Capacity Building Resources
With funding provided through the BC Healthy Living Alliance, SPARC BC assisted in compiling an inventory of resource guides and publications to support community development, education and outreach across BC. These resources include a number of different areas of focus including project management and program evaluation; community engagement; collaboration and network development; community leadership; and project design and implementation.
About the Capacity Building Strategy
The Canadian Cancer Society is a proud member of the British Columbia Healthy Living Alliance (BCHLA), a group of health-related organizations working in disease prevention. To help meet targets set in BCHLA’s prevention agenda, the Society led a comprehensive strategy to work with communities and build capacity for healthy living.
The Community Capacity Building Strategy focuses on enhancing the skills, abilities, resources, and commitment of communities and community members to care for each other, nurture unique talents and leadership, and act on challenges and opportunities. This strategy has enabled individuals and groups to increase their ability to impact the health and vitality of their communities in a positive, sustainable manner.
[THIS LIST OF RESOURCES TO BE CONFIRMED AND PROVIDED BY SPARC. THEN PRESENTATION STYLE WILL BE DECIDED. THANKS!]
Managing Projects
Are you looking for ways to improve your project management approach, and to ensure the long-term sustainability of your initiatives? Explore these resources to find out more about different approaches to planning, implementing and evaluating projects, and different ways to ensure their long-term sustainability.
Is your organization looking for ways to diversify its financial base? Are you considering starting a social enterprise? Do you already operate a social enterprise and are looking at ways to strengthen your business? Does your organization have a mandate to assist others in building non- profit or co-operative enterprises?
This resource uses real life stories of practical, on-the-ground initiatives providing advice to organizations on effective social enterprise development.
Level: Beginner | Download
Publication Information: Lewis, M. 2006. Building Community Wealth: A Resource for Social Enterprise Development. Centre for Community Enterprise.
Your capacity building project has started and activities are underway. Have you left anything out or overlooked an area of activity? How far along is the project? What’s progressing well and what seems to be more challenging?
This toolkit of checklists will help you assess your progress in nine areas of capacity building: participation, leadership, community structures, external support (funding), asking why, accessing resources, knowledge/learning, networking and sense of community. The checklists are great to use at multiple stages throughout your project to give snapshots of where you are, evaluate and track progress, reflect on what’s worked, and generate additional ideas as needed. All in 35 questions!
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Public Health Agency of Canada: Alberta NWT Region. Community capacity building tool: A tool for planning, building and reflecting on community capacity in community-based health projects. Edmonton, AB: Public Health Agency of Canada
Have you been looking for a community development approach that is specific to Aboriginal communities? A community development guide that takes into consideration Aboriginal values, culture and way of life?
This toolkit is a self-help book for Aboriginal people who want to get a community development project off the ground. The series of six manuals contains information, tips, examples and ready-to-use charts that you can copy and use yourself or to train others in your community. It is intended to be user-friendly, emphasizing questions such as what, why, when and how to accomplish the different steps of a community development project.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Health Canada. 1998. Community Action Resources for Inuit, Metis and First Nations
Ever wonder how social change happens? Do you have a background in development studies, and wonder whether development thinking has become too narrow and specialized? Current development thinking often excludes what has been learned in other fields about social change, impacting the success of development work.
This multidisciplinary paper discusses the central question of how social change happens. What roles do personal relationships, mutual understanding and context play in encouraging or limiting change? Explore how a multidisciplinary view and a broad range of approaches can make us more flexible when tackling the challenges facing our communities. There is also a table summarizing perspectives on change, a great tool for thinking about change and examining your own change work.
Level: Advanced | Download
Publication Information: Krznaric, R. 2007. How Change Happens: Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Human Development. Oxfam Research Report.
Your health promotion project is effecting positive change in the community. But are you finding it challenging to explain the connection between your work and overall population health?
