is leading to the accomplishment of the vision, goals and objectives set by the community. The process of community development is complex, subtle and very prone to being diverted, distorted or even stopped along the way. For these reasons, it is absolutely fundamental that strategic action be balanced by systematic reflection. A self-corrective guidance mechanism needs to be built into the system in order to be able to tell if the process is really on course, or if changes are required. Evaluation means to reflect on what has happened and to make an assessment as to its value.

A common mistake that is made in the evaluation of people-centered programs is to look at the objectives written down at the beginning of the program (or those outlined in the funding proposal) and then to set out to measure the progress (or lack of it) made in reaching those objectives. Often by waiting until the end to measure only one part of the program plan, such as the objectives, the data that is gathered only tells of the final product. In such instances, the evaluation would then not reveal valuable information about the process of the program, whether or not learning took place, and the quality of participation. There is then no way of telling if, or to what extent, the strategy has moved the community closer to its vision and goals.

In community development processes, the evaluation standards must then be rooted in the origins of the process. The three necessary areas of assessment in evaluating community development programs are related to:

Primary vision, and the goals, objectives and strategies that flow from it.Is the development process leading to the achievement of the vision and goals? This is thewhator content-related question.

Development principles.At the beginning of community development processes, people should identify the principles by which they want their development action to be guided. The key question to ask is whether or not the principles agreed upon are being respected. This is thehowor process-related question.

Participatory process. The people involved in the inner (personal) and outer (community) work need to describe what they are experiencing and learning from the process. This subjective data grounds the other two categories and centers evaluation on the process of building human capacity for change.

Tools for Monitoring and Evaluating Community Development Programs

In order to evaluate anything, some standard is needed. In other words, in order to tell if something is good or not good, we first need to have a clear idea of what good is in that particular situation. This standard is often expressed in clearly defined success indicators that link the communitys vision of its desired future to the ongoing programs and projects designed to actualize that vision. Evaluation requires relevant and practical monitoring tools to use for keeping track of day-to-day work, week-to-week or month-to-month progress toward agreed-upon success indicators. An effective evaluation and monitoring mechanism for community development processes could include the following elements:

1. From the very beginning, a plan to hold regular monitoring and evaluation meetings at the management level (preferably monthly) and with the community (at least quarterly) needs to be made.

1. A monitoring and evaluation coordinating team whose task is to watchdog the process and to serve as a feedback and course correction mechanism.

1. Project staff (if any) and volunteers should all participate with the evaluation team in setting up the evaluation framework, formulating the guiding questions and determining the indicators of progress. In this way, they will understand what they should be watching for on a daily basis, and which warning signs will tell them that immediate action is needed.

1. Simple checklists, guiding questions and other tools that can be easily understood and used by community members should be prepared to guide the process.

1. All program stakeholders must somehow be engaged in monitoring and evaluation. By stakeholders, we mean individuals and groups who are contributing to and benefiting from the process. It is also very important to consult critics and opponents, who may be able to provide insight others may miss.

1. Each stage of the (monthly) monitoring and (quarterly) evaluation process should be documented to provide the possibility of correcting your activities, if it will be necessary. Besides this process, you need to write down all changes you made.

1. After each monitoring and evaluation session, the project team needs to reflect deeply on its analyses of the situation, its current strategies, its habits of working, who it works with, and its up-coming plans. All of this should be on the table for adjustment, or major change if necessary. Whatever changes are made should be documented as well and fed back into the monitoring and evaluation system for further consideration in the next round.

Case Study

Removing Garbage from Your House

The problem of polluting the environment with household waste is relevant for the majority of Ukrainian cities, towns and villages. This issue was identified in the town of Pustomyty at the first-ever community planning meeting, when about 80 people attended a meeting to identify and prioritize some of their community needs. As a result of the meeting, Ptakh (a youth center based in Pustomyty, Lviv oblast), decided to try to work with the community to tackle the problem of waste removal from the territories belonging to Pustomyty City Council. This included Pustomyty town, Navaria village, Lisnevychi village and the Hlynna micro-district. The Ptakh Youth Center operates primarily in the sphere of local community development and training community leaders for Ukrainian society. While Ptakh is not an ecological organization, the issue of waste removal was perceived by the members of the organization as an opportunity to unite the community around solving a specific problem that was equally important and relevant for all of its members.

