Community Tool Box Training Curriculum


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Our center has developed a training curriculum based on the Community Tool Box that outlines 16 competencies for promoting community health and development. These competencies include: creating and maintaining coalitions and partnerships, assessing community needs and resources, analyzing problems and goals, developing a framework or model of change, developing strategic and action plans, building leadership, developing an intervention, increasing participation and membership, enhancing cultural competence, advocating for change, influencing policy development, evaluating the initiative, implementing a social marketing campaign, writing a grant application for funding, improving organizational management and development, and sustaining the project or initiative. Each of these 16 field-tested modules feature participant guides, adaptable facilitator guides, and PowerPoint slides. These modules can be delivered both in person and online via interactive webinars.

Our center's staff members are experienced trainers in each of these learning modules. We can also use a “train the trainer” approach so that group members can also facilitate the trainings. After training is provided, some support materials remain available to participants via the free Community Tool Box.

Competence in each skill area is demonstrated by the development of planning products related to the skill area (e.g., a strategic plan, an evaluation plan, a logic model, a plan for sustainability). The Modules are designed to be delivered in workshop, classroom and online instruction formats.

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Curriculum Modules

Module 1: Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships

  • How to start a community coalition or collaborative partnership, and how to sustain its activities and effects
  • Determining who should be a part of a collaboration; understanding networking, communications, trust, and shared vision

Module 2: Assessing Community Needs and Resources

  • Truly listening to and learning from community members about what matters to them
  • Methods for using multiple and diverse sources to gather information about community needs and assets for change

Module 3: Analyzing Problems and Goals

  • How to conduct a thorough analysis of the community problem(s) and goal(s) that your effort will address, including analysis of key behaviors, personal and environmental factors, targets and agents of change, and potential solutions

Module 4: Developing a Framework or Model of Change

  • How to develop a logic model to guide your intervention
  • How to use a logic model as a support for your action planning and evaluation efforts

Module 5: Developing Strategic and Action Plans

  • Importance of developing strategies and action plans and using them to guide and enhance your work
  • Skills required to develop a vision, mission, objectives, strategies and action plans

Module 6: Building Leadership

  • Key principles of community work and involving as many people as possible in the leadership of the effort
  • How to create trust among participants and empower others for the purpose of shared leadership

Module 7: Developing an Intervention

  • Skills required to develop, select, adapt and implement interventions to fit the particular needs and cultural context of your community

Module 8: Increasing Participation and Membership

  • Why it is crucial to intentionally involve others in the work, and engage them in ways that keep them involved over time
  • Key principles in outreach and recruitment

Module 9: Enhancing Cultural Competence

  • Skills required to promote cultural competence and complete related personal and organizational assessments
  • Include diverse groups in the work of your organization, and work more effectively with people of different cultures

Module 10: Advocating for Change

  • Guidelines for effective advocacy
  • Advocacy techniques of varying intensity, and how potential advocacy tactics can help achieve your goals

Module 11: Influencing Policy Development

  • Developing policy goals and plans, and how to gain support for policy options
  • Identifying what your group will do to advance its policy goals

Module 12: Evaluating the Initiative

  • Developing useful evaluation questions consistent with your framework and intervention
  • Gathering evidence to address your evaluation questions, and how to use data to learn and make adjustments

Module 13: Implementing a Social Marketing Campaign

  • Gathering information from and listening to your target group; developing and communicating messages that can reach people
  • Using principles of persuasion to encourage new practices through social marketing

Module 14: Writing a Grant Application for Funding

  • Steps for identifying potential funding sources
  • Step-by-step guidance in applying for grant funding

Module 15: Improving Organizational Management and Development

  • Developing governance and management structures and policies needed to govern and run your initiative
  • Ensuring excellent communication

Module 16: Sustaining the Project or Initiative

  • Twelve tactics for sustainability
  • Applying tactics for sustainability to your group’s situation

Featured in each module

  • Participant’s Guide
  • PowerPoint with Facilitator’s Notes
  • Interactive Activities
  • Supplemental Online Readings

Contact

For more information about how to obtain the Community Tool Box Training Curriculum, please contact our center:

What our clients are saying

"I learned so much from this training! I tell everyone about it. I feel like I have a whole team of personal coaches. The KU CCHD staff is the most responsive, helpful support I’ve ever received from an initiative like this. I know [we] will be a better coalition for having experienced this. I can’t wait to put my new skills to work."

"I am very excited to take back the information I have learned and use it in my community."

"Enjoyed the activities and ability to work with my team on a particular topic/issue."

"The Community Toolbox tailored training to our specific needs and context for working with communities. They accelerated training when strengths were identified and spent more time on areas we needed particular support. They were also available for follow-up coaching to ensure we weren't just learning but applying."

"The Community Toolbox training was awesome! The tailored training and application helped us to think about our work from different perspectives and brainstorm how to apply innovative strategies."