Dear Five “C”s Colleague,

This edition of On-The-Go eTA features a synopsis of the Five C’s of community building. You are invited to review the summary in each category shown below.

Community

Connections

Control

Cash

Collective Action

Questions to Ask

Use the questions that follow to reflect on how your work as a program leader, project director, executive director can be adjusted to help strengthen community and the well-being of people even more.

For more information on the 5C’s, download the copyright paper commissioned by Campaign Consultation, Inc. and written by David Chavis, Ph.D. – internationally recognized for his work in the implementation, support and evaluation of community initiatives.

Do you have questions about community building?
Contact us through LEADline@CampaignConsultation.com for more information. You can still access previous issues of On-the-Go eTA by clicking on the title at the right.

Community (a sense of)

Creating a sense of community has a powerful impact on people’s psychological, social and physical well-being. Your organization, program or project exists to respond to community needs. Communities in general have five key elements: 1) meeting needs, 2) sharing values, 3) membership, 4) influence and 5) a shared emotional connection.

Communities grow and maintain themselves by meeting the needs of their members. That need may be shelter and security, better education, to address common interests, or for identification.

Understanding the shared values among community members is one of the important steps in a community development process and provides a sense of belonging and membership. The stronger the sense of community, the stronger the sense of bonding or belonging individuals experience. This sense of membership also provides a sense of security because community member develop ways of understanding who is part of their community and who is not.

Community members believe that they can individually and collectively influence their communities as well as be influenced by them.

Look for ways to strengthen the emotional connection among residents. A community may hold a festival or other celebratory initiative. Another great source of emotional connection comes through success. Emerging community organizing initiatives start with small wins (easy initial victories or success) that can do a lot to strengthen the sense of community.

Connections

Emerging community organization initiatives start with small wins (easy initial victories or successes.) To be effective, people need to build connections within the community and between the community and others from outside the community. Often community assets are overlooked and the focus is on needs. Assets can provide opportunities to create connections. By mapping community assets, a community can create the connections necessary to meet needs.

Networking creates a wide number of connections that provide tremendous opportunities for change and positive development. Click here for ways you can expand your networking possibilities and put yourself in the path of decision makers:

Control

Individual investment in communities is strengthened when collective action leads to control over the future of the community. The development and exercise of individual and collective control are among the most basic of human drives.

Here is an example of how one community asserts control over its destiny:

Residents of Charles Village (a community in Baltimore) Benefits District decide how to allocate resources and establish an annual budget by congregating to identify key areas of need (try for no more than five to ten.) Each area of need is assigned a container (glass fish bowls, for instance) and labeled with one need apiece. The containers are placed equidistant from each other so people can easily reach them.

Every person present is given 10 popsicle sticks apiece and asked as a group to "vote with their stick". Each stick has the potential to represent 10% of the group’s budget allocations. Residents express personal preferences of where they think resources should be allocated by dropping their sticks among the needs in the glass containers. They could place all of their sticks in one container, or distribute them in any number among the containers. It’s useful to have glass containers because at a glance, community members can see which container of need has the most sticks.

Neighbors have helped the community officers to begin to build a budget based on the community’s expressed and very visible desire.

Cash

It is no new discovery that inadequate financial resources
are a major threat to the well-being of communities and individuals. What is not well known is that there are community strategies that can be effective in increasing the financial assets-cash-available to community residents and community organizations. Community and neighborhood-based economic development strategies provide proven opportunities for individuals, families and communities to increase their income and financial assets, especially when they are linked to regional resources. Improvements in educational achievement are the single best predictor of increased economic success.

Collective Action

There are different ways that we can promote Community, Connections, Control, and Cash in disenfranchised and distressed communities. A multifaceted approach would be ideal. Collective action is an essential part of any approach to bring about these improvements in communities.

While there are unfortunately many poor individuals and families, there are not really any poor communities. The pooled economic and other resources of communities with low-income persons are actually quite large. Through collective action, these economical and other resources can be use to increase the cash available to residents and their ability to manage and invest cash over the long term.

