• Community Capacity Building Workshop
• Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit Facilitator Training
• Fostering Resiliency
• Community Development

Community Capacity Building Workshop

Introduction

In recent years, people who work in communities have been talking about using a community capacity building approach in their work. However, there has been no common understanding about what building community capacity means, and until now, there has been no way to assess whether the work done actually builds capacity in communities. In this interactive workshop, Horizons provides an introduction to the concepts of community capacity and community capacity building, outlines the components of community capacity building, reviews our Blueprint for Building Community Capacity, and introduces the Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit.

We will also provide an overview of asset-based community development, and talk about re-orienting services from a deficiency model to a capacity model. Together we will consider capacity building from a population health approach, including an overview of population health and a focus on intersectoral collaboration and the broad factors that impact on people's health. We will also explore the roles of professionals/service providers and community members in capacity building, and discuss what this type of approach means for participants in your work in and with communities.

A separate one-day workshop is also available to train facilitators to use the Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit.

Who Will Benefit From This Workshop

This workshop will be beneficial to anyone with an interest in using a community capacity building approach in their work, from service providers to community volunteers to policy makers. The workshop can be tailored to your group's particular interests, experiences, and perspectives. We will draw on the knowledge and skills of workshop participants to help deepen our collective understanding about community capacity building.

Outcomes of the Workshop

As a workshop participant, you will take away:

• A deeper understanding of the meaning of community capacity;
• A deeper understanding of what building community capacity means;
• An overview of recent literature on community capacity; and
• An understanding of the Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit.

Tools/Resources Used in Workshop

• Annotated Resource List on Community Capacity and Community Capacity Building
• Blueprint for Building Community Capacity
• Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit

Length of Workshop

The length of this workshop can vary from three hours to two days in length.

Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit Facilitator Training

Introduction

In recent years, people who work in communities have been talking about using a community capacity building approach in their work. However, there has been no common understanding of what building community capacity means, and until now, there has been no way to assess whether the work done actually builds capacity in communities. Horizons worked in collaboration with community groups in Southwestern Nova Scotia to develop and pilot-test a user-friendly group survey process for community groups to define their own capacity and assess whether (and how) it is increasing over time. The heart of the Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit is a community-centred facilitated group-survey for collecting information about the various ways groups build, develop and sustain their capacity to address community health issues. The Kit contains the supports necessary for facilitators to use the survey with your groups, and the supports to work with the information once it is gathered. This workshop orients facilitators to using the Kit and prepares you to implement the survey process with your groups.

Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit

The Resource Kit has six sections, with supports and tools for each section:

• Deciding to Use the Survey
• Preparing to Use the Survey
• Using the Survey
• Analyzing the Group’s Responses
• Moving Forward – Using the Information
• Feedback

Measuring Community Capacity is a user-friendly tool for communities to assess their capacity over time. It is not an evaluation, a judgment, or a report card critiquing how community groups work - rather it is a tool to assist groups in self-reflection. It is completely up to each group to decide whether and how to use the tool, as well as whether and how to use the information that is gathered in the group’s responses.

The survey asks group members for their perceptions about a variety of components of community capacity, including:

• Basic background information about individual group members and their community;
• Basic information about the group, agency, or organization;
• Group processes, such as selection of group members, making decisions, leadership, planning and program implementation, methods of gathering input and support, and evaluation;
• The group’s relationship with the community;
• Whether and how the group monitors the impact of its work;
• Whether and how the group uses community strengths and public policies to support its efforts;
• Personal knowledge and skill levels of group members in relation to planning and implementing programs and/or projects and evaluating the effectiveness and outcomes of community-related initiatives;
• Individual group members’ skills and experiences that contribute to the group’s work;
• Process(es) and practices the group uses when addressing child and youth health issues;
• Type of leadership found within the group and its level of effectiveness in addressing community health issues;
• Connections the group has made and the support it has received from other groups, agencies and/or organizations within their community; and
• The types of connections the group has made and the types of supports it has received from other groups, agencies and/or organizations outside the community.

Who Will Benefit From This Workshop

This workshop will be beneficial to a wide range of groups interested in using the Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit – from community-based organizations to Community Health Boards, cross-sectoral policy and planning groups to community volunteers. This workshop could be for you if your group is interested in:

• Having meaningful and useful discussions with each other about the way you work together;
• Having an opportunity to reflect on your bigger picture and think about whether there are any adjustments you would like to make to build on the way you work; and
• Contributing to data about the capacity of communities. This data can be compiled into an average or range for all groups that use the survey, which will give funders, decision makers and policy makers a picture of exactly how to support community groups in building their knowledge, skills, and capacity.

Outcomes of the Workshop

At the end of the workshop you will have:

• A deeper understanding of the meaning of community capacity;
• A deeper understanding of what building community capacity means;
• An understanding of how to use the Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit;
• Supports for facilitation; and
• A copy of the Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit.

Tools/Resources Used in Workshop

• Annotated Resource List on Community Capacity and Community Capacity Building
• Blueprint for Building Community Capacity
• Measuring Community Capacity Resource Kit

Length of Workshop

This is a full day workshop.

