Plan's CCCD approach - Country study PLAN-Kenya

The field study for Kenya, a part of the strategic formative evaluation on CCCD, was carried out August 16-23, 2009. This country study aimed at studying CCCD as an approach for development and how it was applied by Plan Kenya. The executive summary covers the main findings and recommendations of the field study in Kenya. Detailed findings and recommendations concerning Plan Kenya are described in this report. Findings and recommendations when relevant are incorporated in the synthesis report: Strategic Evaluation Study on CCCD for Plan NLNO. After the introduction the report starts with an overview on the country context and Plan Kenya. The third chapter presents how Plan staff and partners view CCCD, fourth chapter is on how CCCD works in practice, chapter 5 looks in more detail on partnerships. The report ends with a summary of the findings and recommendations. CCCD was introduced in Kenya in 2004. Programmes undertaken by Plan Kenya do take child centredness and community development as their main point of departure

Negotiating the boundaries of parental school engagement: the role of social space and symbolic capital in urban teachers' perspectives

As public schools continue to be driven by standards-based accountability practices, scholars contend that family engagement must become more egalitarian, with parents contributing their own insights for the betterment of the entire school community. Classroom teachers are key stakeholders in this process, with enormous potential impact. Using Bourdieu’s concepts of social space and symbolic capital, we examined teachers’ perspectives on their role in engaging diverse parents, using focus group interviews with urban classroom teachers. Multi-layered qualitative analyses elicited three themes that illustrated the powerful, but contradictory, positioning of teachers in facilitating authentic partnerships with families: (a) creating responsive relationships (b) casting engagement as education, and (c) creating varied-and tailored-opportunities, yet also revealed teachers’ assertions of power and authority, most often expressed as a need for boundaries between home and school. A progressive approach to family engagement and educator resistance is discussed, whereby teachers engage in collaborative advocacy with urban families to reclaim the notion of teaching as a public service, aimed at the promotion of equitable, accessible, and culturally responsive schools.Accepted manuscrip

Supply Chain Sustainability - The Role of Trust and Relationship

This action research project aims to improve economic, social and environmental sustainability of the pre-cast concrete and construction and demolition waste supply chains through the development, trial and evaluation of an innovative supply chain management strategy. The long-term goals are to improve competitive behaviour and market sector performance and improve business process efficiency and effectiveness of public sector program delivery by influencing policy development, changing organisational behaviour and implementation development to achieve economic, social and environmentally sustainable markets. In order to facilitate this, the culture change brought about by implementing relationship management in the supply chain is investigated and this paper reports on this aspect of the project

Developing A Theory of Change

This is a best practice to obtain clarity about what needs to happen to achieve and sustain the changes, or outcomes, that want to be seen (mapping the outcome pathways to success) and to identify who (people or institutions) can influence these outcomes positively or negatively (mapping the activity ecosystem). It sets the framework for identifying impact, intermediary outcome and process indicators

Sleeping with the enemy? : strategic transformations in business - NGO relationships through stakeholder dialogue

Campaigning activities of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have increased public awareness and concern regarding the alleged unethical and environmentally damaging practices of many major multinational companies. Companies have responded by developing corporate social responsibility strategies to demonstrate their commitment to both the societies within which they function and to the protection of the natural environment. This has often involved a move towards greater transparency in company practice and a desire to engage with stakeholders, often including many of the campaign organisations that have been at the forefront of the criticisms of their activity. This article examines the ways in which stakeholder dialogue has impacted upon the relationships between NGOs and businesses. In doing so, it contributes to the call for more ‘stakeholder-focused’ research in this field (Frooman in Acad Manag Rev 24(2): 191–205, 1999; Steurer in Bus Strategy Environ 15: 15–69 2006). By adopting a stakeholder lens, and focusing more heavily upon the impact on one particular stakeholder community (NGOs) and looking in depth at one form of engagement (stakeholder dialogue), this article examines how experiences of dialogue are strategically transforming interactions between businesses and NGOs. It shows how experiences of stakeholder dialogue have led to transformations in the drivers for engagement, transformations in the processes of engagement and transformations in the terms of engagement. Examining these areas of transformation, the article argues, reveals the interactions at play in framing and shaping the evolving relationships between business and its stakeholders

Clustering together to advance school improvement: working together in peer support with an external colleague

This research study explored how a group of rural primary schools, working together with the same school improvement partner (SIP), could positively affect the leadership of their schools through group strategic planning and the more efficient use of headteacher time and expertise. By using semi-structured interviews with headteachers and informal discussions with governors, the research investigated whether this method of collaborative working, with a single external professional facilitator, could enhance the leadership of the participating schools. The study concluded that the formation of such a collaborative group could have a positive impact on the leadership of the schools, the wellbeing of the headteachers themselves and the expertise of their governing bodies, when it was led by an external professional who had gained the respect and trust of all members of the group. Although the research specifically explored the role of a SIP held in common, its findings are transferable to any group of school leaders working together with a single external partner such as a national or local leader of education (NLE or LLE)

