FACTOR #16: Political/ social climate favorable

TOOL: Expanding Depth of Support and Involvement

1. Identify ways that collaborations can improve their access to the community members they are trying to reach
   
   
2. Increase opportunities for community participation in prevention strategies.
   
   
3. Identify institutions and other resources close to the collaboration's target population.
   
   
4. Plan ways that community members can organize a local prevention campaign.

• Newsprint pad and easel
• Markers in a variety of colors
• Sticky dots in a variety of colors

Background and Rationale

1. Reaching and Including More People
   
   Your collaborations should involve the people, and institutions that are in closest contact with the people, that your actions will have the most impact on. If your collaboration wants to reach and involve these people, it needs to identify and engage more local groups, leaders, and helpers.
   
   
2. Linking and Strengthening Different Levels of Communities and Institutions
   
   
   1. Communities, both geographic and social, are organized at different levels. A city, for example, has geographic communities that start with the family. The family exists within a block (with immediate neighbors), which is part of a neighborhood. The neighborhood, in turn, can be part of a section of a city (e.g., east, west, north, or south, or wards). The city is part of a county. Etc., etc., etc.
      
      
   2. Each "level" of community has different capacities and limitations.
      
      For example, research has shown that block or neighborhood organizations draw higher percentages of participants than do citywide organizations. Smaller scale (e.g., local) organizations are able to increase the social bonding protective factors more readily than are larger scale (e.g., citywide) organizations. Larger scale organizations (e.g., school systems), by contrast, have a far greater impact on resources and policies than do smaller scale organizations (e.g., a school).
      
      The individual school, however, can do more than the school system to increase various other significant protective factors such as social bonding, participation, access to services, and an increased sense of individual and collective control. Smaller youth and parent organizations can have an even greater impact on these factors.
      
      
   3. One primary goal of a prevention collaboration should be to build the capacity of each institution at each level to best perform its job and to provide linkages among the different levels and types of institutions. This network or set of linkages, from the highest levels to the grassroots, is the pipeline for the delivery of the benefits of your prevention effort.
      
      
3. Increasing the Opportunities for Prevention
   
   
   1. The more local the organization, the greater and more sustained the level of participation; the more organizations and committees formed, the greater the number of individuals participating and leading; the more organizations and committees created to work on the prevention campaign, the more prevention strategies will be implemented.
      
      
   2. Reaching "deeper" into your service area and organizing those whom you reach will lead to more prevention activities, more accessibility and acceptability of your strategies, and more positive leadership. Creating more local "collaborations" or community organizations will allow your collaboration to cover a greater area more uniformly.
      
      
4. Engaging the Caring and Support Systems Used Most
   
   
   1. Most people, especially at-risk youth, receive assistance primarily from local, nonprofessional sources. In a study of urban and suburban communities by Donald Warren, over 80% of the help received in a crisis was from family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers (on noncriminal matters). As many people received needed information and assistance from a local police officer or a local clergy member as from social workers, psychologists, medical professionals, counselors, or other professional helpers.
      
      
   2. People in your community may rely on a different or additional set of helpers. Expanding the depth of your prevention collaboration will engage these caring and support systems.
      
      
5. Summary of Strategies for Expanding Depth of Support and Involvement
   
   
   • Identify local levels of community organizations and institutions as well as their leaders or representatives.
     
     
   • Identify how local support and caring systems are organized and who are the key people to involve.
     
     
   • Involve leaders and representatives in the prevention collaboration.
     
     
   • Develop and support more local organizations that can work on the prevention campaign.

Activity: Constructing a Sociogram (20-30 mins. per target group)

1. Prepare for the activity by making the following assignments:
   
   
   1. Select someone to be the recorder on the newsprint.
      
      
   2. Select another person to read instructions and facilitate the answering of questions and discussion.
      
      
   3. Select a third person to keep track of the time.
      
      
2. Select a target population (e.g., teenagers, the elderly, families headed by single mothers). Your collaboration may have already formally selected a population or populations; if not, select your target population based on the group that is a major focus of your current activities. If you have more than one target population, do only one at a time.
   
   
   1. Draw a circle in the center of the newsprint, and write the name of the target population inside the circle.
      
      
   2. Identify those people or organizations that have the most contact with members of that population.
      
      
      • Write their names (generic or specific) around the target population's name.
        
        
      • Place those who have the most frequent contact and are most important closer to the center.
        
        
3. Use the following questions to help determine where each group should be placed on the sociogram.
   
   
   • Where do they go to learn, work, play, or connect?
     
     
   • Whom do they go to for advice or help in an emergency?
     
     
   • What are the types (or forms) of their organizations and institutions (e.g., gangs, communities of faith, social clubs, sports teams)?
     
     
   
   
   Figure 1. Sample Sociogram
   
   
4. Identify where the institutions and people you have identified are located. Use the following questions as a guide:
   
   
   • Are they scattered across the city or county?
     
     
   • Are they located in sections of the county or in a town, neighborhood, or school district?
     