This framework can assist you in accounting for your work (and its associated impacts) in the community, and demonstrating the project benefits to funders. It can also be a great tool when planning a new project.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Labonte, R. 2003. How our programs affect population health determinants: A workbook for better planning and accountability. Health Canada – Population and Public Health Branch, Manitoba and Saskatchewan Region.
Wondering what outcome measurement is? Have you been looking for ways to ensure that your organization’s activities work towards meaningful and achievable results in your community?
Splash and Ripple is an easy to understand step-by-step guide to outcome measurement and achieving the results you are looking for. This framework can help you while planning, managing and evaluating projects.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Canadian Heritage. 2004. Splash and Ripple: Using Outcomes to Design & Manage Community Activities: 2nd Edition.
Community Engagement
Are you looking to incorporate a community engagement component into your decision-making process, but are unsure about where to start, or what type of community engagement process to use? If so, this selection of community engagement methods has a number of useful resources for you.
Our codes used in the resource title will help you narrow in on specific types of resources:
Introduction to Community Engagement (ICE): resources that illustrate the spectrum of community engagement and the range of community engagement approaches available.
Community Engagement Methods (CEM): how-to guides for some innovative community engagement approaches.
Are you finding all the information available on public participation a little bit disorienting? Are you frustrated by the lack of consistent definitions? Are you wondering why there are so many different public engagement mechanisms, many of which are very similar to one another, differing only in the order in which a number of processes are implemented?
This journal article is an analytical tool that can be used when sorting through various public engagement methods. It develops a typology of public engagement mechanisms. It also clarifies what public engagement does and does not entail, and how the various mechanisms are similar and dissimilar.
Level: Advanced | Download
Publication Information: Rowe, G. and Frewer, L. 2005. A Typology of Public Engagement Methods. Science, Technology & Human Values
Are you looking for a creative way to facilitate a dialogue where the goal is to think together and develop actionable knowledge? Are you looking for a way to facilitate authentic dialogue within a group?
Hosting a World Café session is likely to be a good option. Café to Go provides an easy-to-understand and concise guide to hosting a World Café session– an innovative yet simple methodology for hosting conversations about questions that matter. As a process, the World Café can evoke and make visible the collective intelligence of any group, thus increasing people’s capacity for effective action in pursuit of common aims.
Level: Beginner | Download
Publication Information: The World Café. 2008. Café to Go: A Quick Reference Guide for Putting Conversation to Work.
Do you need to develop a project design under a fixed deadline? Are you looking for an engagement process that invites all stakeholders to participate?
Charettes can be useful when there is a need to develop a design solution quickly and integrate the aptitudes and interests of a diverse number of groups. They are particularly useful in community planning and neighborhood revitalization efforts. This guide provides an easy-to-understand outline on why and how to facilitate a charette process.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Fannie Mae Foundation. 2003. Charettes 101: Dynamic Planning for Community Change.
Are you looking for an engagement process that gets diverse individuals in the same room and on the same page? Do you need an efficient way to get diverse groups to develop an actionable plan for a shared future?
A Future Search planning meeting brings people from all walks of life into the same conversation–those with resources, expertise, formal authority and need. They meet for 16 hours spread across three days. People tell stories about their past, present and desired future. Through dialogue they discover their common ground and develop concrete action plans.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Are you looking for a one-page handout that you can use to illustrate and discuss the range of public participation options available?
The IAP2 handout can be used to easily explain the spectrum of public engagement goals, commitments and techniques. This would come in handy when working with a group to decide the intent and scope of a public engagement process.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: International Association of Public Participation on Community Engagement. 2009. 1AP2 Spectrum of Public Engagement
Are you using the same community engagement process over and over again, and not getting the results you were looking for? Are you looking for a community engagement process that allows people to feel comfortable discussing difficult and controversial issues–uncomfortable issues that people typically debate or avoid altogether?
