Introductory Assessment

This assessment consists of an on-line survey that will provide an initial framework of your effort within the context of the community you serve. This  “assessment at 40,000 feet,”  once completed by you, will be followed by a cost free telephone meeting with a senior consultant of Community Systems team.  To begin this process please click on the link below.

Just in Time Technical Assistance

This assistance offers you telephone and electronic access to our senior consultants and associates when you need them, as you need them.   Technical assistance skills available include Community Development and Mobilization, Cultural Intuitiveness, Grant Writing, Data Interpretation and Utilization, Data Collection Strategies, Logic Model Development and Strategic communication. A more detailed description of Community Systems technical support may be found by clicking the "Our Skills" link to your upper left.

Sustainability Assessment

A 40 hour off-site assessment process.

This assessment of the sustainability of your outcomes follows the three tier sustainability model and assists as the foundation to help you complete a sustainability plan of action.  A Community Systems senior consultant or associate will work with you to develop this plan based on your reality. This process begins with a review of all the materials you submitted based on the Community Systems Assessment Checklist©.  A more detailed description of the three tier sustainability model may be found by clicking the  "Just in Time Tips"  link to your upper left.

 Stratgic Visioning

A 1-day interactive workshop with up to 20 hours off site follow-up.

Starting with the end in mind is the focus of this session. Using the IDEAL framework developed by the Bingham Foundation, this workshop assists community leaders as they set out a vision for their community.  From this vision will spring the mission for how to achieve change.  Follow up technical support focuses on application of these skills.

Resource Assessment

A 1-day interactive workshop with up to 20 hours off site follow-up.

Resources are limited. To understand how to best utilize available resources, it’s important to understand how resources are targeting desired changes in the community. This one day workshop reviews the Resource Identification Tool©, as well as assist in developing an information collection and marketing/dissemination strategy framework. The off-site follow up focuses on creating a quick reference guide to identified community resources and their outcomes.

Strategic Communication

A 1-day interactive workshop with up to 20 hours off site follow-up.

Effective communication with various target audiences is a critical skill for those seeking community change. Identifying and appreciating key target audiences and the results you seek from your communication are two of the important dynamics that will be explored. This training takes a systemic approach and strengthens participants' ability to engage key individuals in awareness of, participation with, and support for your efforts. The follow up technical support focuses on finalizing and implementing your communication plan.

Cultural Intuitiveness

A 1.5-day interactive workshop with up to 20 hours off site follow-up.

To be truly effective, a community system and its leaders must have the ability to hear and appreciate not only the concerns and thoughts of its members but the community it serves.  We are a composite of the culture in which we were raised as well as the culture we embrace; however many times we are less aware of the connection between "our" cultures and how we appreciate and accept the world we encounter. The workshop focuses specifically on strengthening your role in two manners.  First, participants will be introduced to the Cultural Assessment Tool© and learn how to apply this tool to strengthen the cultural intuitiveness of their organizations.  Second, participants will also work to enhance their own cultural intuitiveness and enhance their ability to hear and to be heard.  Follow up technical support focuses on application of these skills.

Needs Assessment

A 2-day interactive workshop with up to 20 hours off site follow-up.

To understand how to best utilize limited resources, it’s important to understand the needs of the populations served by the system. This 2-day interactive training provides a framework for collecting, mapping and assessing current needs.  Participants utilize local quantitative and qualitative data, gathered in advance or a simulation provided by Community Systems, that will help build readiness and skills to understand the problems their communities are confronting,  how populations are effected by those problems, and the conditions that are contributing to them.   Follow up technical support focuses on application of these skills.

Capacity Assessment

A 2-day interactive workshop with up to 20 hours off site follow-up.

To be truly effective, a community system must have the support and confidence of the community with which it works. The workshop focuses specifically on strengthening the system’s role as stewards of community resources, building working relationships and empowering system practitioners to better sustain stakeholder commitment to address community issues. A special emphasis will be placed on the role of power, politics and position within the system that will lead to transparency, trust and transfer of knowledge. Follow up focuses on application of these skills.

Evaluation Planning

A 2-day interactive workshop with up to 20 hours off site follow-up.

A plan, no matter how well executed, is only as good as the outcomes that are documented. This workshop addresses how to ensure that the plans developed by your team provides you with the information needed to make effective use of your resources. Participants also learn how to develop logic models to guide strategic and evaluation planning. Both process and outcome measures for determining measurable immediate and long-term changes are also discussed. Follow-up focuses on the development of an evaluation plan and the selection of evaluation measures.

Community Environment

A 2.5-day interactive workshop with up to 20 hours off site follow-up.

Effective advocacy for long-term change begins with a deeper appreciation of the conditions that drive problems of concern in your community.  This foundational understanding is multi-layered and essential to support long-term improvement in the community environment.  Participants will consider data that describes community problems, the possible causes of these problems and the populations most affected.  Participants develop a logic model that depicts how to address these causes in order to reduce the  problems effects on the community.  The effect of the economic, media, social and political conditions on the implementation of the logic model will be considered and a plan of action developed.  A further exploration of the approach may be found by clicking the “Just in Time Tips" link to your upper left.  Follow up focuses on creating an environmental advocacy plan for your community based on your reality. Follow up technical support focuses on the application of these skills.

Coaching Coaches

A 1-week intensive, interactive training workshop with up to 40 hours of follow-up.

Training is an ongoing process and a critical part of the system’s ability to sustain results. This training workshop relies on simulation to increase trainers’ knowledge, skills and leadership abilities that will help them assist their home agency and community of service in successfully working through the processes of needs assessment, capacity assessment, planning, evaluation and communication. Discussions will focus on theories underlying each step of the planning process, the importance and role of each step as well as the critical nature of appropriate facilitation.