After Training:

Launch Team Formation

The most successful empowerment efforts are those that leverage the assets of multiple stakeholders from multiple sectors (residents, educators, faith communities, community-based non-profits, governmental agencies, public health professionals, etc.). While these multi-sector coalitions add to the sustainability of the development effort, without clarity of purpose and defined roles, they can often lose energy and focus. To help ensure this does not happen, it is critical that the launch team understand the four key roles that need to be filled prior to launching the development effort: Community Connector, Community Engagement Coach, Project Support Coordinator and Area Advancement Coach. Each of these four roles take ownership of developing one of four of the capacity building process teams: Listening, Leadership Development, Team Building and Partnership Development. These four processes are the engine that drive and sustain the development effort and ultimately leads to building the internal capacity of the community.

Deliverables: Job Descriptions, Funding Plan, Human Resource Mapping, and Action Plan

Funds Development

Once a launch team is in place, Embrace can work with that team to build out a long term budget that leverages the gifts of the partners and community members in a way that increases the groups funds development capacity. We have developed grant templates, individual funding appeals and key stakeholder campaigns that can be customized for any community empowerment effort.

Deliverable: Long-term Budget, Potential Sources of Revenue, Analysis of Partner and Community Contributions

Measuring Success

To demonstrate the success of the empowerment effort, it is critical that benchmarks be established at the start of the development effort and that systems of evaluation are put into place that will show the growth in community engagement over time. We have developed a simple tracking methodology that not only captures the number of engaged community members but their level of engagement which is far more significant when you are evaluating the success of an empowerment effort. These measure can be used to demonstrate growth in social trust, community investment, leadership development, shared vision and collective efficacy. All of which are key indicators for community resilience.