Using a Dialogue and Deliberation method may work well for you. The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation has developed the concise, easy-to-use Engagement Streams Framework to introduce people to the range of options that are available and to steer individuals in the right direction based on their situations.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Heirerbacher, S. 2004. NCDD’s Engagement Streams Framework. National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation.
Are you frustrated with how regular meetings don’t have enough time or latitude for tackling the big ideas? Are there individuals and groups around the community with aligning ideas and plans but you aren’t sure how to bring them together? Is your community wrestling with a big idea and needing to identify the ‘what next’?
Open Space Technology is a great way to gather participants around a shared interest and support them in ‘getting the important work done’, as identified by the group. Learn how to create a compelling invitation that gives everyone the space and responsibility for getting to answers. This guide provides a preparation checklist to help you through the process of inviting participants and providing the space and the tools. Then, sit back, relax, and watch the action happen!
Level: Beginner | Download
Publication Information: Herman, M. 2006. Open Space Teachnology: An Inviting Guide.
Do you work in the public sector? Are you considering different public engagement options in your work?
This guide is a good introduction to public participation for individuals who work in the public sector. It is clear, easy-to-understand and explains the full spectrum of public engagement. The proposed public participation framework assists decision makers to successfully undertake a public participation process by outlining when public participation is appropriate, and what depth of public participation is appropriate in given contexts.
Level: Beginner | Download
Publication Information: Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia. 2008. Public Participation: Principles and Best Practices for British Columbia.
How can we involve community members who do not usually participate in public processes in a participatory planning exercise? What can we do to create a welcoming and informal environment for a variety of groups to share their ideas?
The SpeakOut method is an effective way of providing an informal and interactive ‘public meeting’ environment where a wide range of people have a chance to participate. It is designed to facilitate structured ‘drop-in’ participation about planning and design issues. Participants come to the venue, find the issues on which they wish to ‘speak out’ and have their say. This paper illustrates the evolution of the SpeakOut method over 15 years, and provides guidance on how to organize and facilitate a SpeakOut event.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Sarkissian, W. and Cook A. 2005. Speaking Out in Community Engagement: A Review of Fifteen Years of Refinement of the SpeakOut Model. International Conference on Engaging Communities.
Have you ever felt that you posed the wrong question in a meeting? Maybe it seemed like the logical question to ask at the time until you got limited or no response. Do you ever wonder how to structure a more powerful question to get richer, more meaningful feedback from your participants?
This article provides insight on how to structure powerful, engaging questions that provoke creative thinking and meaningful responses. It provides useful guidelines on how to structure better questions, as well as a list of “generative questions” that facilitators have found effective in stimulating new knowledge and creative thinking in a wide variety of contexts.
Level: Beginner | Download
Publication Information: Vogt, E., Brown, J. and Isaacs, D. 2003. The Art of Powerful Questions: Catalyzing Insight, Innovation and Action. The World Café.
What is the Art of Hosting? (ICE)
Do you wonder what facilitators are talking about when they refer to authentic dialogue (as opposed to just dialogue) and “conversations that matter” (as opposed to just conversations)? To learn more about the Art of Hosting and the importance of conversations that matter, check out this Art of Hosting Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/channels/393360
More information on the Art of Hosting approach can be found at the Art of Hosting website: www.artofhosting.org
Collaboration and network development
Are you considering developing a partnership with another organization? Maybe you want to learn more about the potential benefits and risks before you move forward? Or maybe you want to learn more about how to develop an effective and sustainable partnership arrangement? Explore this page of resources to learn more about how to plan, monitor and evaluate collaborative partnerships.
Are you trying to develop creative solutions in circumstances that feel confusing and disorganized? Maybe a new team with diverse experiences has formed or some members of the team have incomplete knowledge of the area of analysis?
The affinity process is a great way to get a diverse group to work on a creative level to address challenging issues. It is particularly useful when you are: doing a free flowing brainstorming session; sifting through large volumes of data; and/or encouraging new patterns of thinking. This resource provides a step by step guide to how facilitators can use the affinity process.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Balanced Scorecard Institute. 1996. Affinity Diagram. Handbook for Basic Process Improvement.
