What does it take to make a community work?
Monday, February 6, 2006
(The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation)In Rich Harwood's weekly Redeeming Hope blog entry, he
discusses the important role that a community's
"rhythms" - its stage of community life - plays
in the success or failure of community change
initiatives.
The Harwood Institute
developed the community rhythms framework and
the stages of community life as a way to
understand why some initiatives blossomed in
certain communities but failed to get off the
ground in others. We recognized through our
years of work in communities that
unfortunately, most change efforts are designed
for communities in the "growth" stage, when in
fact, many communities are in a much earlier
stage of community life.
A community's
stage is determined by an assessment of its
"public capital" - the fundamental networks,
norms, structures, and relationships that make
communities work. There are nine factors of
public capital (available
here as a pdf). The Harwood Institute has a
well-tested methodology for measuring these
factors and has done so in a variety of
communities across the country, most recently
in Flint, Michigan, and Las Vegas,
Nevada.
To build public capital,
communities need two key ingredients:
"catalytic organizations" and "public
innovators." The Institute's work focuses on
developing the capacity of catalytic
organizations and public innovators in a
nationwide effort to plant the seeds for
fundamental community change which, over time,
will lead to a more vibrant politics and public
life for our nation.
Catalytic
organizations are organizations in communities
that cut across sectors (like community
foundations or United Ways) and are able to
actually build the civic strength of the
community while fulfilling their mission.
Public innovators are highly pragmatic, yet
idealistic, change agents who hold a deep
understanding of their community and are often
at the forefront of change efforts.
- For more information on a Harwood
experience designed to enhance your core
competencies as a public innovator, click here.
- To read about how The Harwood Institute is partnering with a community-based organization to further develop its capacity as a catalytic organization, click here.