Interested in setting up a community organisation?
Being part of a community is good for psychological and physical well-being. Creating conditions for people to meet and work together in a productive way is fundamental to Community Development.
Many different types of activities have a place and value as part of Community Development. Examples of activities can include setting up a group to produce a community newspaper, organising a creative writing class to the creation of a community business.
Developing new organisations
Community groups can come into existence for diverse reasons and often develop by multifarious processes into creatures far removed from their beginnings. It follows that success in developing a community organisation will involve a skilful combination of strategic foresight along with pragmatic response to opportunities as they arise.
Starting off
Projects often start in the form of a vision of an individual person or a small group of people who perceive some particular need and have an idea of how that need might be addressed. For e.g. 'Our young people would benefit from a youth club' or 'There are elderly people who need support'.
Researching the idea
Once the idea is there, it needs further thought. What services already exist to meet the particular need? What are the gaps? Has someone already had this idea already and failed to make it work? If so, what are the lessons that can be learnt from this?
It is important to learn more about the community - what the reality is; what are its actual needs, strengths and weakness - and to allow thinking to be revised in the light of what is learned.
Involving others
It will be important to identify interested persons at an early stage. Support will rarely overwhelm you overnight.
There will be people who wish the group well but have their own commitment’s due to personal activities. They will be useful allies but cannot be expected to do the required work. If they find that what the group has in mind will be of interest to their existing commitments then they will usually provide as much support as they can.
You might find people who try to use the group to further their own personal agendas. It may be that you respond sympathetically, but on occasion they may have to be dealt with ruthlessly. Identifying appropriate allies and separating out those that are inappropriate will crucial to the success or failure of any project.
Bring realistic
It is important to recognise what can be done in the short term and in order to do this you need to be realistic. Having said that, you do not want to underestimate what can be achieved in the longer term. Rarely does the world change overnight, but given a reasonable period of time, a well organised group may make significant achievements in ten years’ time. Community development is a long-term process as it involves establishing secure roots and allowing them to grow at their own pace.
Aims and objectives
Following on from the above, aims and objectives need to be clear, realistic and achievable within a defined time scale.
Aims represent the overall purpose of the organisation. Objectives are more specific and should be as precise as possible. They should set out the ways in which the organisation will seek to achieve its aims.
A useful mnemonic (a word or phrase for remembering something important) is that objectives should be SMART – i.e.
Specific;
Measurable;
Achievable;
Realistic;
Time-measurable
A working group
Once aims and objectives have been identified, it is time to draw together in a more formal way a working/steering group of interested, concerned and appropriately skilled people to further the purpose or purposes envisaged. People being invited will depend on the specific task(s) identified, but relevant organisations should be involved as far as possible.
Always aim for co-operation rather than competition and always bear in mind that if local people feel a project or scheme is being imposed upon them then this could result in them being resentful. They need to be consulted and kept informed of developments during the project.
Details of tasks that the working/steering group have as well as other guidance can be found in our publication, ‘Getting Started’. You will also find ‘Setting up a Community Association’ which explains what a Community Association is and how to set one up.
Going public/Going ahead
A local audit has been carried out, aims and objectives have been set, support from other local organisations has been gained, the supportive steering group has done its work and funding is now in place. All that is now left to do is bite the bullet and go ahead with announcing it publically!
For more information
If you would like more guidance on the above then all you need to do is select from the links below to download our set of publications on ‘
Getting Started’ which explain how to set up a community organisation.
If you would like to talk to one of our advisers, call our advice service on 0845 847 4253 from 09.30 to 13.00 on Mondays and Thursdays. Alternatively, you can email us your question and we will get back to you. Submit your enquiry here...
Download online guidance and advice
Click on the following titles to download support:
Specimen Documents