Ptakh started the process by developing a core group of about 20 of its members to work on the project. Utilizing the information they heard from the community consultation meeting, they developed the idea of implementing a new and effective garbage disposal system.

After discussing their idea with City Council, it was agreed that this was an important community issue and City Council provided some start up funding for the project. Ptakh also presented their idea to the Civil Society Community Roots Project and received some further supplementary funding. Following approval from City Council, Ptakh decided to first introduce an experimental one-month garbage removal system in a limited territory.

In order to gather more information from the community, a questionnaire that would help them develop the system and schedule of garbage removal was developed. Twenty volunteers then went from house to house to survey the people and gather the needed information. Once the data was gathered and analyzed, the following method of garbage collection was designed:

People would buy garbage bags from the driver of the garbage truck.

The price of the bag included a garbage removal fee, which would be used to gather on-going finances in order to provide sustainability of the system.

People would put their garbage bag on the street in front of their house according to a pre-set schedule of garbage pick-up.

A specialized service would then collect only the specific bags displaying special I.D. stickers and take them to the landfill.

In order to remove large loads of garbage, people could call the service and agree on a specific time for collection.

During this first implementation stage of the experimental garbage collection system, a survey of public opinion was conducted to find out what the people liked about the system and what could be improved. This feedback was taken into consideration and some adjustments were introduced to the system.

Finally, after tests and trials of the original idea, an agreed-upon new garbage collection system became a reality. A final schedule was printed and delivered to the community, and people began using the service. The system was so successful that one month after it was introduced, the Pustomyty City Council agreed to finance the introduction of this system in the second part of the town. A final evaluation indicated that 70 percent of the town now uses this new system.

It is important to point out that the main prerequisite to success of this initiative was the involvement of the community in all stages of planning, starting from the initial identification of their needs, right through to the evaluation stage. Working in cooperation to plan and implement this project, Ptakh Youth Center, the Pustomyty City Council, and the rest of the community have successfully addressed the issue of garbage removal in their town. They can now enter the third millennium with clean streets and a new sense of community ownership and pride.

Think and try to answer:1. Should the way your organization identifies community needs be carried out in a more participatory way?

1. Do the seven components of program planning presented here compare with your current group plans?

1. How do you communicate your program plan to others?

1. How can your project implementation be monitored to ensure that it is in line with the vision, goals and objectives identified by the community?

1. How did you make sure you involve your community throughout the process?

1. Networking with Resources and Allies

Traditionally, when we hear the word resources in relation to organizational and project work, we often think of financial and material resources. In the sphere of community development, however, resources can refer any aspect of the community that can contribute in a positive way to the development of a project, activity or organization. Resources in this case can include things like ideas, support, information, relationships and people, as well as financial and material resources. Resources are the tools that help us implement our ideas, achieve desired results or make needed changes. That is why the process of finding resources for community work is a vitally important task that requires responsibility and specific skills. In many communities there are only a few activists working on a broad range of issues. For this reason, they need to work collaboratively and coherently so that their efforts will harmonize to achieve the goals defined by the community.

Networking can start with the many organizations and institutions whose activity is closely connected with the life of the community. Most communities already have a variety of resources. For example, there may be local governmental authorities, schools, churches, departments of social assistance and organizations implementing economic development or employment-related programs. Many of these community resources can become your allies and partners in your efforts to mobilize the community to work together on common problems.

The task of finding and nurturing these partners is an important area of work. You can begin by making a map showing all the public and non-governmental agencies in or near the community. Then you can visit them and find out how they see the needs of the community and what they are doing to address them. You have to remember that they will have some questions for you as well. It is important to be sincere in these meetings in trying to learn from others rather than simply using the occasion to promote your own project or to look for a way to get some resources from others. Do not forget the advice to seek first to understand and then to be understood. Maybe these agencies also have some needs which you can assist them with. In other words, the goal of these meetings should be to build true partnership relations.

