Community Development as a Change Strategy
Learning Objectives
- Describe steps for advancing community change
- Explain how to research intervention options
- Introduce prevention vs. response interventions
- Recognize the right intervention to suit your needs
- Define and describe the intervention you have chosen
- Introduce existing organizational structures
- Create effective organizational vision and mission statements
Often, we find ourselves engaged in a community change effort that requires structure. The type of structure could be a new or modified service, a program, or an actual organization or business. Creating this type of structure requires us to utilize planning and development skills so that we can systematically create the service, program, or organization in a way that is directly tied to the community’s assets and needs. This type of work is what we call Community Development.
You can think of it as assembling the materials and structure that is needed to successfully address the need. This type of work requires a systematic planning approach that includes:
A. Selecting and describing the intervention, structure, and mission:
- Investigating the range of interventions to address the need
- Identifying and describing the selected intervention, structure, and mission
B. Planning for implementation:
- Creating a work plan for implementation
- Developing a budget based on resources identified in the work plan
- Determining the initial methods of evaluation