     
   • From what area or group do they draw their members or constituencies?
     
     
5. The answers to these questions will help you decide at what level you want to organize these people and institutions to come together and the level of the leaders or representatives whom you will need to involve.
   
   Leaders and representatives should be responsible for the institution that operates at that level or the level closest to it. For example, if most of the organizations that teens relate to are in their neighborhood, then representatives and leaders should be responsible at the neighborhood level (e.g., principals, patrol officers, sports team leaders, gang leaders, student and youth organization leaders).
   
   

Activity: Identifying More Local Units

1. Using newsprint, complete the following steps:
   
   
   • Write the level of geographic community that your collaboration is responsible for (e.g., several counties, a single county, a city, town, neighborhood) on the bottom of a sheet of newsprint.
     
     
   • Write "Family" at the top of the sheet.
     
     
   • Beginning at the bottom of the sheet, list the levels of community and government in your service area until you reach the top of the sheet (just below "Family").
     
     
   • Circle the level closest to the Family from which your collaboration draws a significant or at least adequate level of participation.
     
     
2. Discuss the local level that is most meaningful and practical to citizens. (A significant number of institutions are organized at that level.)
   
   
3. Ask: "What is the appropriate level at which to begin to organize local institutions and helpers?" Using a different-colored marker, put a square around the response.
   
   
4. If you did not do the sociogram, list the specific organizations and individuals who are in regular (daily, weekly) contact with the most people. Use the following questions:
   
   
   • Where do they go to learn, work, play, or connect?
     
     
   • Whom do they go to for advice or help in an emergency?
     
     
   • What are the types (or forms) of their organizations and institutions (e.g., gangs, communities of faith, social clubs, sports teams)?

Discussion: Ways of Expanding the Depth of Support-Strategy Development

1. Review results of the Sociogram and Identification of More Local Units.
   
   
   • Is there a level that your collaboration could help organize (e.g., block, neighborhood, town, county) that is more immediate than the one it is currently focusing on?
     
     
   • If a geographic unit isn't right for your collaboration, is there a specific population or group that it could consider organizing (e.g., youth, elderly, parents, neighborhood residents)?
     
     
2. Attempt to reach a consensus on the focal point around which to organize an expansion effort.
   
   
3. Clarify expectations and roles of the group.
   
   The collaboration should have clear expectations as to the roles and responsibilities of any new group it has identified and should clarify the relationship the group would have with the collaboration. The activity below will help clarify these roles and responsibilities.
   
   

Activity: Developing Organizations or Coalitions

1. Write "Local Organization" or another appropriate name (e.g., neighborhood coalition, youth organization) at the top of a sheet of newsprint. Based on the decision you just made, discuss the following questions and record answers on newsprint:
   
   
   • What would be the role of local organizations?
     
     
   • How could such organizations implement the programs of the collaboration?
     
     
   • What role could they play in the planning and implementation of prevention strategies at a more local level?
     
     
   • What else could they do?
     
     
   • Would they be independent organizations that participate in the collaboration or would they be a "subsidiary" of the collaboration?
     
     
2. Write "collaboration" on the top of a second page of newsprint. Discuss the following questions and record responses on newsprint:
   
   
   • What would be the role of the collaboration in relation to the more local organization?
     
     
   • What type of support can the collaboration provide (e.g., staff assistance in organizing, training, seed money, assistance with fund raising)?
     
     
3. Attempt to reach a consensus on the following question:
   
   "Should Your Collaboration Try To Develop More Local Organizations or Coalitions?
   
   

Discussion: Involvement in the Current Collaboration Structure

1. How could new members be placed on a committee? What is your current policy?
   
   
2. Would they choose by themselves which committees they would be on or be assigned?
   
   

Identifying Leaders and Representatives

1. Defining Leaders and Representatives
   
   Leaders are responsible to a constituency and carry the authority of the organization. They are recognized, formally or informally, as the leader of a specific group or organization. They can deliver on the commitments made.
   
   Representatives are given formally the authority to act on behalf of the organization and constituency. They represent a commitment by the organization to participate. This is done often through a formal commitment by the leadership of the organization (e.g., memorandum of agreement) or through election or appointment by the membership.
   
   If you are organizing more local organizations, you may choose to have them send representatives to the decision-making body of your collaboration and to your working committees.
   
   
2. Recruiting New Leaders and Representatives
   
   
   1. Group decision: Should your collaboration recruit more local leaders and representatives to participate in committees and task forces? If yes, what is the best way to do it?
      
      
   2. If you have decided to pursue one or both of the methods to expand the depth of your collaboration's support and involvement, then you are ready to decide on how to recruit.
      
      
3. Activity: Using Existing collaboration Members
   
   
   1. Go over again the results of the sociogram and the identification of more local units.
      
      
   2. Note almost every one of the types of organization and groups have leaders and representatives at the same level as the collaboration.
      
