SUMMARY OF SKILL-BUILDING ASSIGNMENTS

Each week, students will complete one skill-building assignment based on their study organizations. One book report will be due at the end of the quarter. A final paper (written as a grant proposal in response to a Request for Proposals issued by your instructors) is due on May 15.

Some of these assignments may seem as if they don't have a lot of structure. "Prepare a plan for a campaign?!" Think of it as classroom mirroring real life: when you are involved in community development, there are rarely any rules or guidelines--you have to make it up as you go along. It helps to have a grounding in theory and principles and best practices--which is the purpose of this class--but in the end you just have to use your creativity.

Students may earn extra credit by writing a review of one of the following books, or another of your choice which we approve.

January 15: Premodule/Module 0
Select a Study Organization

(This should be emailed to either instructor by this date.)
Select a study organization that meets the guidelines. Write a couple of paragraphs about that organization, answering the questions: What is the mission and purpose? Goals? Who owns this organization (might want to check the bylaws)? How big is it (staff, budget, space)? What population does it serve (some demographic characteristics of the population)?

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January 22: Module 1
Windshield Survey

Review the material in your packet from the Island County Health Department, to give you an idea of what a windshield survey is and how it can be used.

1. For your assignment, do four things. Design and write up a "windshield survey" instrument.
2. Go out and actually use it.
3. Write up what you found.
4. Evaluate your instrument and how well it worked to find out what you wanted to know.

Here are some hints:

• This is a way to get a "sense of place," so narrow your geographic area of study to something that's do-able. For example, if you're doing this alone, probably ten square blocks of your target neighorhood are reasonable. You can't do the whole city of Seattle.
• Use the "evaluation tool" included with the readings to do your critique (step 4, above). The critique is the learning moment.
• Having items on your instrument that are countable and quantifiable will make this more interesting and comparable to subsequent efforts.

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February 12: Module 2
The Dialogue Questions in the Healthy Communities Guide

Look at the "Health People in Healthy Communities-a dialogue guide" publication in your packet. Interview a member of your study organization to answer the questions on page 9 for the (or a) community served by your study organization. Then critique the list of questions and say what you found useful or not in the process.

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February 19: Module 3
Neighborhood Development Assignment

Seattle celebrates Neighbor Appreciate Day every February (this year, Feb. 11). In Seattle, this is an annual grassroots event that celebrates the goodness in those around us. The point of this assignment is for YOU to ORGANIZE something with your neighbors (yes, your own neighbors) that promotes neighborliness or community solidarity. You can organize a potluck, a neighborhood clean up, doorbell your neighbors about a neighborhood problem, organize a block watch meeting, organize a disaster preparedness meeting, any of those. Go to the city of Seattle's office of neighborhoods for ideas. This can be daunting if you've never reached out to your neighbors. It's worth it.

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March 5: Module 4
Budget Assignment

Find a budget for your study organization's entire operations or just for a specific project, Read the two chapters on budgeting and finance in the context of mission-driven organizations. Critique the budget you have, and answer the following questions:

1. Is your study organization financially viable? Or is it going out of business?
2. What can you tell about the organization from looking at its sources of income?
3. Does it have an endowment? What is an endowment?
4. What is the organization's financial comfort level?
5. What is the debt level of the organization? Is it manageable?
6. What drives the budget? (Hint: is the budget based on the strategic plan? Or is it the other way 'round?)
7. How is the budget created? Is it "bottom's up?"
8. What does community development have to do with money?

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March 19: Module 5
Meeting Agenda Assignment

Using your "study organization," write a detailed agenda, as recommended in the readings, for a fairly routine meeting. You can take an existing agenda for this group and "improve" it based on the suggestions in the readings, but if you do that please provide a "before" and "after." You're also welcome to make one up--something that sounds to you like an "ideal" meeting.

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April 2: Module 6
Survey Instrument Assignment

Write your answers to the 12-step questions that will form the basis for a survey instrument which your study community could use to collect data for one of its projects. Use the questions in the "Designing Customer Surveys that Work" reading by Zimmerman as a guide for the assignment. Go Step by Step through the 12-step (!) process outlined in that article. Say what you will do for each step in a few short sentences. Take a stab at a dozen questions in your survey, too. Simple. (Please note: do NOT choose a focus group methodology--this is a written or interview survey.)

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April 16: Module 7
Campaign Design or Strategic Plan Assignment

By now, you have read enough and heard enough to be able to think creatively about what a campaign or strategic plan might look like for your organization. First, decide whether you'd rather do a campaign design or a strategic plan. If you do a campaign, think about the Alinsky interview and all the other readings, and plot one out. Examples of health-related campaigns are: getting a pediatric nurse practitioner elected to the school board; convincing parents to take their kids to the dentist before the age of three; getting Congress to pass the nuclear test ban treaty; getting an initiative passed to create a single-payer health plan. Tell us what the goals of the campaign are, and what strategies and tactics you will employ on a specific timeline. Convince us this will work. If you do a strategic plan, review the "crib sheet" in your readings as a guide. Tell us how your organization will come together to draft this plan; what is your plan to plan? The plan should cover about a year of activity for your study organization. Your emphasis can either be on describing your "plan to plan" or drafting a plan with the elements of mission, goals, action steps, dates and assignments (as illustrated in the readings). Students in previous classes have struggled with this assignment. The goal of the exercise is to get you to think strategically about how you and your organization can move people on behalf of the mission of the enterprise. There aren't any hard and fast rules on this assignment.

