Six-step in community action plan

1. Study the community

 TOOL: (pestel model)

 It is important to know or research about the community, this will help you learn if there are
issues that must be addressed.
 Never limit yourself seeing things at face value for there are critical links that need to be
uncovered or rediscovered.
 You can start your community study by considering secondhand data sources such as books or
internet.

2. MAP OUT THE COMMUNITY

 TOOL: (community needs assessment)

 By mapping the community and its actors, you will see the power relations that you need to tap
and the linkages that you need to create for the initial network or partnerships.

 Before any kind of engagement, you or your group must know the power relations within the
community as well as the actors, institutions, or influential groups that can help in your project.

 It requires a keen eye to observe the relationships of the members in the community.

3. Engage the stakeholders

 TOOL: (key informant interviews/focus group discussion)

 The only way to know your community is to engage it firsthand, you can set up a key informant
interview or even focus group discussion (FGD) to deepen your understanding of the
community.

 Prior to the interview, prepare your questions and the possible follow-up questions, remember
to draft your questions with political sensitivity in mind.

4. Plot the community

 TOOL: (swot/ force field analysis)

 Tools such as the SWOT and the force field analyses are valuable in actuating the community’s
needs.

 The SWOT analysis will help in pinpointing specific gaps or the intervention that aids in
mobilizing planning.

5. Mobilize the project

 TOOL: (spoa)

 A specific plan of action (SPOA) should be used to concretize (make an idea or concept) the
plans into working models or improvement tasks.
  The SPOA is a tool that can be used to track and validate current projects, when using the tool
you will know if there are inconsistencies in the plan or priority areas that are left in the process
of planning.

6. Evaluate and document the process

 TOOL: (Project Impact evaluation)

 Evaluation’s importance in the process is immense (huge). It is in the evaluation that we can
look in front of the mirror and see what is missing.

 The project impact evaluation template will lead you to the inner workings of communities,
institutions, agencies, and in practice; and how projects should be scrutinized (examine
carefully) and improved through this tool for self-evaluation.

Experiences in Community Engagement Solidarity, and Citizenship-Building