On the basis of such meetings and interviews, you can find allies who are willing to work with you to improve the life of your community. The next stage involves identifying specific activities or projects on which to collaborate. One of the most common errors people make when they first begin building community partnerships is to make assumptions about each other rather than negotiating specific agreements. People and organizations soon lose patience with endless meetings to discuss what should happen when there are no concrete results. Creating partnerships in community work also does not mean that people should give up the specific mission of their own organization to join with another one. Good partnerships are based on clear agreements about what the joint work is and what the specific role and contribution of each partner will be. The final test for a successful partnership is the real results that are seen in community.

Sometimes partnerships between community organizations evolve from a series of joint activities to the point where some type of inter-organizational structure that belongs to two or three different sectors of society (i.e. the business-sector, the civil society sector and the public sector). These can be as basic as some type of inter-agency committee that meets regularly to discuss community issues such as child poverty, for example, and to propose joint strategies. Inter-sectoral initiatives can also evolve into other structures such as coalitions, lobby or policy groups, community foundations, or a regional community development agency. Longer-term inter-sectoral partnerships can play an important role in finding effective solutions for community problems by bringing together the individual interests and resources of organizations that belong to these sectors. Non-governmental organizations representing the civil society sector can not only speed up the process of democratic reforms and protect the rights and interests of those people who are in the most vulnerable positions, but also solve specific social problems that the state cannot solve at the moment (such as supporting peoples employment and creating additional jobs).

We have been discussing the work of collaborating with resources and allies from within the community. Community development work sometimes also draws on resources from outside the community. All living processes requires external support. For example, plants need sunshine and rain, as well as nutrients from the soil. In community development, the role of outside assistance is crucial; however, an idea or project should not start with the contribution of resources from the outside. If outside resources are responsible for starting some action, that action becomes dependent on the outside resources. It is then likely that once the provision of those outside resources are stopped, the action will also stop. When outside partners are too much involved in development processes, the community loses its ability to develop.

Therefore, we have to keep in mind that control over the development process should not be given up in exchange for resources necessary for development in a short-term perspective. The key to networking and developing resources is that an idea or project already exists and that outside resources enhance that idea. In this way, ownership of the project remains with the community and the idea itself will begin to gain support from others as it becomes more known and more people become involved in contributing to it.

Outside support can involve material resources, but it can also mean technical support through consultative advice. Clearly, the establishment of sustainable communities often requires the assistance of professionals from outside the community. What is important is that this aid should be given in the framework of a true partnership, in which professionals are really guided by the recommendations and requests from the community. The main task of outside professionals in community development work is to help people learn how to solve their social and economic problems by themselves.

Community members themselves should move towards creating the conditions for the sustainable life of community. This is why we have to remember our traditional proverb: Water will not flow under a lying stone, which can become our slogan in the work on attracting resources for the third sector activities.

A brief note about fundraising

Some of the most common fundraising methods used by Ukrainian NGOs are the following:

1. Receiving grants for implementing the projects from international donors

1. Membership fees

1. Contributions from sponsors (such as businesses)

1. Subsidies from state institutions

1. The organization of various events, concerts, evenings and fairs

1. A box for private donations for NGO needs

1. Establishing a financial committee inside charitable organizations that consists of local businessmen and is charged with not only supervising expenses, but also with fundraising issues from their colleagues-businesspeople

1. The creation of an untouchable capital fund that will give some small money coming from the interest rate on this deposit account

1. Starting up their own businesses

Regardless of which of the above strategies are chose, the fundraising process can be briefly presented as follows:

Create an idea.

Write a proposal (description of problem, aim and action plan, outcomes, budget).

Compile a list of potential sponsors, donors.

From among the sponsors (donors), find out who and what can be given to your project (it may be free goods and services).

Write a letter of request.

Organize events to advertise your project (publications, handouts, announcements, speeches etc.).

Negotiate with sponsors (fundraising).

Implement the project according to its developed plan.

Publish public reports on the use of funds and achieved results.

Thank allies and maintain friendly partnership relations with them.

