Assessment 1: Case Study

Produce an original case study that provides a descriptive overview of a community development project/program – individually, students will choose an individual/ organisation to interview about their community development program/actions and complete the case study using an adapted International Association of Community Development (IACD) template.

The IACD template (adapted version) will be made available in Canvas. Interviews can be supported by documentary review of program materials, websites, videos etc.

A case study describes a real-world instance of a phenomenon so that others can get better insight into the experience. In this assessment, the phenomenon is community development. In this assessment the case study will be used to describe the phenomenon through the voice of an individual/ organisational representative who engaged in the community development practice. It can include information gathered through other sources (e.g., documents, videos, website, etc). Other sources can strengthen case studies because they give multiple perspective input about a phenomenon. Case studies can take many forms. For this assessment, a template is provided.

Assessment 2: Annotated Bibliography

Create an annotated bibliography to direct learning by your peers/instructors about the topic of your Community Capacity Development Workshop (seek weeks 8 – 13). This group assessment is directly related to assessment 3. So, read about Assessment 3 first.

Having learned about one approach to community development, what resources do you recommend for further learning about this approach? Create an annotated bibliography to direct further learning by your peers/instructors.

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations of key/most helpful resources. An annotated bibliography consists of (a) a title, (b) annotation (4 – 5 sentences/approx. 150 words per resource), and (c) citation (fully reference in APA format). The purpose of annotations is to provide the reader with a critical appraisal of each resource. The annotation summarises each resource in terms of how the reader will benefit from it. The citation ensures that the resource can be easily retrieved from the original source.

A good annotation informs the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the source cited.

An annotated bibliography (the collective list of resources) is submitted as a cohesive resource that can be used to develop a comprehensive understanding of the topic and support critical engagement with the topic.

Assessment 3: Community Capacity Development Workshop 

Using community development principles and approaches learned in weeks 1 – 6 engage with your peers in the topic, theory, or approach to community development (see schedule for topics). Your aim is to build capability in your peers; giving them breadth and depth of the knowledge about the approach and increasing their confidence to implement the approach in the future.

The community capacity development session will support your peers to learn about an approach to community development. You aren’t just telling about something you learned. Rather, your goal is to enable capacity development in others.

The following questions should guide the pre-planning with your capacity development team.

Content Planning Questions:

• What is this approach to community development? Or rather, How does this approach, framework, theory, or way of thinking help us to engage more effectively in community development?
• What disciplinary knowledge(s) inform this approach? What are its conceptual underpinnings?
• How has this approach been employed in community development (by others)? What does it/might it look like in practice? – offer example(s)
• How does this approach align with the International Association of Community Development (IACD) themes? (Integrate this with your example(s) and/or consider how does it differ from IACD themes?)
• How can community development practitioners use this approach to achieve disability inclusive and sustainable community development?

Process Planning Questions:

• What are the helpful things about this approach? Why are they helpful?
• Are there aspects that might be challenging for practitioners (especially novice practitioners)? What are they? Discuss how to overcome them.
• How can our group integrate current/seminal information on this topic into the session to develop capability in our peers?
• How would we (as individuals, as a group) want to learn about this topic? Can we be creative in our approach, what interactive learning activities will help bring the topic to life?

What will we leave our peers with, so they have the key messages to take into their practice and/or share with others?

Assessment 4: Written Report

Design a great disability-inclusive community program, project, or initiative.

Format: You can choose:

• use visual program logic to bring the project to life visually with fewer words.
• consider pitching your idea using pre-recorded PPT slide deck
• make a short video to pitch your idea.

Pitch the project idea using the criteria below.

Criteria:

Remember: A simple way of thinking about demonstrating community benefit is to consider: What is the problem or opportunity? How does it affect or impact the community? What difference would your idea make?

Give your project a title/name?

Briefly describe your idea.

[outline the problem/issue that this idea responds to; Clarify what is involved (what activities will take place?). Make the community development principles/tools/approach explicit]

What difference will your idea make?

[Specify how your idea will increase meaningful participation of people with disability and positively impact the whole community. Make the link between community development approach and inclusion outcomes explicit.]

Profile the community (local government area, suburb, or neighbourhood) where this initiative will be implemented.

[Explain why this community can benefit most from this initiative. Use ABS statistics and other evidence to support the community profile. Don’t forget to include people with disability in this profile.

Make the link between your idea and government policy or strategies explicit (e.g., Council Disability Inclusion Action Plan or other strategy).

Identify a community/neighbourhood centre or other community group that could host/lead this activity.

[Explain why this they are well-suited suited to lead the initiative. Identify a minimum of two potential challenges to implementing your idea and how they will be addressed]

What is the estimated cost of your idea

[Indicate the amount of money needed to achieve this idea and provide a table with a simple budget breakdown. Note: the project must cost no more than $50,000 AUD).

Provide references

[Demonstrate a well-evidenced idea by providing no less than 6 sources of information used to support its development]