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Lessons From the Field-- Part 1 : The "Business" of Community Development
Marlene Wiens
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the contribution of our partner organizations, Fundacin Amigos de los Ninos Discapacitados para su Integracion a la Comunidad, FANDIC and Asociacion de Discapacitados de Piedecuesta, ASODISPIE and thank them for their confidence in relating their experiences. I would also like to thank friends of the Canadian Association for Participatory Development for their encouragement and support.
Introduction
The vision of our Canadian charity is to facilitate the integration of people with disabilities as contributing members of their communities through the building of individual and organizational capacities. We use a process called 'accompaniment' to achieve this vision. To us, accompaniment means establishing long term relationships in which there is mutual learning and trust. Now, after several years of experience working with two Colombian organizations we are ready to examine the lessons learned as a result of using this process.
In accordance with our mission, we sought out two small non-profit community organizations that focus on people with disability and are registered in their respective Chambers of Commerce. Our relationship with one organization began in 2001 and the other in 2003. Both organizations are governed by a Board of Directors and have one part-time staff. The Board of one organization is composed largely of therapy professionals who live in the same city but not the community in which the work takes place. This organization has developed a Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) program that is administered by a part-time community worker and uses volunteers to work with disabled children and their families. They do not receive government funding but receive assistance in the form of students from educational institutions. The second organization is a Disabled People's Organization (DPO) with a membership encompassing all ages and types of disabilities. Their Board of Directors is composed of disabled people who advocate on behalf of their members. This organization has received municipal government funding and holds a contract with that government to maintain the central park and administer the parking zones encircling the park.
The purpose of this paper is to outline lessons we have learned as a result of accompaniment. I have chosen to focus on commonalities between good business practice and community development in discussing these lessons. My observations are based on our own experience with our two Colombian partners as well as their experience with their stakeholders.
Business Sense
In Canada, non-profit organizations are encouraged to think of themselves in business terms especially in regards to development of abilities and competencies required for sustainability. This is excellent advice for Canadian organizations but does it apply to small, community organizations in low-income countries where the context and culture are different? I believe it does and have found that books outlining the values and qualities of great leaders and businesses (Covey, 2004; Collins, 2001; DePree, 1989), to be applicable to other contexts. In the discussion below, I will attempt to weave together concepts learned from other authors with personal experience and observation.
Qualities of Leading Organization
Great (not just adequate) leadership in a community based organization is the most important ingredient for survival. Without it, the organization and their programs may flounder and possibly fail. Just as in business, leadership in community organizations requires people of integrity, passionate commitment and competence. As a facilitating organization, we stand by our partners when they face a crisis of leadership by listening, encouraging and injecting new energy. When the right leader emerges, we support that leader by helping the Board gain the skills required to develop and lead the organization.
Examining the three essential components of great leadership, integrity is the most important. Integrity speaks about being the person you say you are and doing what you say you will do. People with integrity engender trust and trust is the foundation for community development. One cannot assume that, just because people live as neighbours and have something in common such as a disabled family member, trust will naturally develop between them. It may, but it may not. During my Master's fieldwork with mothers of disabled children, we performed a short skit called Stranger to the Neighbourhood in which the mothers gave advice to a supposedly new woman moving to their community. Here is the advice they gave about how she should treat her new neighbours (Wiens, 2001):
- Be nice to everyone but don't tell anyone anything
- Be careful or they will steal your husband
- You need to know your neighbor well to know whether you can trust her or whether she gossips
- Really examine your friends well to make sure you can trust them
These attitudes indicate a high level of suspicion and a low level of trust. Low levels of trust lead to low levels of participation, a frustration for our partners. Integrity in leadership is now helping to build trust between our partners and their communities, and this in turn is resulting in increased participation (see part two for a fuller discussion).
Passionate commitment is the second quality of great leadership; passion without commitment is useless and commitment without passion does not make a great leader. Passionate commitment is basic to developing a sense of ownership, and it often grows incrementally. It grows in people who keep coming back for more and who have an apparently insatiable desire to learn. It sometimes has it roots in childhood as was the case with a partner's President who confided that she has always wanted to be involved in community work. Passionate commitment and integrity act as magnets that attract volunteers and supporters, as was the case with our partners.
However, those supporters will soon drop off unless the leadership is competent. The competencies required have to do with setting a direction; of being clear about WHO you are and WHAT you want to accomplish; of examining your programs and activities in light of your mission and vision and having the courage to change if they are not bringing you closer to your purpose. Take, for example, the issue of how to implement a community rehabilitation program. Determining whether to use a service delivery or a community development model depends on one's mission. If the mission speaks about integration and increased opportunities for people with disability (as in the case of our partners), the likely choice will be a community development model. However, community development can be complicated and very long term. It may not be easy to gain the level of participation required to fulfill the mission. The example below demonstrates how one organization met these challenges head on and flourished.
