Community are the experts
As Changemakers get closer to our Ignite Action Lab – a gathering where we come together for the first time in person to put our leadership and community development skills into practice and learn more about each others projects – it is naturally time for us to expand our knowledge on how to plan, manage and evaluate community that will positively impact our communities. The project management and evaluation learning lab gave change makers an opportunity to do just that!
This week Changemakers were joined by two experts, Zviko Gwekwerere, ROI’s Rural Housing Information Systems Northern Coordinator and Evaluation expert Meredith Davis of Good Roots, to learn how to do both of those things.
Management of a large scale project
Zviko Gwekwerere, has worked on creating housing solutions through ROI’s Rural Housing Information System tool with more than 250 rural Ontario municipalities including the County of Simcoe and the Rural Ontario Medical Program. Zviko took changemakers through the ‘project planning phases for each of those projects which are:
- Initiation
- Planning
- Execution
- Monitoring
- Closure
Zviko also introduced the process of mind mapping to the changemakers and the value it can have in all stages of the project plan, from grant proposals to evaluations and monitoring of your project.
Project Evaluation
This was a perfect segway into the second half of the learning lab with Meredith Davis, who came to the changemakers with a variety of evaluation experience in everything from carrying out project evaluations for storytelling projects and food security initiatives.
Project evaluations are a important way of gathering information in a well thought out manner to provide and ensure the impact of any project, business or initiative.
As part of this session Changemakers undertook several activities including the creation of both project and evaluation plans using a Logic Model approach that focuses on the What before the How. What are we trying to acheive? What does success look like? And then how will be achieve those outcomes.
We were reminded it is important to undertake evaluations at each stage of the project to first understand community needs, and also to determine if your project is reaching its intended purpose – a tool gauge the success of a project.
Participants were also reminded that during both the project planning and evaluation stages it’s important to acknowledge that the community are the experts in what they need. This is why evaluation is so important to capture the needs, perspectives and feedback from community members working together to achieve a common purpose.
If you want to see longevity in your project, community needs to have ownership in the project.
Learn more about the amazing work of Meredith Davis and Good Roots by visiting https://www.goodroots.ca/
Learn more about the RHIS by visiting https://www.ruralontarioinstitute.ca/rhis
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