Think and try to answer:

1. What kinds of resources does your organization use?

1. Which of these resources are available in the community and which need to come from outside the community?

1. Do you have partnership relationships with other community organizations? With government? With the business sector?

1. How do you nurture and maintain these relationships?

Case Study

At The Crossroads

Vona or She is a growing, Kyiv-based women's organization struggling for identity.The group sprang into existence along with a multitude of community-based organizations after the fall of the Soviet Union and the emergence of an independent Ukraine in 1991. Along with many such newly formed organizations, Vona sought both to unite individuals holding common interests, as well as to fill the gap left in society by the collapse of the Soviet command economy and social safety net. In fact, at one time, Vona was part of a larger international organization that also sought to cooperate with women and women's groups throughout all of Ukraine and in the neighboring countries of Belarus and Moldova.

Since 1997, however, Kyiv-Vona has registered as an independent, non-profit community organization in its own right and does not cooperate with other Ukrainian chapters of Vona on a regular basis. That fact also reflects what Vona and other describe as the sometimes stiff competition among NGOs that has evolved alongside the development of the Third Sector itself. That competition takes many forms: competition for funding from cash-strapped federal, regional and municipal governments, for funding from wealthier international organizations and foreign partners as well as competition simply for status and recognition.

Vona maintains a full-time volunteer staff of three and a regular membership of around 50 women. Like many smaller community based organizations, Vona is very much shaped by the personality of its leader. The founder and president is Tanya Kovalenko, an energetic, former teacher with a personal commitment to bettering the lot of women in the new Ukraine and who is able to pursue this goal on a full-time basis with the support of her family.

Around the leadership of Mrs. Tanya and the executive, Vona began to move in many directions at the same time, trying to find a niche that could make a positive social impact, as well as operate in a sustainable fashion.

At that point Vona encountered new allies and partners which ended up having a strong impact on the future of the organization. A local youth development organization had begun a process of contacting many groups in the area in their efforts to expand their work from merely serving their current members to more actively reaching out to vulnerable groups in the community. They had an exploratory meeting with Vona, and a result was that Vona was invited to send a participant to upcoming training sessions related to community development in which the youth organization also participated. These learning sessions seemed to open a whole world of new possibilities for Vona. The leadership gained new skills in creating a vision for the organization and in participatory planning. They also gained a new confidence and passion in their work which helped them reach for goals which might previously have seemed beyond their grasp.

As a follow up to these community development training sessions, a number of inter-sectoral meetings were held in the area of the city where Vona and the youth organization had their offices. By this time, some strong bonds of respect had developed between Vona and the youth organization. The energy and insights of the young people exposed Vona to aspects of society which they did not usually encounter and to new ideas about how to make a difference in the community. Also attending the inter-sectoral sessions was a local government employee who was committed to improving the well-being of the citys residents by supporting civil society organizations. As these discussions progressed during the course of some months, Vona gradually developed an idea for a project which they wanted to undertake to address a specific and urgent need in the community. They realized that far too many young women were becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases and that these young women lacked the knowledge, skills and self-esteem to make the necessary changes in their lives to preserve their health.

In order to take on the challenge of serving these young women, Vona realized that they would need several types of new partners. They would need the support of experts in the field of sexual health, they would need access to young women who were in need of this help, and they would need funding support. Drawing on the skills they gained during the community development sessions, Vona was, over the period of many months and with passionate persistence, able to find and win over the partners they needed. They were able to find the technical expertise they needed through the Institute of Health in the city and a local technical school was happy to host the project since they too were concerned about the well-being of their student population. Finally, the professional way in which Vona managed to secure these partners and to present their well thought out proposal won them funding from a foundation in Ukraine which is dedicated to the development of a healthy civil society.

The long-held dreams of Vona were finally to be realized. It was time not only to undertake this exciting new work but also to celebrate their success. Just what all the next steps will be are not completely clear, but Vona knows it will be able to continue to make a contribution with the help of its many supporters.