Example of a Competent Organization
One of our partners was experiencing instability as a result of poor leadership. The Board considered folding the organization, when ultimately one member stepped forward to take the Presidency. She considered long and hard before taking the position because her time was already limited by professional responsibilities and a growing family. But the passion and the commitment were there, so she persuaded her family members to support her endeavor. By the close of her first year, the organization had made significant headway in gaining support of community members and volunteers. The Board was working systematically with the community worker to improve reporting systems as well as developing policy to guide the implementation of the mission, which was the integration of disabled children into family and community life. It was hoped that parents would participate in helping the child become more functional and participative in the home, but this initially was not the case. In an effort to more successfully implement their mission, they embarked on systematic changes over a two to three year period that led towards families carrying out a home activity program with the child. How did it happen?
This organization was fortunate to have an agreement with the physical therapy department of a local private university in which students, with an accompanying professor, went to the organization for their community practicum. At the start of the arrangement some years ago, the students provided therapy for the children affiliated with the organization as a service, that is, they would consult with the family member who brought the child (usually the mother) but the students did the therapy. This is the clinical approach. Gradually, the experience became more community based with the students visiting the homes and in some cases doing therapy in the home along with family members. It was an improvement, but the carry-over to family members remained poor. The next incremental change was to have the therapy student work with a family member designated by the family, in the preparation of an activity booklet for the child's home program. The family member drew the diagrams, wrote the explanations and kept progress reports. Compliance improved as the family developed ownership of the activity. The remaining incremental change was forced upon them by circumstance - instead of having four or five students, the university could only send two. The organization had to make a decision-- were they going to drastically reduce the number of children or were they going to think creatively to come up with a unique solution? They did the latter and in doing so were able to come even closer to achieving their mission. The solution was to have group therapy with students as supervisors, and designated family members as therapists. Each group session was composed of a theoretical part in which the students discussed aspects of disability with the group, and a practical part in which the family members worked with the children. During this time there was considerable interaction amongst children and family members, one desired result. There was also better carry-over into the home especially on the days in which there was no group therapy, another desired result. Lastly, the family members gained knowledge about the condition of their child and learned how to increase his/her participation in the home, a third desired result.
In this example the organization persistently examined WHAT they were doing in the light of their mission. They experimented by making incremental changes and with each change, experience coupled with reflection and creativity, clarified their direction. In the end, they were much closer to their purpose and on the way to achieving the results they desired.
This example points towards some basic principles that we and our partners have learned along the way:
- Do only what you can do in the moment-- that is, don't overreach your ability to accomplish.
- Don't try to rush. We are working with volunteers and people whose lives are complicated by their own realities.
- Work at the rhythm of your main stakeholder group.
- Start at the point at which they are and not at the point of where you would like them to be. Remember Freire's words that "We cannot educate if we don't start-- and I said start and not stay-- from the levels in which the people perceive themselves, their relationships with the others and with reality, because this is precisely what makes their knowledge" (Horton & Freire, 1990, p. 66).
- Face your brutal reality but maintain the faith that you will succeed in the end.
- Leave room or space for new learning to occur. New learning occurred on the part of the organization as well as on the part of the University with whom they had the agreement. Through a double feedback loop, the physical therapy faculty came to understand that a community practicum was not about practicing clinical skills in a community setting but was about teaching others to practice those skills. As a facilitating organization, we remind ourselves to leave space for our partners to challenge their own perceptions and beliefs. Behavioral change takes time and is an incremental process (ICA, 1997 and Cranton, 2002). Facilitating organizations play an important role in encouraging behavioral change through the presentation of new ideas and technologies, and by facilitating new experiences.
- Encourage praxis or critical reflection in personal practice and in that of others; to know that we/they are doing the right thing at the right time. Praxis, a process of continual evaluation consisting of reflection, fact finding and action (Fals Borda & Rahman, 1991), is the basis of sound community development.
Our example points to specific skills developed by the organization over time. It states that the Board worked systematically with the community worker to improve reporting systems. Documentation of the goals, the process and results of each program is an organizational competency, and discipline in this area helped the organization to clarify its situation and to plan for the future. It became the raw material from which the annual report and presentations were crafted. Tracking results through qualitative and quantitative measures helped them to monitor their performance, which in turn served to substantiate to their claim of effectiveness.