Questions to Ask for Evaluating and Reflecting on Community Building Work

One of the advantages of this research-based approach to community development is that it offers some very basic questions that we can use to inform us how well our efforts are in promoting community, connections, control, and cash through collective action. Take time to reflect on the following:

• How is the work that I’m doing promoting community?
  
• How am I developing connections with other communities and larger institutions that have resources and information that could benefit this community?
  
• How much control do members of this community have over their environment and for holding their institutions accountable because of the work I am doing?
  
• How does this work increase the cash and other resources available to communities as well as build up their ability to manage and sustain their economic growth?
  
• How is what I am doing enhancing the ability of community members to work together to take collective action to improve the community vs. responding to community conditions individually or relying on larger institutions to take care of community problems and needs?
  

We have set up a site to encourage discussion of the above questions. To join the discussion click here.

Let us know

Have you found ways to develop community, connections, control, cash or collective action?

Contact us at LEADline@CampaignConsultation.com
(LEADline is sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service through its Resource & Fund Development Initiative.) We would be happy to answer questions or to give you more support.

Thank you for your interest in On-The-Go eTA, We encourage you to send this and other issues of OTG eTA to friends and colleagues who would benefit from the information. Also, if you’re on information-overload, you may request email removal. Otherwise OTG e-TA will be back soon with another edition.

IN THIS ISSUE:
click on titles below to read full articles

Appendix:

Connections (cont.)

• Join established networks
  State and Local Nonprofit Associations
  Civic Groups
  Networking groups
  Chambers of Commerce
  Government agencies at all levels
  
• Identify state and national groups and people interested in your issue and go to meetings they are most likely to attend
  Conferences
  Award Dinners
  Foundations
  Advocacy groups
  National corporations
  
• Use reference tools and materials to learn more about funders
  Google
  Foundation Center at www.fdncenter.org
  GuideStar at www.guidestar.org (free noprofit and foundation information on IRS 990 forms)
  Chronicle of Philanthropy at www.philanthropy.com
  Foundation websites
  Corporate websites
  
• Gain ideas by studying efforts in other communities
  Web based research
  List serves of similar programs
  Conferences
  Professional Organizations
  

Resources

The National ASK (Awareness, Skills, Knowledge) to Sustain Institute, sponsored by Corporation for National and Community Service, provided by Campaign Consultation, Inc. 1998, 2002

The CNCS Resources Now! National Institute, sponsored by Corporation for National and Community Service, provided by Campaign Consultation, Inc. 2005-07

Learning Products and Services

LEADline:
(Learning Experiences At a Distance) LEADline is designed to give information fast. Have a resource & fund development question? Use LEADline and within 24 hours you will receive response and advice from a fundraising professional.

Contact us at
LEADline@CampaignConsultation.com

GIZMOs:
(Giving Information for Zooming Mission Objectives) GIZMOS are resource and fund development tools for you and your volunteers. They are tangible products in packets, pocket brochures, CD-ROMs, games, etc. They feature a myriad of fundraising topics such as The Case for Support, an interactive online resource. To order, contact us through LEADline@CampaignConsultation.com or call 410.243.7979 or toll free at 1.877.243.2253

View and use our newest GIZMO, Building Your Case for Support, at www.CampaignConsultation.com/gizmos/case

The Chronicle of Philanthropy:
Everyone who comes to a Resources Now! National Institute gets a free subscription to the Chronicle for a year. Participants in CNCS Campaign Consultation workshops receive the latest issue free of charge plus a $20 discount on one year’s subscription.

Workshops/Clinics:
The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), through its T/TA service provider Campaign Consultation, Inc., offers a three-hour workshops and clinics for those interested.

Online Courses/Webinars:
Web course delivery of topics pertinent to resource development such as — Build Fundraising Volunteer Champions and Cause Related Marketing and Corporate Partnerships. Available through the Resource Center at http://nationalserviceresources.org

Read Back Issues of OTG e-TA

• May 2008 Attracting Media Attention
  
• Mid-April 2008 Corporate sponsors and Business Sponsors
  
• April 2008 How to Ask
  
• March 2008 Planned Giving
  
• Mid-February 2008 Using Fundraising Consultants
  
• February 2008 Raising Funds from Neighbors and Friends
  
• January 2008 Fundraising in Diverse Communities
  
  

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