Fostering Resiliency

Introduction

Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.

This analogy is useful for thinking about resiliency, a phrase used to describe the factors that allow people to do well in spite of hardship or stress, and to bounce back from disappointment or loss. In this interactive workshop, Horizons provides an introduction to the concept of resiliency, discusses research highlights about what makes children and youth resilient, and explores the role of the community and service providers in promoting resiliency. We discuss moving from risk to resilience as service providers, and what it means to make a shift in our work. We will review resources and tools available, provide an introduction to the resiliency measure developed by the Sharing Strengths Society, and share research findings from a pilot study using the measure. In the last section of the workshop, we will work with participants to develop an action plan – strategizing individually and as a group about how to positively affect the resiliency of children and youth in our communities and organizations.

Who Will Benefit From This Workshop

Because the range of factors that promote resiliency in children and youth is so wide, this
workshop will be beneficial to a variety of participants. The workshop will be of interest to community members, service providers, and policy makers who are interested in building resiliency-promoting factors in individuals, families, schools, and communities. The workshop can be tailored to your group’s particular interests, experiences, and perspectives. We will draw on the knowledge and skills of workshop participants to help deepen our collective understanding about promoting resiliency in children and youth.

Outcomes of the Workshop

As a workshop participant, you will take away:

• An understanding of what resiliency means;
• A deeper understanding about the factors in individuals, families, schools, and communities that promote resiliency;
• An overview of recent literature on resiliency;
• An introduction to the Sharing Strengths Resiliency Measure;
• An overview of recent research on measuring resiliency; and
• A personalized action plan for promoting resiliency in children and youth.

Tools/Resources Used in Workshop

• Annotated Resource List on Resiliency
• Fact Sheets on Promoting Resiliency
• Sharing Strengths Resiliency Measure
• Action Planner for Promoting Resiliency in Children and Youth

There are two parts to the Sharing Strengths resiliency measure: a questionnaire for youth and a questionnaire for parents/guardians. They are completed separately. They include both open-ended and closed-ended questions that address individual (children/youth/ parent) and community (family, school, peer group) level resiliency-enhancing factors.
Children and parents respond to a series of questions that address individual and collective group factors that are related to and promote resiliency such as: school performance (for example marks, failing or repeating a grade, academic school stream); self-perceptions about school performance ability (such as perceiving one’s self as a good or poor student in school); perceptions of one’s self as related to other social activities (such as being perceived as a troublemaker, and how children rate themselves in comparison to their peers); and perceptions about life transitions (such as the usefulness of post-secondary education and its relationship to work/career goals and attainments). As well, there are questions that address individual behavioral practices (such as smoking, alcohol and drug use) and degree of participation in community group activities and physically oriented activities.

Length of Workshop

The length of this workshop can vary from three hours to one day in length.

Community Development

Introduction

We have adapted the Community Development Foundation’s definition of community development:

a range of practices dedicated to increasing the strength and effectiveness of community life, improving local conditions, especially for people in marginalized groups, and enabling people to participate in public decision-making and to achieve greater long-term control over their circumstances.

In this interactive workshop, we will explore the following topics:

Models for Working in Communities
We’ll discuss different approaches to working in communities (for example, health promotion, population health, asset-based development, needs assessment, community capacity building, logic model/theory of change).

What is Community Development?
We’ll begin with a discussion of participants’ impressions of what community development means, introduce community development theory, and develop a shared working definition of community development.

Why Use a Community Development Approach?
We’ll discuss community development principles and their congruence with the values and principles of participants’ organizations, and then discuss what using a community development approach looks like in the everyday work of participants.

Power and Leadership in Community Development
Together we’ll identify what kinds of power lie in the community and within an organization working in a community (either from within or from outside the community), and discuss ethical and responsible use of that power. We’ll also talk about effective leadership in community development.

The Process of Mobilizing for Community Development
Drawing on participants’ experiences we’ll map out the process of using a community development approach to working in the community. We’ll address questions such as: How does a community decide to tackle a project or work for change? Who is included in the process? What gets discussed? Whose voices are included? How? Who makes decisions?

Monitoring/Evaluation/Reflection of Community Development Work
We’ll discuss different methods for monitoring community development work and evaluating the impact (intended and unintended) of the work. We’ll also talk about how to ensure that a community’s learnings and experiences are used to inform future work.

Community Development Resources
We’ll review some resources that are available as supports and information for people doing community development work.

Who Will Benefit From This Workshop

This workshop will be beneficial to community-based groups, service providers, researchers, and government departments and agencies interested in building on the community development approach they already use in their work, or to groups interested in adopting a community development approach in their work.

Outcomes of the Workshop

At the end of the workshop, you will have:

• A deeper collective understanding of a community development approach;
• An in-depth understanding of how your organization can use a community development approach in your work;
• An initial set of community development principles for your organization to customize; and
• Community development resources and tools.

Tools/Resources Used in Workshop

• Community Development Booklet
• Community Development Resource List

Length of Workshop

This workshop varies in length from one to four full days.