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Program Outcomes for
Communities
Citizen
Development
Introduction
Citizen development involves programming efforts to build
individuals' capacity to impact their community and to mobilize individual
citizens to participate in community building and development. There are
four main factors that are key to citizens becoming mobilized and able
to take an active role in their community: citizen capacity building/
human capital, community assets, empowerment, and citizen participation.
In order to assess programs that seek to influence citizen development,
evaluation efforts can focus on any of these areas:
1.
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Human capital:
Did citizens' cognitive skills, knowledge, training, and/ or other
personal skills improve as a result of the program? |
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Community assets: did the social, physical, or economic context
of the community become more conducive to program success as a
result of the program? (as evidenced by policies, interagency
networks, built environment, etc.)?
a. Social community assets: did
the community become more supportive of program goals as evidenced
by networks, collaborations, and coalitions?
b. Physical community assets: did
the physical context of the community become more supportive of
program goals as evidenced by the physical environment (green
space, lack of litter, reduced vandalism, etc.)?
c. Economic community assets: did
the community's financial resources become more accessible and
adequate to meet the community's needs?
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3.
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Empowerment:
did citizens' self-efficacy, motivation, and perceived community
support increase as a result of the program?
a. Self-efficacy: did citizens' perceptions
of competence (often derived from human capital) increase so they
feel more capable of making a difference?
b. Motivation: did citizens' perceptions
of problems and solutions change as a result of the program, such
that they have a greater desire to become involved? Did citizens
become more motivated to get involved as a result of the program?
Do citizens now feel driven to do something about the problem, need,
issue, etc.?
c. Perceived community support: did
citizens' perceptions of community support increase as a result
of the program? |
4.
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Citizen participation:
did more citizens become mobilized and participate as a result of
the program? |
Each of these components is highly interrelated, such that
programming efforts that influence one have an effect on many of them.
(See Figure 3). The following literature review
explains the development of these components and how programs can best
seek to mobilize and develop the capacity of citizens to work toward community
change.
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