Perceptions and determinants of partnership trust in the context of Community-Based Participatory Research

Trust is difficult to conceptualize and define because of its diverse applications in different disciplines. Historic mistrust between vulnerable communities and researchers based on past adverse experiences can negatively affect the ability to collaborate and conduct effective research with such populations. Community Based-Participatory Research (CBPR) is a collaborative approach to research that can reduce historic mistrust and health disparities among minority populations. Although how trust development occurs in CBPR partnerships has been explored, there is a need to determine how to move from one stage to the next in fostering and maintaining that trust. The present study contributes to this discussion by addressing the lack of a shared operational definition of partnership trust and of how to measure it in the CBPR literature. We modified Dietz and Den Hartog’s (2006) Multi-dimensional Measure of Trust Model to investigate contextual factors that influence perceptions and development of trust in collaborative partnerships pursuing the reduction of health disparities. We conducted focus groups and key informant interviews with English and Spanish speaking stakeholders of a culturally relevant health promotion organization in the southeastern United States. Stakeholders reported experiencing different types of partnership trust depending on their role, and the length and nature of involvement with the organization. We identified determinants of partnership trust among stakeholders, including organizational, socio-economic, and cultural determinants. Most study participants agreed that trust with Hispanic communities is built slowly, with personal face-to-face contact and follow-up, and that engaging stakeholders throughout the process of working together in an intentional way is vital to building and maintaining trust. Findings of this study will inform the development of a culturally and linguistically relevant quantitative instrument to measure partnership trust in the context of CBPR

Community Development: A Guide for Grantmakers on Fostering Better Outcomes Through Good Process

Focuses on participation and collaboration as major elements of processes that are effective. Provides examples of, and offers tools for overcoming, challenges to collaboration. Includes strategies and resources for evaluation and collaboration

Early Childhood Councils: Effective Planning Processes for Health Systems Integration

The Colorado Trust launched its Early Childhood Council Health Integration grant strategy in 2008. Through this effort, the Early Childhood Councils developed strategies to better integrate health practitioners and health care services into their work, along with their already-established focus on early care and education, and family supports. The goal of this grant strategy was to support sustainable efforts by the Councils to change the way local resources were coordinated, reduce service duplication, increase access to health care services and contribute to improved health outcomes for children (ages 0-12 years) across the state. To realize this goal, The Colorado Trust provided the Councils with grant support and technical assistance to engage in the development of plans to achieve integrated childhood development systems in their communities. This case study discusses the successes, challenges and lessons learned from the Early Childhood Council Health Integration planning grant process. Using qualitative data collected through focus groups and key informant interviews, the report details how the planning process was structured, what worked and didn't work as the Councils developed their systems-building plans, and provides recommendations for funders to consider when conducting a systems-building planning process. Key themes include:Grantees learned about systems change and developed plans to achieve such change. The planning process provided Councils with the time, resources and guidance necessary to learn about and develop well-thought-out plans to build connections and develop the infrastructure to help support and sustain programs for children and families across multiple systems. Community-level data is essential in fostering collaboration and planning. Even as it was difficult to access key data for certain populations or geographic regions, many Councils were able to use local data as a tool to coalesce new partnerships and develop a shared vision for change. Integrating new partners into an established system requires planning. For many Councils, the planning process timeframe was essential in conducting outreach to local health partners, especially with regard to developing a shared vision and common language.Funders need to require and support systemic change. It was important that The Colorado Trust explicitly required grantees to engage in activities that supported effective implementation of high-quality programs and connections across systems as opposed to solely focusing the funding on individual programs. While this work was new to most of the Councils, they reported that having a funder willing to support systems-building was a welcome change that better enabled them to tackle a complex scope of work and to address unanticipated challenges

How Do Communities Use a Participatory Public Health Approach to Build Resilience? The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project.

Community resilience is a key concept in the National Health Security Strategy that emphasizes development of multi-sector partnerships and equity through community engagement. Here, we describe the advancement of CR principles through community participatory methods in the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience (LACCDR) initiative. LACCDR, an initiative led by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health with academic partners, randomized 16 community coalitions to implement either an Enhanced Standard Preparedness or Community Resilience approach over 24 months. Facilitated by a public health nurse or community educator, coalitions comprised government agencies, community-focused organizations and community members. We used thematic analysis of data from focus groups (n = 5) and interviews (n = 6 coalition members; n = 16 facilitators) to compare coalitions' strategies for operationalizing community resilience levers of change (engagement, partnership, self-sufficiency, education). We find that strategies that included bidirectional learning helped coalitions understand and adopt resilience principles. Strategies that operationalized community resilience levers in mutually reinforcing ways (e.g., disseminating information while strengthening partnerships) also secured commitment to resilience principles. We review additional challenges and successes in achieving cross-sector collaboration and engaging at-risk groups in the resilience versus preparedness coalitions. The LACCDR example can inform strategies for uptake and implementation of community resilience and uptake of the resilience concept and methods