Community Development Strategies

Working With Groups Towards Community Development

• Community engagement is viewed as a strategy and a continuum.
• As a strategy, it requires a systematic approach to bring people, structures, and resources together.
• As a continuum, it shows a trajectory focusing on active participation of all stakeholders, ultimately leading to shared leadership.

Forms of Community Engagement

• Community Organizing
• Community-Based Participatory Action Research
• Community Development
• Community Empowerment

Community Development (CD)

• CD is viewed as a process and an outcome.
• As a process, it entails people's active participation in developing solutions to collectively identified problems.
• As an outcome, it represents a state where individuals, through their efforts, achieve a better quality of life.
• Characteristics of CD: a process for implementing change, a program of activities, an outcome, and ideology of action.

Tuckman's Stages of Team Development

• Forming – team members come together, introduce themselves and learn about goals. Polite and uncertain. Focus on roles, purpose and leader's expectations.
• Storming – conflicts may arise due to differing opinions, personalities, and work styles. Disagreements and power struggles might occur. Successful teams resolve these constructively, fostering trust and communication.
• Norming – team finds cohesion. Members establish norms, respect, and shared goals. Roles and responsibilities are clearer. Increased cooperation and collaboration.
• Performing – the team reaches a high level of functioning, focuses on achieving goals. Well-established channels and strong collaboration. Independence in problem-solving and decision-making.
• Terminating (or Mourning) – Final stage, group disbands after achieving goals. May involve feelings of accomplishment, sadness, or loss. Teams reflect on achievements and share feedback.

Stages of Group Development

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning (or Mourning)

Interventions to Facilitate Group Growth

1. a. Orientation

• Clarify purpose and objectives, explaining the meeting's purpose and team aims.
• Introduce team members and roles, allowing time for introductions if the group is new or has unfamiliar members.
• Set expectations for participation, highlighting that all voices are valued and respectful, active listening is crucial.

1. b. Structure

• Create a discussion agenda, outlining key topics and assigning timeframes.
• Set ground rules for communication (one person speaking, encouraging questions, avoiding interruptions, respectful language).
• Use facilitated techniques (e.g., Round-Robin, Brainstorming), employing structured methods for balanced participation.

1.c. Direction

• Guide the conversation flow, steering back on track if it goes off course, directing attention toward initial goals.
• Encourage clarification and summarize key points, prompting clarification/elaboration when necessary. Summarize key takeaways periodically.
• Set actionable next steps, identifying concrete next steps, assigning responsibilities, and setting deadlines to conclude discussions.

2. a. Process

• Establish clear communication protocols, defining how the group will communicate (check-ins, active listening, feedback loops).
• Document roles, responsibilities, and decision-making procedures.
• Reflect and evaluate group interactions, conducting regular reflection sessions.

2.b. Negotiation

• Encourage collaborative problem-solving. Use negotiation techniques (win-win solutions) to address differing views/needs.
• Facilitate open dialogue and compromise, promoting a space where members openly discuss perspectives.
• Clarify priorities and interests, focusing on underlying interests behind viewpoints.

2.c. Conflict Resolution

• Establish a clear conflict resolution framework, introducing techniques (active listening, reframing, focusing on solutions).
• Assign a neutral facilitator (leader/trained facilitator) if needed to help mediate escalating conflicts.
• Encourage emotional intelligence and self-awareness, helping team members reflect on emotions and reactions.

3. Awareness of the effects of behavior

• Awareness of the effects of behavior, encouraging individuals to reflect on how their actions impact the team (dynamic, productivity, morale). When team members understand their impact on others it fosters a more respectful, cohesive, and collaborative environment.
• How awareness can be used as an intervention:
  • Promote self-reflection exercises.
  • Use personality assessments (MBTI, DISC, Emotional Intelligence) for insight into communication styles, decision-making, and emotional triggers.

3. (cont'd)

• Encourage constructive feedback in real-time, creating a team culture focused on normalized giving and receiving. Positive behaviors are reinforced.
• Practice specific and non-judgmental language, focusing on behaviors rather than personal characteristics.
• Implement impact feedback exercises, holding dedicated sessions for team members to openly discuss each other's behavior's impacts.
• Practice positive reinforcement, encouraging highlighting positive behaviors and reinforcing actions impacting the team positively.

4. Fostering Empathy and Perspective-Taking

• Encourage empathy building activities, using role-playing or perspective taking exercises to help members understand how behaviors affect others.
• Promote emotional intelligence training, teaching team members about empathy, self-regulation, and social awareness.

4. Model & Reinforce Positive Behavioral Standards:

• Lead by example, demonstrating behavior aligning with team values. Be aware of your own impact.
• Establish group norms and accountability, agreeing upon shared norms (active listening, patience, punctuality), and holding team accountable to those norms.

4. Applying new learning intervention:

• Integrate learning into group goals, creating specific learning objectives connected to group goals (improving communication, mastering new project management tools).
• Apply new skills in real-time scenarios, using project work/team tasks as opportunities for applying new skills.

5. Facilitate Knowledge Sharing

• Encourage peer teaching, empowering assigned team members to lead short sessions on what was learned (from workshops, courses).
• Create a knowledge repository, documenting new learning/practices via shared drives/group wiki.

6. Establish Reflective Practice for Continuous Improvement:

• Conduct regular learning reviews, holding periodic sessions for team members to reflect, identifying improvement areas.
• Employ a "Try, Reflect, Adjust" cycle, encouraging members to test new ideas/methods, reflect on outcomes and make adjustments.

7. Encourage Experimentation & Risk-Taking

• Promote a safe environment for experimentation, creating a space where members feel comfortable trying new approaches without fear of failure.
• Celebrate efforts toward applying learning, recognizing and rewarding efforts to implement new learning, even if it’s not immediately successful.

8. Provide Ongoing Coaching & Mentorship

• Assign mentors for skill application, pairing members with mentors to guide new skill application.
• Encourage leaders to model learning application, setting examples by actively applying learning and sharing results with the team.

Role of the Nurse

• The nurse is a crucial facilitator in creating a supportive, productive group environment.
• Applying interventions empowers group members, builds strong relationships, and achieves positive outcomes for the community.
• Effective facilitation requires adapting to specific group and community needs.

Collaboration and Partnerships

• Building Partnerships: Identify potential partners sharing similar goals/objectives. Develop clear partnership agreements. Establish effective communication channels.
• Leveraging Available Resources: Partnerships allow sharing of personnel, equipment, facilities, and funding. Strategies involve coordinating resource use and creating community resource maps.
• Conflict Management: Conflicts are inevitable; effective planning/communication minimizes them. Address issues promptly through negotiation/mediation. Collaborative problem-solving is key.
• Partnerships should be viewed as learning opportunities, learning from successes/failures to improve. Nurses play a key role in facilitating evaluation: data collection, result analysis, and sharing findings.