      
   3. Ask leaders and representatives (as defined above) that already are in your collaboration, and who are from a sector or institution that you wish to organize, to recruit the local leaders and representatives.
      
      

      Note:

      Collaboration members should not only identify local participants but also make the personal contact and, if possible, make it a decision of their organization. Collaboration members also could help to identify key people and unaffiliated local organizations (community organizations, youth groups, etc.). Have collaboration members review a list and provide their suggestions.

   4. List on newsprint what organizations or leaders participate in your collaboration that have more of a local base or local counterparts. Refer to Assessing Breadth, Depth, and Scope Activity results.
      
      
4. Discussion: Using Staff
   
   Staff, if any, can play an important role in recruitment. Staff can double check the recommendations of collaboration members. Staff can "beat the bushes" to find leaders and helpers in your target community. Using a tool such as the Staff Interview Form -- located at the end of this activity -- staff can be assigned to conduct one-on-one interviews with local key informants, such as those persons identified by collaboration members.
   
   Discussion Question:
   
   
   • Does the staff have the time and ability to assist in the recruitment?
     
     
5. Developing a List of People To Invite To Participate and To Organize
   
   
   1. Once your collaboration has decided on how it wants to expand the depth of support and participation, it will need to develop a list of people and organizations to recruit.
      
      
      • Reexamine the results of the sociogram and the identification of more local units.
        
        
      • List on newsprint the names of local people and organizations from the sociogram and at the local level of the community that you previously identified.
        
        
      • Take one community or local unit to practice with as an example.
        
        

        Note:

        Repeat with the input of staff and other Partnership members as part of a committee or task-force effort when you are really ready to begin.

      • You now have a list to begin your recruitment effort. These persons, or a sample, should be interviewed by staff or others as suggested in the previous section.

Summarize Accomplishments

1. Write "Accomplishments" on the top of a sheet of newsprint.
   
   
2. List accomplishments of the team during this activity.
   
   
   • What information or knowledge have you gained?
     
     
   • What decisions have you made?
     
     
   • What recommendations will you make to your team or collaboration?
     
     

Determine What Else Is Needed To Make Accomplishments Happen

1. Write "Next Steps" on the top of a piece newsprint.
   
   
2. List next steps on the newsprint.
   
   
3. Discuss:
   
   
   • What steps need to be taken in order to get your collaboration to adopt your strategy?
     
     
   • How much input, approval, and support are needed? How can you get them?
     
     
   • What kind of assistance do you need to implement your strategy?
     
     
4. List next to each activity the name of the person on your team who will take responsibility for each of the next steps.

BREADTH, DEPTH, AND SCOPE
Background Paper

• Breadth of representation,
  
  
• Depth of participation, and
  
  
• Scope of strategies used.
  
  

• Expanding the Breadth of Support and Involvement
  
  The Partnership is encouraging wider levels of support and involvement from more and more parts (sectors) of the community, including all cultures, neighborhoods, systems, and organizations that comprise the community.
  
  For example, not only does the Partnership have the support and involvement of the original Partnership members, but it has reached out, recruited, and involved the public and private school systems, local associations of professionals, gay youth, and the various ethnic and racial groups in the community.
  
  
• Expanding the Depth of Support and Involvement
  
  The Partnership is encouraging deeper levels of support and involvement from within each part (sector) of the community.
  
  For example, initially the police chief or mayor may have been the only representative from the law-enforcement system on the Partnership, but now the Partnership has the active support of the Fraternal Order of Police, precinct captains, foot patrol officers, and community "Block-Watch" program participants.
  
  
• Expanding the Scope of Strategies Used
  
  The Partnership is using a number of strategies to target, organize, and mobilize many different parts (sectors) of the community. The Partnership is simultane-ously using a variety of strategies, with many different community sectors, to address issues related to alcohol, underage tobacco use, and other drug problems.
  
  For example, the media, business community, religious groups, law enforce-ment, and local Government officials may all be working together to change policies pertaining to the use of billboards for advertising alcohol.
  
  

• Complete an assessment of each dimension;
  
  
• Set priorities for which of the dimensions to expand; and,
  
  
• Design strategies for expanding the targeted dimension.

STAFF INTERVIEW FORM
Reference Sheet

1. Organizational History:
   
   
2. Networks:
   
   
3. Issues:
   
   
   • Family:
     
     
   • Neighbor:
     
     
4. Gifts and Talents:
   
   
5. I would like to help convince the "powers that be" to:
   
   

   A.	Support youth/mentoring activities	Yes_____No_____
   B.	Support community development Credit Unions	Yes_____No_____
   C.	Fight gang influences	Yes_____No_____
   D.	Get better health	Yes_____No_____
   E.	Get better policing	Yes_____No_____
   F.	Other________________________________	Yes_____No_____

   
   
   
6. Can you suggest 3 names of other people to be interviewed?
   
   

   Name:	Phone:
   Address:
   Name:	Phone:
   Address:
   Name:	Phone:
   Address:

7. Can we get back to you?     Yes_______No_______