The Continuum of Collaboration is a great one page handout that you can use to easily illustrate, explain and discuss a range of collaboration options available to help find the best option for your needs. From networking on the low end of the continuum to full integration at the high end, this would come in handy when working with a group to decide the intent and scope of a potential partnership.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Continuum of Collaboration. 2003. Adapted from Integrated Health Promotion: A Practice Guide for Service Providers. State Government of Victoria: Melbourne Australia.
Are you currently involved in a knowledge network project and are wondering what it takes for a network to maximize its potential?
The book is written for practitioners who are working with different models of individual and institutional collaboration. It captures the details of network operations and management and is the result of five years of experimentation with networks at the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Level: Advanced | Download
Publication Information: Creech, H. and Willard, T. 2001. Managing Knowledge Networks for Sustainable Development. International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Are you considering starting a knowledge network? Are you currently part of a knowledge network and are looking into different ways to monitor your progress and report back to your funders?
This working paper provides useful information for groups involved in knowledge network development and evaluation. The Planning Framework provides a how-to-guide for individuals who are looking to start a knowledge network. The Monitoring Framework presents an efficient way to gather data on network activities. The Evaluation Framework presents an experiential framework for evaluation that is specific to networks and properly accounts for the “network advantage”–the added benefits of increased collaboration and capacity developed through networks.
Level: Advanced | Download
Publication Information: Creech, H. 2001. Measuring While You Manage: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating Knowledge Networks Version 1.0. International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Is your organization considering developing a partnership with another organization? Do you currently partner with other organizations and are looking at ways to improve the working relationship?
The Partnership Toolkit provides a useful set of tools and resources developed with diverse organizations and contexts in mind. It includes tools to assist smaller agencies in working more effectively with larger organizations as well as tools to assist community agencies in working with funders. Some provide guidance on how to respect cultural differences across organizations while other tools are useful for long or short term partnerships.
Level: Beginner | Download
Publication Information: Collaboration Roundtable. 2001. The Partnership Toolkit: Tools for Building and Sustaining Partnerships.
Addressing increasingly complex social, environmental, and economic problems with limited resources challenges us to work in more creative and strategic ways. One approach that can increase impact and sustainability is the intentional use of networks.
Brought together following a learning event in Vancouver in December 2009, featuring Barbara McMillan of Community Foundations of Canada, this collection includes a 10-minute educational video and corresponding presentation and resource materials aimed at promoting discussion and providing practical examples and useful tools for moving beyond “networking” to “thinking like a network.”
Access video here:
Thinking Like a Network
Related Resources:
Building Smart Communities Through Network WeavingDo Networks Really Work Article
Network Health ScorecardNetwork Weaver ChecklistPractical Evaluations for Networks
Thinking Like a Network Resources List
PowerPoint slides:
Thinking Like A Network (Barb McMillan)
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
Are you looking for new ways to build the local capacity of leaders to effect change in the community? These resources cover a range of scenarios for cultivating leadership.
Public dialogue is often a first step or catalyst for community change. Are you looking for a training tool to increase the capacity of your local facilitators (in some cases volunteers) to undertake successful public dialogues? Are you looking for guidance on how to improve your own facilitation skills?
This guide provides instructions on how to train public dialogue facilitators. It is easy to understand and covers all the basics on how to build a training program from the ground up, including a detailed training agenda. This guide also has useful tips for experienced facilitators to use in special situations, such as how to work with interpreters or groups where literacy is a challenge.
Level: Intermediate | Download
Publication Information: Everyday Democracy. 2008. A Guide for Training Public Dialogue Facilitators.
Are you looking for a handout which shows the process and stages of learning a new skill or behaviour?
The competency matrix is useful to show the importance of learner awareness when teaching a new skill. People respond best to training when they are aware of their own need for it and become conscious learners.
