Process Driver 2 - Community Entry
Reflecting
What do we know already?
Questions to ask
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Think about similar activities in the past. What sort of people were involved?
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Remember, actions need to be guided by values. Think about the personal/group values that guide your work.
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Different communities will need different approaches depending on previous relationships with workers, cultural difference and history with other processes. What has your past experience been?
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Think about power and how you have seen it expressed in this community or others. Who has it and how is it used?
You may find the Reflecting on Experience Tool is useful [PDF | Word].
Record your response to these questions.
Interpreting
Why is it important to us?
Questions to ask
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How do the events that happened in the past affect the way you think about this next task?
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How will your own values guide the way you will work?
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How does the way people find out about things affect their involvement?
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How does the way those with power use it affect what happens in this community?
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What are the experiences of others? Can you find some information from them to help guide your work?
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Are there any books, research, professionals or other communities' experiences that may be able to help you think about these issues?
Record your response to these questions.
Deciding
What will we do?
You might find the Action Planning Tool helpful [PDF | Word].
Questions to ask
- Who do you need to communicate with? Remember to think about the power base. Sustainability comes with new power structures. Those with positional power such as council, members, and government workers need to support your process but real change will come when decisions are made by the wider community.
- Identify community people who are interested in the future of their community. They have passion, consistency, credibility and sometimes a constituency, that is, a network of others to gather views and suggestions from.
- These community champions will make all the difference to the support the activities get. How will you choose your community champions wisely? How would you like to work with them? How will you identify what they would like to do?
- Decide how you will start to form relationships with interested people outside the community who may be helpful to the community.
- Decide how to gather your groups together to discuss a process of change. Contacts can be built up by asking those you know to contact or recommend others. This is often called a snowballing effect.
Record your response to these questions.
Acting
Let's do it!
Things to do
You may like to write a small personal action plan at this point. Remember to learn as you go along. Some of the decisions you made may need to be changed as you find out more about the community. At the end of this bit, you may have a group of people interested in going further and:
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who choose to meet together
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who choose to talk to you individually at this point
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a number of different groups involved
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no interest at all!
Remember to:
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speak with a broad range of people to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to have their say, eg all age groups, cultural groups and special needs groups. You may choose to review the Participation module at this time
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talk with the community at a time that suits them
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prepare appropriate written information about your activities to be available in the community
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be flexible in the ways links are made with communities
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make sure those who live with an issue make decisions about it for change
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do what you say you will do.
Speak with community members and services about the project identifying who else you need to talk to:
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use personal contacts, eg home visits, morning teas, drop in services
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informal chats with individuals
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introductory phone calls and/or letters
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link into any existing community meetings
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set up meetings around the work you are doing.
Record what you did.
Evaluating
How did it go?
You may find the Reflecting on Experience Tool is useful [PDF | Word].
Questions to ask
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What exactly happened?
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How did the way things were done affect the way things turned out? How do you know this?
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Do you need to keep working on community entry? Is the community ready to progress to the next step? How do you know this?
Record your response to these questions.
Some helpful tips
Key success factors for entry are:
- trust
- accessible and reliable community communication networks
- resources for action that come with the initiative (money, information, networks, training etc.).
Key inhibiting factors are:
- dependency on others
- poor histories within and between organisations
- lack of time in the community
- lack of communication networks
- lack of knowledge about the issues.
The entry phase may need much more work if this is the case.
At the end of this module, before you go on with the CAPIR process, you should have:
- gained support for your process from interested community members as well as positional leaders and service providers
- a better understanding of the community
- the beginning of a relationship with the community.
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