WHAT’S INVOLVED IN EACH COMMUNITY?
Communities taking part in the Community Futures programme are invited to set up a Community Futures Steering Group which brings together representatives from interested community organisations to help steer the planning process locally.
The Steering Group is assigned a Community Support Volunteer who assists it carry out the community consultation that informs the plan.
Community consultation typically involves
• A household survey
• Interviews with different individuals and sectors of the community
• The preparation of a community profile detailing community facts and figures
• Community futures workshops and community day
At the end of the consultation a Community Action Plan is written which summarises:
• The vision for the future of the community
• The community’s current situation
• The main issues that need to be addressed
• The main priorities for projects and actions
• The plan is distributed to all households and to relevant public agencies.
HOW MUCH TIME IS INVOLVED FOR STEERING GROUP MEMBERS?
Steering Group members are expected to attend regular meetings, keep the local community informed and up to date, organise the distribution & collection of a household survey, gather information for a Community Profile, organise the Community Day and organise a local Launch.
The steering group is supported by the Community Support Volunteer who assists with gathering the information and writing it up. Typically this takes about 40 days over a six month period.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
Typically the work takes about 6 months in each community.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
There is very little cost to the community other than the time of the steering group members and refreshments for the Community Workshop Day and Launch of the plan in the community. The cost of producing the plan is covered by the programme.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
A clear statement about our community
Community Action Plans prepared with the full involvement of the community provide a clear statement of the community’s needs and aspirations. People often think they know what these are but they are rarely written down in a community owned plan that has been prepared following on from detailed community consultation.
Evidence for funding priority projects
The Plan identifies the projects that the community as a whole thinks is most important for the future of their area. As such, the plans help to answer the funder’s most asked question – how do you know this (project or service) is important to the community?
Strengthen our ability to represent the community
Community Action Plans enable community organisations, elected Councillors and others to represent the community at area, county and national level. They have a document that clearly states what the main views of their community are and they are less easily dismissed as perhaps not being fully representative or just talking about their own pet projects or coming from just one perspective.
A guide for public agencies plans and service delivery
Community Action Plans serve as a useful guide to public agencies interested in ensuring that their own plans and services are sensitive to community needs and aspirations. The Community Futures Action Plans are ‘brokered’ by the County Development Board and fed into strategic planning across the County.
Getting more people involved in the community
One of the aims of the Community Futures planning process is to involve more community people in thinking about and discussing the future of their community. This usually leads to more people becoming involved in taking forward the projects that are identified through this participatory process.
Strengthening community organisations
A direct result of this participation is that more people become involved in existing and new community organisations. This can help take the burden off the handful of individuals who are often at the forefront of much of the work in the community.
Community Futures Steering Committee
• Set up a local Community Futures Steering Committee
• Represents a broad section of clubs & organisations active in the community
• The Steering Committee drives the programme locally
Community Support Volunteer (CSV)
• Trained in the process
• Acts as a support to the Steering Committee
• Reports to the Co-ordinator
• Reimbursed for expenses
• Approx 40 days over the 6 month period
• Collates material and produces summary reports
Stakeholder Interviews
• Approx 20 interviews conducted with key people/sections of community by CSV
• Stakeholder Report
Community Views Survey
• Survey to all households
• 4 questions about community: what you like, what you do not like, what would make it better, top priorities
• Steering group organises distribution and collection
• CSV collates and produces Summary Survey Report
Community Profile
• A snapshot of the community now
• Steering group with CSV gathers facts and figures
• CSV puts it together into a Community Profile
Community Day Workshop
• Everyone in community invited
• Celebration day
• Results of survey & stakeholder interviews displayed
• Themes and actions displayed on tables
• Public prioritises actions by voting with sticky dots
• CSV produces Workshop Report
Agency Day
• Agency personnel invited
• Organised by Coordinator
• Communities give a presentation on the strategies and actions emerging from the process to date
• Aim to inform Agencies
• Exchange contact details
• Make introductions
Community Futures Action Plan
• Draft Plan presented to Steering Group
• Photographs agreed & Plan approved for printing
• Some discussion on how to make it happen -what community structure best suited to take overview and support sub structures
• Plan Launch in each community
• Plan distributed to all households in the community
Further information;
Mary Wrafter, Co-ordinator,
Mayo County Community Forum,
Mayo County Council, Castlebar
094 9047552 / 087 2686957
mwrafter@mayococo.ie