Level: Intermediate | Download
For further interpretation of the competency matrix, refer to the following website:
Are you currently developing a leadership development program? Are you conducting an evaluation for your leadership development program? Did you already do an evaluation and found that your evaluation process did not fully capture the complex results of the program?
If so, the EvaluLEAD methodology may be useful for you. This guide is intended for both evaluation and program staff to use for conceptualizing their leadership development programs. The purpose of the EvaluLEAD methodology is to assist in the exploration and documentation of a leadership development program’s complex results.
Level: Advanced | Download
Publication Information: Grove, J., Kibel, B., and Haas, T. 2005. EvaluLead: A Guide for Shaping and Evaluating Leadership Development Programs. Sustainable Leadership Initiative.
The Governance as Leadership Model handout and the related resources below explore how to maximize effectiveness of nonprofit governance, specifically in relation to nonprofit boards. The concept of governance as leadership gives boards a new way to understand governance and, more important, new practices for governing more effectively. By thinking about board work in three components, fiduciary, strategic and generative, boards can provide leadership and achieve results in new ways.
| Download
Publication Information: Chait, Ryan and Taylor. 2004. Governance as Leadership
Model For further interpretation of the Governance as Leadership Model, refer to these resources:
The following two articles explore the three distinct types of board actions as outlined by Richard Chait: Governance as Leadership: Bringing New Governing Mindsets To Old Challenges, PFD 88KB
Board Governance as Leadership Summary, PDF 244KB
In this interview, Richard Chait discusses his new book on how boards can transform into powerful forces of leadership: “Why Nonprofits Have a Board Problem” Interview with Richard Chait
Do you ever wonder why people are resistant to change? Or why we work towards local leadershipdevelopment?
This journal article can serve as an analytical tool for community developers. It discusses how different concepts of local democracy imply different tasks, functions and reform strategies for local political leadership. The different models of participatory democracy and network democracy. The different models all have important implications for local leadership and communityengagement.
Level: Advanced | Download
Publication Information: Haus, M. and Sweeting, D. 2006. Loacal Democracy and Political Leadership: Drawing a Map. Political Studies (54): 267- 288.
Have you found that most of the leadership resources you are familiar with are a bit dated? Are you looking for a leadership resource that addresses the challenges faced by 21st century leaders?
The Collective Leadership Framework has been developed to be responsive to our current time where community leaders must be capable of crossing many boundaries: those between individuals and groups, those among organizations, and those fostered by issues that divide the population. They need to bring people together in ways that heal old rifts and ruptures, they must be willing to challenge their assumptions–to unlearn and relearn. This workbook is intended to help organizations use community-based collective leadership as a tool for making community change. Along the way, it also increases individual participants’ leadership ability and increases their life choices and opportunities.
Level: Beginner | Download
Publication Information: W.K. Kellogg Foundation. 2007. The Collective Leadership Framework: A Workbook for Cultivating and Sustaining Community Change.
Do you ever wonder why people at work are resistant to change? In this article, Robert Kegan explores what lies behind the inability or resistance to change for so many of us, even when we want to change. Competing commitment is a term used to describe the psychological dynamic in which we are unconsciously preserving a belief or goal that may be in opposition to a stated goal.
Kegan leads the reader through the steps of uncovering, assessing, testing and then deciding to keep or replace the deeply held belief. Rather than exposing weaknesses, this process reveals the big assumptions we hold and how they fundamentally shape our behavior. It is only through a deeper understanding of ourselves and our motivations that we can overcome our resistance to change and become more effective in the work we do.
Level: Intermediate | Read online for free here: hbr.org
Alternatively, the article can be purchased: hbr.org/product/the-real-reason-people-won-t-change/an/R0110E-PDF-ENG?Ntt=8121
Publication Information: Kegan, R. and Laskow Lahey, L. 2001. The Real Reason People Won’t Change. Harvard Business Review OnPoint. Harvard Business School Publishing.