Think and try to answer:

1. What role can be played by every sector (state, business, NGOs) for the development of your community?

1. What input can they make into cooperation and how useful would cooperation be for them?

1. What methods do you use in your community to attract resources?

1. What is, in your opinion, a basis for stable and fruitful relations with allies?

1. What state or business structures exist in or near your community? Did you turn to them for help?

4. Building Effective Community Development OrganizationsAt first glance, the wordeffectivenessseems clear to everyone. For example, it is often used when speaking about work, solutions and tasks. When referring to organizations in community development, however, the idea of effectiveness is not nearly as clear. Lets start thinking about what this could mean by reflecting on the types of organizations which are commonly involved in community work.

Many organizations that exist in Ukraine today were created to address the needs of a particular vulnerable group in society whose needs are not being adequately met through government services. Often these organizations are struggling to overcome many obstacles such as a lack of adequate resources, apathy on the part of community members who continue to expect someone to solve their problems for them, disunity among the organizations leadership or members, and a feeling that the no matter how hard they work, the problems keep growing. Almost all such organizations, at a certain point in their development, realize that they need new information and skills, and perhaps even values and attitudes to become more effective.

The same holds true for a new type of organization which is beginning to arise in Ukraine. This type of organization does not start with a particular need, but rather with a community of people who live in a certain place and have a desire to improve life in their environment. As people begin to analyze their lives, to develop a common vision of the future they want to create together, to build bonds of trust and cooperation, to plan activities and programs, and to learn the skills they will need to work in new ways, they often need to create organizations to systematize their joint work. These organizations face many of the same types of challenges which were listed above related to maintaining healthy human relations, to ensuring the participation of a broad sector of community people, and to the fair distribution of tasks and responsibilities It is not uncommon for the organization itself to become an obstacle to the development process.

The material that follows has been prepared to assist you whether you are already involved in an existing community organization or if you are just starting your work with a community which has not yet formed formal organizations. If your organization was created before you found out about the idea of community development that seemed innate to you, then try to use the necessary skills to improve the current situation in your organization. What you read below should help you think of the possible methods of involving the people your organization serves in community development. If, on the other hand, you are among a group of people who have just decided to tackle the complicated issue of working with people, this section will help you to better understand the importance of the organizational processes in community development.

The material which follows consists of several important sub-points that will help you structure your knowledge in creating effective organizations. It will help you to put emphasis on the right things in creating your own organization. It will help you analyze the current situation in the community, avoid misunderstandings and make effective decisions.

The creation of community organizations needs to fit into the natural flow of development processes.

The process of community development can be thought of in three stages that reflect the principle that development flow from inside to outside. In community work, many of the problems that organizations tend to develop can be avoided if this basic development principle is followed. Development begins with people, who decide that they will work together on common problems, rather than starting with formal structures, such as organizations. This point is expanded a little more fully below. The first thing to remember is that community development is about ordinary people taking responsibility for building their own future. This means that community development must start with human relationships. It begins with people strengthening their bonds of trust and unity, and committing themselves to a sustained relationship. This phase is a prerequisite to the success of the next two.

From these renewed relationships, people develop the will and the strength to take action together. They begin participating in effective processes, such as mutual support through core groups or participatory action research activities to identify community needs and priorities.

It is only when human relations are strong and the community development processes are well established that they should be given more lasting structure through the creation of an organization. This structure should always stay connected to the purpose and spirit of the community development work, and not become an end in itself.

This flow of the development process can be pictured something like this:

The following problems may occur if an organization is created at too early a stage in the community development process.

First,ordinary community members may never really take ownership of the work. They may always expect those individuals who have formal leadership positions in the organization to do the work for them. They transfer their dependence on government to a dependence on voluntary organizations to solve their problems for them.

Second, maintaining an organization takes a great deal of effort. Records of meetings must be properly kept, annual reports must be completed, and funding must be sought for the organizations office space and equipment. All these activities can take energy away from the critical work of strengthening the sense of common oneness and from mobilizing ordinary people to become involved in the life of their community.

Third, the communitys natural leaders, who may not necessarily have the technical skills that are important for maintaining an organization, may begin to get left out of the work. Donors and other outside agencies find it easier to communicate with the community people who are used to relating to outsiders. This can mean that the grassroots leaders are ignored and their valuable knowledge and ability to motivate the community gets lost.

