Innovative Measurement and Evaluation of Community Development Practices
Innovative Measurement and Evaluation of Community Development Practices

Author: Norman Walzer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1317440676

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Finding innovative and useful measurement practices for community development projects is gaining in importance as policymakers increase the demands for accountability. This book examines some of the latest efforts to document the effectiveness of local development efforts. The types of documentation differ by types of project, jurisdiction, and country but they have a common focus of recognizing the importance of the Community Capitals framework. Public agencies in the past have often measured development successes by the number of jobs created and/or amount of private investment forthcoming. However, the impacts of community development reach much deeper than those indicators. Strengthening local decision-making capacity is a common component of development efforts as is engaging populations that, in the past, have not been active in decision-making. These and other considerations are explored in more detail by authors in this volume. Local policymakers and practitioners will be continually pressured to provide more documentation of outcomes and readers will gain considerable insights into alternative approaches that can be included in projects but can also see the common elements needed to create a solid measurement system. International insights are a special strength of the discussions in this book. This book was published as a special issue of Community Development.

Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition
Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition

Author: Paul J. Gertler

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2016-09-12

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 1464807809

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The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.

Innovative Community Change Practices
Innovative Community Change Practices

Author: Norman Walzer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 1317430263

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The national recession forced many communities to examine new and innovative ways to promote local economic development, resulting in long-term community changes. New techniques and approaches were used to identify available opportunities and programs which could take advantage of development opportunities. A common theme among the contributions to this book is a focus on building leadership capacity, and several chapters discuss the successful practices which are aimed at bringing new leaders into local development efforts. Especially important are ways to identify youth and young adults, and designing programs that bring them into active leadership roles within community development efforts. On a broader scale, several authors present material regarding building local entrepreneurship capacity, and recognizing that entrepreneurs at different stages in their development have different training and support needs. The discussions in this book will help local policymakers and development practitioners better understand the various development techniques, and find ways to build capacity within their community, stimulating development. This information will be especially useful for groups interested in engaging youth and populations who, in the past, have not been especially active in discussions about community and economic development. This book was originally published as a special issue of Community Development.

An Introduction to Community Development
An Introduction to Community Development

Author: Rhonda Phillips

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-11-26

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 1134482256

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Beginning with the foundations of community development, An Introduction to Community Development offers a comprehensive and practical approach to planning for communities. Road-tested in the authors’ own teaching, and through the training they provide for practicing planners, it enables students to begin making connections between academic study and practical know-how from both private and public sector contexts. An Introduction to Community Development shows how planners can utilize local economic interests and integrate finance and marketing considerations into their strategy. Most importantly, the book is strongly focused on outcomes, encouraging students to ask: what is best practice when it comes to planning for communities, and how do we accurately measure the results of planning practice? This newly revised and updated edition includes: increased coverage of sustainability issues, discussion of localism and its relation to community development, quality of life, community well-being and public health considerations, and content on local food systems. Each chapter provides a range of reading materials for the student, supplemented with text boxes, a chapter outline, keywords, and reference lists, and new skills based exercises at the end of each chapter to help students turn their learning into action, making this the most user-friendly text for community development now available.

International Community Development Practice
International Community Development Practice

Author: Charlie McConnell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-25

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1000460614

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International Community Development Practice provides readers with practice-based examples of good community development, demonstrating its value for strengthening people power and improving the effectiveness of development agencies, whether these be governmental, non-governmental or private sector. The chapters focus upon the making of the community development profession and the eight core competences required of the professional practitioner, as outlined by the International Association for Community Development (IACD), whatever their job title or host agency, in order to be able to undertake community development. These are concerned with the ability of the practitioner to: Put ethics and values into practice Engage with communities Ensure participatory planning Organize for change Support learning for change Promote diversity and inclusion Build leadership and infrastructure Develop and improve policy and practice From a policy perspective, the book will reassert the role of community development approaches as related to a wide variety of global challenges, including poverty amelioration, climate change, human rights, peace building and social, environmental, political and economic development. From a practice perspective, the book will reassert the importance of high levels of professional competence building upon decades of experience in the field around the world by development practitioners working in community work, social work, health, adult education, environmental protection, local economic development, urban design, cultural work and other disciplines concerned to support effective community development.

