Collaboration Index

Collaboration --- Intervention

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Remember that a community can be many things. It can be a large corporation, a small business, an extended family a town, city or neighborhood. These tables are applicable in almost any setting.

The following three tables in this sequence are taken from Effective Community Mobilization, Lessons From Experience.

Published by the Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Substance Abuse Prevention

The Sense of Community - What is a Community?

Indicator	Strong Sense of Community	Weak Sense of Community
Sense of membership	The active participants proudly display symbols of membership in the community	The active participants do not view themselves as a community.
Mutual importance	The active participants recognize, cherish, and support the contributions of each other.	Participants are active only because one or a few powerful persons are involved.
Shared world views	The active participants hold common beliefs and promote shared values important to them.	The active participants hold fundamentally different beliefs and values and cannot reconcile their differences.
Bonding/networking	The active participants enjoy one another and look forward to time spent together.	The active participants have no affinity for each other, and relationships are formal or superficial
Mutual responsibility for the community	The survival and health of the community is a primary concern of all its active participants.	One or only a few persons struggle to keep the group together.

Mobilization Capacity

Indicator

High Mobilization Capacity

Low Mobilization Capacity

Sustained leadership

Strong leaders have emerged to keep activities on track and motivate other community members to stay involved.

The effort is muddling along without leaders who have the qualities to provide direction and motivation.

Formalization

Clear procedures, manuals, ground rules, and role definitions exist to provide a framework for community member participation.

Community members function in an ad hoc manner, and newcomers have to define their own roles.

Rewards and incentives

Those involved feel valued and appreciated and receive rewards that make them feel their efforts are worthwhile.

Participants don't feel that they receive rewards that compensate for the cost of their involvement.

Internal and external communication

Active members share experiences and information on a regular basis, and the effort is well covered by local media.

Members rarely communicate with one another outside meetings or contact the media to get coverage of their activities.

Community organizational know-how

A community member with years of successful community organizational experience is actively involved in recruitment and resource mobilization.

The active members are inexperienced at working on a community-based project.

Behind-the-scenes support

A highly effective support team functions to handle day-to-day logistics and provide technical assistance as needed.

Tasks sometimes fall between the cracks or logistics are poorly handled because there is no one specifically responsible for their functions.

Readiness for Focused Action

Indicator

High Capacity for Action

Low Capacity for Action

Clarity of goals

The issues facing the community are clear, and consensus exists on the types of responses needed.

There is concern but no consensus regarding the direction for responding.

Feasibility of plan

A practical and flexible action plan is being implemented and updated based on accurate feedback.

The group is muddling through with quick fixes and unrealizable schemes.

Capabilities and resources

The members collectively possess or have access to all needed talents, skills, and resources.

The members have no access to--or are not aware of--the talents, skills, and resources that are needed to mobilize.

Citizen participation and control

The initiative is made up of and controlled by, members of the targeted community and includes active participation of those most affected by the proposed changes.

There is minimal representation by persons who will be affected by the initiative.

Passion for immediate action

The members are committed to making some positive, goal-directed and well-conceived change happen in the community as quickly as possible.

The members like to talk, argue, and push their views but are not committed to making some positive change in the community.

High-performance team functioning

The members can function as a high-performance team to get the job done.

The members have a hard time coordinating action and working together.

Continuity in Early Childhood: A Framework for Home, School, and Community Linkages. Includes "Evaluation of Partnership Success"

Assessing Your Collaboration: A Self Evaluation Tool

The following tables were developed by the author of this site.
You may copy and use these tables as long as you reference the website and give credit to the author.

Stakeholders

Identify Stakeholders and Potential Stakeholders See Open Agenda Conferences for additional information on who the Stakeholders may be. Brainstorm and "think out of the box."	Use additional pages for detail.
Identify Stage of Collaboration for each stakeholder or stakeholder group. 1 Competition 2 Networking 3 Cooperation/Coordination 4 Coordination/Partnership 5 Coalition 6 Collaboration See “What does Collaboration Look Like"
Identify individuals and strategies that can help to develop and strengthen the level of collaboration. For example, see "Open Agenda Conferences."
Develop a plan of action with specific assignments and accountability for engaging stakeholders and developing and strengthening the collaboration. For example, see "Open Agenda Conferences."
Evaluate
Adjust plan of action as necessary.

The following table will need to be expanded to fit your needs.

Resources

	Existing Resources	Potential Resources	Strategies to acquire, engage, or enlist, additional resources. Who can and will do what? (Consider Open Agenda Conference)	Strategies to evaluate if additional needed resources exist. Can include networking and creative brainstorming. (Consider Open Agenda Conference)	Strategies to acquire, engage, or enlist, additional, newly discovered resources. (Consider Open Agenda Conference)	Identify resources which are needed but unavailable.	Strategies to Develop new resources.
People
Organizations
Financial
In-kind
Social Capital
Real Estate
Real Property
Intellectual Property
Other Assets or Resources
	Is there a potential for trade?	Is there a potential for trade?

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Indicator	High Mobilization Capacity	Low Mobilization Capacity
Sustained leadership	Strong leaders have emerged to keep activities on track and motivate other community members to stay involved.	The effort is muddling along without leaders who have the qualities to provide direction and motivation.
Formalization	Clear procedures, manuals, ground rules, and role definitions exist to provide a framework for community member participation.	Community members function in an ad hoc manner, and newcomers have to define their own roles.
Rewards and incentives	Those involved feel valued and appreciated and receive rewards that make them feel their efforts are worthwhile.	Participants don't feel that they receive rewards that compensate for the cost of their involvement.
Internal and external communication	Active members share experiences and information on a regular basis, and the effort is well covered by local media.	Members rarely communicate with one another outside meetings or contact the media to get coverage of their activities.
Community organizational know-how	A community member with years of successful community organizational experience is actively involved in recruitment and resource mobilization.	The active members are inexperienced at working on a community-based project.
Behind-the-scenes support	A highly effective support team functions to handle day-to-day logistics and provide technical assistance as needed.	Tasks sometimes fall between the cracks or logistics are poorly handled because there is no one specifically responsible for their functions.

Indicator	High Capacity for Action	Low Capacity for Action
Clarity of goals	The issues facing the community are clear, and consensus exists on the types of responses needed.	There is concern but no consensus regarding the direction for responding.
Feasibility of plan	A practical and flexible action plan is being implemented and updated based on accurate feedback.	The group is muddling through with quick fixes and unrealizable schemes.
Capabilities and resources	The members collectively possess or have access to all needed talents, skills, and resources.	The members have no access to--or are not aware of--the talents, skills, and resources that are needed to mobilize.
Citizen participation and control	The initiative is made up of and controlled by, members of the targeted community and includes active participation of those most affected by the proposed changes.	There is minimal representation by persons who will be affected by the initiative.
Passion for immediate action	The members are committed to making some positive, goal-directed and well-conceived change happen in the community as quickly as possible.	The members like to talk, argue, and push their views but are not committed to making some positive change in the community.
High-performance team functioning	The members can function as a high-performance team to get the job done.	The members have a hard time coordinating action and working together.