Hi Tony,
Love your questions.
Here are some thoughts I have on this topic.
Q.1 What is successful community engagement? Foundations want to know in terms of social growth (community development) what works and what doesn’t.
A.1 In order to measure the effectiveness and success of community engagement, the first thing I can think of is having a clear scope of what is 'community'. By this, I mean knowing how big is the community, why this community came into formation and the goals of the community. It could be as small as 5 people engaging with a definite goal in mind. Having an engaging community and tracking it's issues and breakthroughs over a period of time would give a good idea of growth patterns within that community. I think, Groups can be a very useful tool in such scenarios for study. A gardening group could have a very different growth pattern as compared to a group of music teachers and students. A good observation over a period of time on how the groups engage within themselves and also a bigger impact that they may have at inter-group level could give a relatively bigger picture. I am thinking mid-micro assessment by group leaders,, sharing with Time bank admins periodically.
Q.2 So that is why I’m asking in any community development program, what are the bottom line measurement indicators or evidence of collective actions?
A.2 Bottom line measurement indicators: I would think that the indicators would be valid at different stages ranging from "identification of most common issues', 'resource availability', 'allocation and use of resources' and 'successful completion'. I think, this information should be managed by Group leaders and they should work closely with the Admins of the Time Bank. Data collected and analyzed by Group leaders and Admins... could actually help the management team discover typical patterns that go with different Member attributes or Group attributes... and the solutions could be used with totally different groups who show similar patterns or even different Time banks if they show similar pattern at macro level.
Q.3 And how do we document or gather the evidence?
A.3 In my opinion... the collection of info must come from Group leaders. Studied, analyzed with Admins of the Time bank ... and together they should maintain a log book in the Knowledge Base if possible. This is system dynamics and results of response to challenges show at different frames in most unexpected manners. Collective action rarely happens at root level... it is individuals who work it... but as the observations get documented and studied... the footprint starts to show up in many different areas and the collective action and response is revealed.
Love this thread. Would love to know what everyone thinks!
~ Ash