Confronting the Epidemic through Nutrition Research and Policy
Thursday, June 18 to Friday, June 19, 2009
Washington, D.C.
Tips for Organizing a Community Group
The First Steps to Building a Community Group
- Be able to provide a well thought-out response to the “why” of forming a community group before tackling the “how”
- Identify and break down the group’s obstacles
- Propose courses of action which would be most effective in addressing the problem(s) at hand
- Evaluate the strength of your community support
- Design tools to increase community education and involvement
- Start with your Childhood Obesity Prevention and Intervention State Group members and then seek out the involvement of community members, organizations, elected officials, and other stakeholders, as you lay the building blocks for the group
Create a Structured Environment
- Create a mission statement that is representative of the shared vision for the group
- Outline a set of feasible goals
- Include a list of subgoals, as they can serve as a source of encouragement and celebration
- Create a plan of action by which these goals can be realized
- Establish leadership positions to help keep your group focused and more effective in realizing its goals
- Identify leaders, strategists, conveners, etc.
- Determine what you can accomplish, given any monetary limitations
- Seek out capital inflow via grants, donations, membership fees, etc.
Strategies and Steps Toward Action
- Encourage communication
- Within the group
- Among community members and stakeholders
- With the media
- Establish a strong presence within your community as you begin taking your first steps towards action
- Seek out endorsement from community leaders
- Continue promoting involvement from key stakeholders (provide incentives for them to join, such as offering a leadership position within the community group)
- Implement a system by which you can recruit new members
- Schedule structured meetings, and record the events that take place (through written minutes, audio record, etc.)
- Consider holding open forums as a way by which compromise can be reached on disputed issues
- Celebrate your successes! Evaluate your accomplishments, emphasizing what was effective and identifying how your tactics can be improved upon
- Be persistent in seeing that your goals are realized
- Take advantage of the many resources that become available as your diverse member base continues to grow!
For more information, please visit the following resources:
- Forsythe, Janice. A Guide to Coalition Building. Cypress Consulting.
Available at: http://www.cypresscon.com/coalition.html.
- Wadud, Eric. "Coalition Building: Starting a Coalition.” Available at: http://www.glsen.org/binary-data/GLSEN_ATTACHMENTS/file/92-1.pdf.
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