Food & Fitness Community Partnerships
Food & Fitness Community Partnerships

Author: Laurie Lachance

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-02-02

Total Pages: 102

ISBN-13: 1317237633

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This book describes many of the unique contributions of the Food & Fitness program including a number of early successes, drawing lessons from efforts to form and maintain partnerships, and from the strategies employed to create structural change in communities. This important study introduces the Food and Fitness community partnerships and their work to increase access to healthy, locally grown food, and opportunities for physical activity, in vulnerable communities across the United States. Established in 2007 and funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation, the partnerships are increasing the capacity of communities to participate in policy and systems change to positively affect their health and well-being. The material covered in the chapters provide an illustration of how funders, grantees, and partners can work together to create sustainable change at the neighborhood level to ensure that all children and families are able to thrive. A range of studies ae looked at from the various initiatives funded nationwide to evaluation methods and results, and an explanation of the role of philanthropy in community development from the viewpoint of the funders. This book was originally published as a special issue of Community Development.

Community Visioning Programs
Community Visioning Programs

Author: Norman Walzer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 1317441346

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Communities have practiced strategic planning for decades using a variety of tools and programs based on the initial Take Charge programs of the early 1990s. These efforts generated a large amount of research regarding their effectiveness, as well as ways to measure long-term outcomes and other related issues, in efforts to better understand the process of community change. This book provides contributions written by researchers and practitioners describing both visioning and other strategic planning efforts. The Great Recession challenged the future of many small and medium sized cities, especially in non-metropolitan areas, renewing the interests of community leaders and elected officials in finding innovative ways to revitalize their local employment base and economic opportunities. Having access to a collection of best practices and successful approaches can greatly assist these practitioners in selecting strategies and techniques for use in their community efforts. The material in this book is especially useful because it includes both methodologies as well as case studies of how and why various approaches used in alternative cultural settings have succeeded. This book was originally published as a special issue of Community Development.

Rural Wealth Creation as a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy
Rural Wealth Creation as a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy

Author: Shanna Ratner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 131731266X

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Many rural areas in the United States find themselves struggling to build local assets and create wealth, and, when this wealth is created, they often struggle to hold on it. Previous approaches to community and economic development have been inadequate in attempting to reverse these trends. Shifting to a new way of enabling economic development requires supporting innovative community leaders as they explore new ways of approaching the task at hand. It also requires thinking anew about the role of rural areas, based on valuing multiple forms of wealth – natural, social, and human. There is a real need for an approach that can help stem the potential loss of existing wealth, and attract new investment that will allow rural areas to become valued partners in regional economies. This book provides an important insight into rural wealth creation as a sustainable economic development strategy. At the same time, a number of compelling issues are raised that merit future research effort and discussion. This book was originally published as a special issue of Community Development.

Regional Equity
Regional Equity

Author: Victor Rubin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1317292987

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Regional equity as a field of scholarship, as an arena of policy change, and as a social movement has grown, diversified, and matured in important ways over the past decade. The fruits of that growth and development can be seen in recent federal and state policies, in the practices of many regional planning organizations, and in the agendas and approaches of countless community-based organizations and issue advocacy groups. As the field has expanded, a growing number of researchers have been tracking these phenomena: explaining how and why concepts of metropolitan development are being reframed; documenting the efforts to shape policies and diversify leadership; assessing where and how equity and social justice concerns have been brought into regional planning for transportation, land use, housing, public finances, environmental quality, smart growth, sustainable development, public health and other issue areas. This volume brings together analyses and commentary by some of the leading scholarly observers these timely developments. This book was published as a special issue of Community Development.

Social Finance
Social Finance

Author: Alex Nicholls

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-11-05

Total Pages: 672

ISBN-13: 0191008699

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Social Finance is a rapidly advancing area of practice, policy and research, with alot of unanswered questions. What does it amount to? What is it to be 'social' in finance? How do you value assets that offer a social as well as a financial return? This book provides a collection of authoritative essays on these and related topics. The essays embrace the different manifestations of social finance, collate existing research, set out the controversies, offer theoretical insights, and advances, and draw together the ideas of the leading thinkers in the field. Contributors to this volume are leading exponents and practitioners of social finance and leading academics from the main relevant disciplines and fields of study. This book is the first serious and comprehensive treatment of social finance and as such, will be of interest to academics with research and teaching interests in finance, social enterprise/entrepreneurship, public policy, business economics and international deveopement to name a few. If you want to understand and join in the academic and policy debates, or if you are working in one part of this field and want to understand how the landscape is being rapidly re-shaped, then this is an essential guidebook.