There is also a danger that people will begin to look to outside resources and solutions to solve problems rather that focusing on their own knowledge and energy. So much energy begins going toward projects that people forget that community development is really about transforming relationships and that the community already has a great deal of what it needs.

Conflicts and tensions can arise between those community members who are working as staff members of the organization and those who are active volunteers. Who should receive a salary or other benefits that are associated with being a part of an organization and who should continue to donate their time and energy freely can become a source of jealousy and misunderstanding. How this issue will be handled needs to be carefully considered before an organization is established.

Theseguidelines for effective community development organizationswill help you to respond to the situation and resolve it on time.

When community development processes are well enough established that an organization is needed, it is important to make sure that the organization operates according to community development principles, rather than to the principles by which the business sector or the government sector organizes itself. If we use the procedures that may have been used in many of the organizations in which we have participated in the past, we can end up seriously undermining our community development work. Here are some guidelines which can assist a community development organization prevent these problems or solve them on time if they do occur.

1. Incorporate regular opportunities for all sectors of the community to participate in the work of the organization. One way to do this is to schedule regular community gatherings which can fulfill several important functions such as the following: to reconnect people to the vision they have for a better future, to build unity, to discuss what has been achieved to date and to make new plans, and to celebrate. These meetings can combine a period of inspiration, an opportunity for consultation and a time of socializing through sharing food, music and games. How these meetings are organized will depend partly on the culture of the community, but care should be taken to make sure that everyone in the community feels welcome and can contribute from his or her own point of view.

1. Use consensus or other types of collaborative rather than oppositional methods of decision-making. Procedures that involve individuals presenting motions or proposals that are voted on tend to polarize people into groups according to whether or not they support a particular idea or a particular person.

One way to understand collaborative decision making is to visualize the problem or issue in the centre of the circle. People are encouraged to begin discussing the issue by contributing their best understanding of the issue and what should be done about it from their own point of view without reference to the contribution of others in the group. It is important for people to remember that the clash of different ideas can produce wonderful and creative new ideas when it does not also create a clash between the individuals who have these differing ideas. Once they have given their opinion, the idea becomes a gift to the group, which they have no need to hold on to or defend. As people listen with an open heart to what others have to say, they will begin to refine their own understanding and shift their thinking about what the best course of action is.

Gradually, as the discussion unfolds, a consensus often emerges about which idea will be most effective or about how elements of several ideas can be combined to produce a new option which transcends the ideas which people originally brought to the meeting. Once a decision is made, everyone works in unity to implement the decision, without negative comments. If they decision is not the right one, it will soon become evident and a fresh process of consultation will allow a new course of action to be chosen.

1. Choose leaders in a way that focuses on unity rather than on personalities. It can be very helpful to hold a community consultation process before leaders are chosen at which community members discuss the qualities that leaders should possess and the code of conduct (or ethics) that they should uphold. It is also important to choose an electoral process that suits community development principles, rather than simply imitating the electoral process used by municipal government. For example, a process can be used which allows every eligible voter to simply choose, by secret ballot, the individual they feel best exemplifies the qualities and has the skills needed for leadership. In this system there are no special candidates. Everyone is both a candidate and a voter. The individual(s) receiving the most votes is selected for the position for a pre-determined term.

1. Leaders need to take on the role of servants to the community development process, rather than becoming the bosses or the ones that take on all the work of the group. This question has been discussed elsewhere in this manual in more detail and so is not covered again here.

1. Organizations do not replace the need for core groups. They are only a tool for implementing some of the more complex community projects. Be sure that the community work keeps community core group strong, even when a more structured process like an official organization is in place. The functioning of core groups and their role in community development processes has already been covered in several previous sections.

Think and try to answer:

1. Do you belong to any community organizations? How did these organizations start? Who is involved in them?

1. How do the organizations you know choose their leaders? What is the role of these individuals and how do they understand their job?

1. Do these organizations have any way of listening regularly to community members and involving them in the work of the organization?