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    Community Building: What Makes It Work: A Review of Factors Influencing Successful Community Building
    Community Building: What Makes It Work: A Review of Factors Influencing Successful Community Building
    Community Building: What Makes It Work: A Review of Factors Influencing Successful Community Building
    Ebook162 pages1 hour

    Community Building: What Makes It Work: A Review of Factors Influencing Successful Community Building

    By Paul W Mattessich and Wilder Research Center

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    About this ebook

    This practical guide shows you what really does (and doesn't) contribute to community building success. It reveals 28 keys to help you build community more effectively and efficiently. You won't find another single report that pulls out common lessons from across community building initiatives about what works. You can use this report to find out what community characteristics contribute to successful community building, make sure key processes such as communications and technical assistance are in place, determine if community leaders or organizers have essential qualities such as a relationship of trust and flexibility, and evaluate the likely success of a proposed project or get a struggling effort back on track. Examples, definitions, and a detailed bibliography make this report even more valuable. Wilder Research Center scoured the literature, contacted resource centers, and spoke with community development experts across the country. The result is concrete, understandable research based on real-life experiences. The 28 factors in this report are grouped by: 1) characteristics of the community, 2) characteristics of the community building process, and 3) characteristics of community building organizers. Detailed descriptions and case examples of how each factor plays out are followed by practical questions you can use to assess your work. In addition to the factors, you also get working definitions for community, community building, and many other terms; a list of resources and contacts in the field; an explanation of how the research was done; and a complete bibliography of all the studies used in this report. Now you can save time looking for best-practice information. With this concise report, you've got the tools to help your community building work succeed!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFieldstone Alliance
    Release dateJun 15, 1997
    ISBN9781618588869
    Community Building: What Makes It Work: A Review of Factors Influencing Successful Community Building
    Author

    Paul W Mattessich

    PAUL W. MATTESSICH, Ph.D., is executive director of Wilder Research, which dedicates itself to improving the lives of individuals, families, and communities through applied research. Mattessich has assisted local, national, and international organizations with strategic planning, organizational improvement, and evaluation. He travels regularly to Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, where he learns from, and consults with, organizations addressing youth development, community development, and the promotion of peace and acceptance of diversity among groups from divided communities. Mattessich has been involved in applied social research since 1973 and is the author or coauthor of more than three hundred publications and reports including the recently released third edition of Collaboration: What Makes It Work. He has also served on a variety of task forces in government and the nonprofit sectors. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Minnesota, where he currently serves as an adjunct faculty in the School of Social Work.

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      Book preview

      Community Building - Paul W Mattessich

      e9781618588869_cover.jpg

      Community Building: What Makes It Work

      e9781618588869_i0001.jpge9781618588869_i0002.jpg

      Copyright © 1997 by Fieldstone Alliance.

      Fieldstone Alliance is committed to strengthening the performance of the nonprofit sector. Through the synergy of its consulting, training, publishing, and research and demonstration projects, Fieldstone Alliance provides solutions to issues facing nonprofits, funders, and the communities they serve. Fieldstone Alliance was formerly Wilder Publishing and Wilder Consulting departments of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. If you would like more information about Fieldstone Alliance and our services, please contact us at

      800-274-6024

      www.FieldstoneAlliance.org

      This research summary was developed by Wilder Research, a program of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota. If you have questions about the research, contact

      651-647-4600

      www.wilder.org/research

      Edited by Vincent Hyman

      Cover Illustration by Fran Gregory

      Designed by Rebecca Andrews

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      Fourth printing, March 2008

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Mattessich, Paul W.

      Community building : what makes it work : a review of factors influencing successful community building / by Paul Mattessich, Barbara Monsey, with assistance from Corinna Roy.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references.

      9781618588869

      ISBN 10: 0-940069-12-1 (paperback)

      1. Community development--Research. 2. Community organization--Research. 3. Community power--Research.

      I. Monsey, Barbara R. II. Roy, Corinna. III. Title.

      HN49.C6M3293 1997

      97-12500

      307.1’4’072--dc21

      CIP

      Limited permission to copy

      We have developed this publication to benefit nonprofit and community organizations. To enable this, we grant the purchaser of this work limited permission to reproduce forms, charts, graphics, or brief excerpts from the book so long as the reproductions are for direct use by the individual or organization that purchased the book and not for use by others outside the organization. For example, an organization that purchased the book to help its staff or board make plans relevant to the topic of this book may make copies of material from the book to distribute to others in the organization as they plan.

      For permission to make multiple copies outside of the permission granted here—for example, for training, for use in a compilation of materials, for public presentation, or to otherwise distribute portions of the book to organizations and individuals that did not purchase the book—please visit the publisher’s web site, www.FieldstoneAlliance.org/permissions.

      Aside from the limited permission granted here, all other rights not expressly granted here are reserved.

