Tools for Working Smarter in Community Development

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

From: "Xavier de Souza Briggs" <xbriggs at MIT.EDU>


Dear Colleagues and Friends:



I’m pleased to share three “knowledge-in-action briefs” as part of a new 
online resource for self-directed learning that aims to strengthen the 
field of community development in America. We hope that you and your 
students, partners, or clients, find these useful.



In 2004 and 2005, I organized a series of workshops to put researchers 
in dialogue with practitioners. These were funded by the John D. and 
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in connection with the ambitious New 
Communities Program in Chicago (and its evaluation). Informed by those 
workshops, the new briefs are about how to work smarter, not just 
harder, on behalf of important goals at the local level:



(Brief 07-1) Rethinking Community Development: Managing Dilemmas about 
Values and Goals



(Brief 07-2) Stocks, Flows, and Dreams: Shaping and Measuring 
Neighborhood Change in Community Development



(Brief 07-3) Networks, Power, and a Dual Agenda: New Lessons and 
Strategies for Old Community Building Agendas



The Working Smarter project website also includes learning guides and 
links to helpful resources on the web, for example NeighborWorks 
America's excellent material on success measures and much more.



The new tools complement those at our companion website, 
www.community-problem-solving.net, which focus on key civic processes 
for leading change, such as negotiating, organizing stakeholders, 
participatory planning, forging effective partnerships, and more. More 
than 80,000 copies of these free tools have been downloaded worldwide 
since The Community Problem-Solving Project @ MIT launched in 2003, by 
educators and practitioners and others. Trainers and teaching faculty in 
planning, social work, public policy and management, sociology, 
political science, public interest law, and other fields have assigned 
the tools in their courses and programs.



The new Working Smarter briefs, though distinct in focus, were written 
in a similar format, with “ideas in brief” and “ideas in practice” 
sections as roadmaps upfront and with accessible language throughout.



Please note that no copyright permission is required for any and all 
educational use of the new briefs. But we’d love to get your feedback 
and also to hear about your use of the material, of course.



I’m grateful to Susan Lloyd and Julia Stasch at the MacArthur 
Foundation, Andy Mooney and Susana Vasquez at LISC-Chicago, and the 
workshop participants, web designers, MIT staff and students, and others 
who made this work possible.



With best wishes,

Xav

_________

Xavier de Souza Briggs
Associate Professor of Sociology + Urban Planning
and Director, The Community Problem-Solving Project @ MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 9-521
Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A.

(voice) +1 617-253-7956
(fax) +1 617-258-8594
(email) xbriggs at mit.edu

The Community Problem-Solving Project @ MIT
www.community-problem-solving.net

Works in progress: http://web.mit.edu/xbriggs/www/