Another hint: For your final, you'll be asked to write a response to a request for proposals from a foundation. This could be the foundation for such a proposal.

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April 30: Module 8
RFP Assignment

Based on the foundation request for proposals which we give you, please compose a response which you believe would successfully win a grant for your study community. If the study organization really is inappropriate for the parameters of the grant, you may either use poetic license or select another group. If things are unknown (or in reality are different from what they need to be to make the assignment work), just state your assumptions up front. For example, if the grantor requires that this be a non-profit urban daycare, and yours is a for-profit rural daycare, just assume that the grantor will allow for-profits under certain circumstances (such as yours).

Please visit the Ford Foundation web site (at http://www.fordfound.org/) and look at the "Guidelines for Grant Seekers." Look around the web site to get an idea of what kinds of projects Ford likes to fund.

Then write your letter of inquiry according to Ford guidelines: Grants and Program-Related Investments to Organizations.

Before a request is made for a grant or program-related investment, a brief letter of inquiry is advisable to determine whether the Foundation's present interests and funds permit consideration of the request. The letter should include:

• The purpose of the project for which funds are being requested
• Problems and issues the proposed project will address
• Information about the organization conducting the project
• Estimated overall budget for the project
• Period of time for which funds are requested
• Qualifications of those who will be engaged in the project

Using your organization's "letterhead," address your letter to:

Secretary
Ford Foundation
320 E 43rd Street
New York, NY 10017

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May 14: Module 9
Press Release Assignment

Using your "study community," write a 2-page press release, using the conventions described in your readings. You may use any news item of relevance to this study community, either something current or one with which you are familiar from the past or could imagine in the future.The purpose of the assignment is to have you learn the conventions of writing press releases, an important tool in any community development or organizing enterprise. We want you to demonstrate you know how to follow the convention, but also how to make an item "newsy," interesting, and appealing to a reporter.

1. They need to be on a letterhead.
2. The less news releases are written in a slanted tone, the more likely they are to be used. So, when you say a program is wonderful or terrific, it better be in a quote.
3. There has to be a date and contact name and phone number, preferably right up at the top; and note the recommended use of headlines, 2nd page slugs/datelines, and the use of "more" at the bottom of pages which continue. Don't use acronyms in your slug line, and don't forget the "30."
4. We encourage you to use a couple of quotes in your press releases. Often you will want to be quoting someone other than yourself, which can pose a logistical or time problem if the release needs to get out right now. We recommend making up quotes for the program's spokesperson, marking the release DRAFT, and asking the spokesperson to approve or change the quote. It is much easier for a spokesperson to edit an existing quote than to come up with a quote of their own.
5. Editors are looking for NEWS. The assignment is a little artificial (it's prompted by the class requirement, not an actual news event), but each news release should indicate what's new. Data just released, grant just received, recruitment drive for new volunteers just launched...you get the picture.
6. When you are really specific, these releases can be very interesting and likely to be used. For example: "Health Fair booths will address topics such as 'How to Make Lumpia Without the Frying.' Lumpia, similar to eggrolls, is a traditional Filipino dish made by deep frying."
7. Don't forget your grammar. A community or an organization is an "it," not a "they." Don't use any unnecessary words or jargon ("that," for example is a word which can often be dropped). Words like "empower" make hard-boiled editors cringe.
8. Try to use active language and be specific. Not: "Over time, these efforts led to the availability of services for the disabled population..." Instead, write: "Dr. Tom Norris today announced the Pike Place Clinic would see disabled patients in a clinic dedicated especially to them on Thursday afternoons and evenings."

   Here's a quotation from William Zinsser's On Writing Well:

   "Active verbs push hard; passive verbs tug fitfully. Active verbs...require a pronoun ("he") or a noun ("the doctor") or a proper noun ("Dr. Abe Bergman") to put them in motion."

   In the example above: "...efforts (impersonal noun) led (verb)..." is not as good as "...Norris (proper noun) announced (verb)..."

9. Don't make factual statements assuming a newspaper editor will believe you. She may, but she would more likely accept your claims if you cite your sources.

 

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(Optional, due May 15)
Book Report Assignment

For extra credit, you may write a 2-page book report on one of the following books, or another of your choice which we approve. This will be due on Monday of finals week.

The purpose of the book report assignment is to have you read a relevant book-length piece of writing that will inform and inspire you in the area of community development or community organizing. We would also like to have the benefit of your "review" of the book, so we will know whether to recommend it to future students.

So, your book reports should be two to five pages in length. Here's a sample outline:

1. Title, author; a paragraph about the author
2. No more than two paragraphs on summary of the content
3. What about this book was pertinent to the themes we discussed this term?
4. Did you notice any agreements or disagreements with other authors we've read for this class?
5. Agreements or disagreements with opinions you hold?
6. Did this author inspire you? Inform you? Irritate you?