      Acknowledgments

      The authors wish to thank the many people we talked with and gathered advice from about this project. In particular, we are grateful for the advice and comments from those who reviewed drafts of this report: Peter Benson, Kim Bobo, Arthur Bolton, John Couchman, Amy Crawford, Tracy Curts, Barbara Davis, Nancy Devitt, Audrey Faulkner, Linda Garrett-Johnson, Robert Giloth, Richard Goebel, Ruth Goins, Carole Hamner, Anne Kubisch, Nancy Latimer, Carol Lukas, Jan Morlock, Andy Mott, Carol Ogren, Pat Peterson, Judy Sharken Simon, Harold Simon, Rebecca Stone, Abby Struck, Mercer Sullivan, and Patti Tototzintle.

      Our colleagues at Wilder Research Center, Phil Cooper and Marilyn Conrad, provided helpful assistance with word processing and database development. Other colleagues at the Research Center provided helpful advice and support. Bryan Barry and Vince Hyman of the Wilder Foundation provided the initial impetus for this project. We would like to thank them for their involvement, support, and patience. We are grateful for the support of our funders:

      Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

      Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center

      Local Initiatives Support Corporation

      McKnight Foundation

      The Saint Paul Foundation

      3M Foundation

      About the Authors

      Paul W. Mattessich, Ph.D., is director of Wilder Research Center, which conducts research related to human services trends, programs, and policies. Mattessich has been involved in applied social research since 1973. He lectures and consults with nonprofit organizations, foundations, and government throughout the United States and is the author or co-author of more than one hundred publications and reports. He has also served on a variety of task forces in government and the nonprofit sectors. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota.

      Barbara R. Monsey, M.P.H., is a research associate at Wilder Research Center and managing editor of the newsletter, findings. She has co-authored two other literature review reports for practitioners: Collaboration, What Makes it Work and What Works in Preventing Rural Violence: Strategies, Risk Factors, and Assessment Tools. She has a master’s degree in Public Health Education from the University of North Carolina.

      Table of Contents

      Community Building: What Makes It Work

      Title Page

      Copyright Page

      Acknowledgments

      About the Authors

      Chapter One 1 - Introduction

      Chapter Two 2 - Overview

      Chapter Three 3 - Factors Related to Success

      Chapter Four 4 - Suggestions for Using This Material

      A - Appendix A

      B - Appendix B

      C - Appendix C

      D - Appendix D

      E - Appendix E

      Community Building Bibliography

      e9781618588869_i0003.jpg

      Chapter One 1

      Introduction

      On West 119th street in Harlem...

      residents are noticing changes in the neighborhood. It’s beginning to grow again. It’s getting clean again. There are young minds bringing us together, says long-time resident, 86-year-old Marguerite Gordon. The young and the old are coming together to build new relationships with one another, advocate for repairs in housing, and seek better services. What they’re gaining is a stronger sense of mutual responsibility.

      On West 119th street, housing conditions are bad and drugs and violence are ever present. But the community also has a well-established church, a cooperative apartment building that tenants purchased from the city, and a number of long-time residents with experience and commitment to the community. Community Pride, a neighborhood organizing project, is building on these strengths by organizing community celebrations and block parties, offering tutoring sessions for students, and holding small weekly worship sessions during the summer and holidays.

      This block in Harlem is being considered in the City’s initiative to rehabilitate and sell city-owned buildings to small businesses, neighborhood nonprofits, and tenants themselves. Community residents hope to be educated and organized enough to take action when neighborhood housing owned by the city is sold in the near future.¹

      In the small, rural community of Ivanhoe, Virginia...

      the closing of major industries created an economic crisis and leadership vacuum. Local residents found it hard to fill the leadership vacuum and to advocate for their community. Many believed there was nothing they could do to help themselves.

      Out of such hopelessness came amazing changes. A group of community members started attending seminars to gain skills in community organizing and leadership building. Fledgling community leaders learned how to lead meetings, how to use the media, how to communicate effectively, and how to raise money. They began to understand how political and economic systems work—and how to influence those systems to benefit the community. They developed a sense of pride. They gained confidence in their own ability to understand and act on that understanding. They organized community members, held discussion groups, and planned community meetings and events. These activities led to increased support, momentum, organizing skills, leadership skills, and ultimately, a sense of hope that the community could put itself back on track. A crusade to recruit industry and revitalize the community was in full swing.²

      In Oakland, California...

      a group of low-income residents and new immigrants organized to address unmet health care needs. Working door-to-door and through key community leaders, they recruited community residents. The community members met over potluck dinners and in discussion groups. As they became comfortable with one another, they started to make suggestions for addressing their most important need: immunizations for their children.³

      In northern Sierra Leone, Africa...

      villagers routinely spent hours searching for water, sometimes traveling up to six kilometers. Fifteen village women organized to find support for an improved village well. They selected two women to represent them in a meeting with the village chief. A village

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