24 Investigating a Range of Interventions

One of the most important and exciting parts of community planning and development work is the investigation of interventions. It is in this phase of work where you need to be expansive in considering what is possible—not just look to evidence of what has been done. You need to look wide and far for ideas to address community issues, including looking globally, while also listening carefully to the wisdom that will come from your own community.

We will focus on two primary ways to go about the investigation, each feeding into the other:

1. Engaging with the community to hear ideas
2. Conducting additional research on intervention options

Listening to Community Intervention Ideas

This step requires engagement from the community who will be served by the service/program/organization.  When I conduct any type of primary data collection with a community in order to learn about their needs, I always end with a question asking their ideas for solutions.  It is amazing the types of thoughtful responses you will receive.  I have also heard more than once that people appreciate being asked for their ideas and that being asked is uncommon or unheard of for them.  This is so unfortunate and is shortsighted because of the untapped wisdom of the persons most directly impacted by the issues we are focused on.

In design thinking, this stage is called the “What if” stage^[1]. It is an intentional step for brainstorming ideas from the community without the same constraints as the core leadership team is likely bound by.

When I have engaged communities about intervention ideas, often they are very specific and very feasible: aesthetic or cosmetic requests related to space (warm, welcoming, comfortable), requesting culturally relevant services, asking for a location that is accessible, etc.

When you are soliciting ideas, it is very important to not limit those ideas but also be upfront about any parameters you are constrained by. Once you state your constraints (geographic, financial, etc.) ask for ideas and then listen and document.

You may also find intervention ideas from reading reports or meeting notes. For example, your community may have boards or commissions that are comprised of—or take special care to acknowledge the needs of—members of a minority or marginalized community that you are planning for, such as people of color, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, etc. You can often find public meeting notes and reports from these boards and you can review these documents in case they reference ideas for services, programs, or organizations.

Conducting Research on Interventions

Where to Look

The second part of the investigation requires us to conduct research on interventions that have been tried somewhere else. “Somewhere else” is very intentional and does not mean only in the next town or city from you. I am convinced that research on interventions must include a global look at what other countries and communities have tried as ways to address the same problems or needs that we are looking at addressing. We need to expand what we consider possible, so we are not limited by our myopic, single-focus views on solutions. Often, we can accomplish this by looking internationally.

I typically utilize a 3-part approach for where to look:

1. Domestically at communities in the same country with similar demographics as the one you are working with
2. Domestically at communities with similar geography as the one you are working with
3. Internationally for communities or countries addressing the need or situation in similar described in a similar way as you are describing it

How to Look

We should look for interventions that have been tried and were shown to be successful as well as those which were determined to be unsuccessful. The latter can be challenging to find, however, because most people or organizations are motivated and encouraged to share their successes but not their failures. This is unfortunate for the rest of us because we could learn a lot from their experiences and the information could avoid a repeat of their experience.

Most of us engaged in community change work do this research by examining published material and by conducting Internet searches. There are benefits and limitations to both which is why you should use both strategies.

Benefits and Limitations of Research Searches

Again, the goal is to engage in both methods of research and not rely on just one or the other.

Documenting Intervention Research

It is very helpful to create an easy way to share the results of your intervention research. You want to do this in a way that is informative to the people you are collaborating with but also easy to digest. I suggest using a matrix that includes the following information:

• Name of program or service
• Geographic location
• Web address/citation and contact
• Description of the service
  • Use quotations if using the description provided by the organization
  • Be sure to include aspects of the description which are particularly relevant to the issue you are working on
• Observations of relevance or other notes
  • Include observations of why this service or program is noteworthy
  • Include any reasons for enthusiasm or concern

This type of matrix needs to be very easy to read, so avoid writing in complete sentences or paragraphs. Use common abbreviations if possible and bullet-pointed or listed information. Here is a sample matrix including one researched program idea for community mental health crisis response models.

Example:  Matrix for Interventions on Community Mental Health Crisis Response Model