The example states that the organization attracted support of community members and volunteers. Some of these volunteers were therapy students who engaged in extra curricular activities such as planning parties for the children and teaching them dancing. Gradually students from other careers such as engineering and environmental science became involved in construction projects, for example. Volunteers from the grade 10 class of the local high school, completing their social service requirement, gave one-to-one tutoring to disabled children and helped transport children to the centre. The uniqueness of this community experience attracted licensed professionals who wanted to learn about new methods and technologies. Most importantly, volunteers from the community itself slowly came forward as they became more and more involved in the organization.
In retrospect, the volunteers were attained through two principal actions: 1) The organization explored their circle of influence for people interested in having a stake in their organization and 2) they offered volunteers opportunities for learning. They made contacts, presentations and proposals in order to gain access to a volunteer pool. Once they had them, they trained them. The high school students learned about disability and how to value disabled children. The university students and professionals learned about the new International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (OMS & OPS, 2001), they performed a participatory evaluation, and constructed custom seating systems and functional equipment. These workshops, co-facilitated by our Canadian organization, served to extend the organization's reach and increase their credibility. They also served to involve family members, especially in the workshop on functional modifications. Their involvement was one of the "hooks" that increased their integration into the organization. Besides, they had before them a good solution and they were thrilled with the results.
The Role of a Facilitating Organization
There are a myriad of roles that a facilitating organization can play but two things are important to me: 1) To model character and behaviour consistently; and 2) To foster independence. The characteristics that we model to the best of our ability are integrity, passionate commitment and competency. If we, as a facilitating organization, want our partner organizations to be the best they can be, we must be the best we can be. From my point of view, success in community development does not start with money, it starts with character. The behaviour that we model is steadfastness; we are there as a friend and a companion over the long term. This, for us, is accompaniment. It means that we are responsible in our relationship and make sound decisions reached as a result of listening. It means we provide encouragement at each step on the way. This is our gold standard; it is what we measure ourselves against; it is what we work to be true to.
The goal of fostering independence causes us to reflect continuously on our motives and actions. Sometimes, taking leadership or giving a little extra financial assistance seems to be the best thing to do and sometimes it is. But it may not be. There is a fine balance to be walked and it is not easy as noted by this journal entry in 2002:
- I am not sure I can be sufficiently objective.
- I am losing perspective and am writing this note to try to regain balance.
In the end, we want our partners to be strong in their own abilities and knowledge. We want them live their vision and mission and we want them to be financially independent. All of this takes time. From my point of view, the organization in the example has one last great hurdle to climb and that is to reach a sound financial footing. Remember, they have no government support and much of the support they receive from the community at large is in the form of in-kind gifts. This year, for the first time, they developed an annual fundraising plan that includes activities, the date for each activity and the amount to be raised. It will be another incremental learning experience in which critical reflection is the basis for improvement. It will be another example in which they create their own path as they walk it, for none of them have a fundraising background. But they are passionate about their organization and they want it to survive, so they will succeed. For our part, we will be there, accompanying them as we learn together.
Conclusion
Leadership skills and organizational competencies in a community organization mirror business principles that place value on integrity, commitment and competence. Facilitating organizations can nurture the development of these principles through long term relationships that encourage mutual learning and trust.
References
Collins, J. (2001). Good to great. Why some companies make the leap... and others don't. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people. Powerful lessons in personal change. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Covey, S.R. (2004). The 8th Habit. From effectiveness to greatness. New York: Free Press.
Cranton, P. (2002). Teaching for transformation. In J.M. Ross-Gorden (ed.), Contemporary Viewpoints on teaching adults effectively (pp. 63-71). New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 93. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
DePree, M. (1989). Leadership is an art. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Fals Borda, O. & Rahman, M. S. (1991). Action and knowledge. Breaking the monopoly with participatory action-research. New York: The Apex Press.
Horton, M. & Freire, P. (1990). We make the road by walking. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Institute of Cultural Affairs (1997). The power of image change in transformation. Toronto: ICA Canada.
Organizacion Mundial de Salud & Organizacion Panamericana de la Salud (2001). Clasificacion internacional del funcionamiento, de la discapacidad y de la salud. Madrid: Instituto de Migraciones y Servicios Sociales.
Wiens, M (2001). Zero to one in participatory development. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Submitted by
Marlene Wiens, MSc, BSC, BPT, Physical Therapist, Managing Director of CAPD
Email: marlene.wiens@shaw.ca
For further information about the Canadian Association for Participatory Development go to: www.globalsteps.org
This document will be available in Spanish at www.globalsteps.org/Spanish/Bienvenidos/Projects/Recursos/Recursos.htm
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