Community Development & Engagement Flashcards

Which community engagement approach prioritizes building relationships before addressing specific issues or needs?

Answer: Asset-based community development (ABCD)

ABCD focuses on identifying and mobilizing existing community strengths and relationships rather than leading with deficits or problems.

A community action agency wants to ensure low-income residents have meaningful input into program design. Which mechanism BEST achieves this?

Answer: Placing low-income representatives on the governing board

The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) tripartite board requires that at least one-third of members represent low-income community members, ensuring direct governance participation.

What is 'community capacity' in the context of community development?

Answer: The collective ability of residents to identify, respond to, and sustain solutions to local challenges

Community capacity refers to the combined skills, resources, and relationships that enable a community to effectively address its own needs and opportunities.

A CAP agency conducts a Community Needs Assessment and finds high rates of food insecurity. Which step should immediately follow analysis of findings?

Answer: Share findings with community stakeholders and co-develop response strategies

Effective community development requires sharing assessment findings with community members and stakeholders to collaboratively determine priorities and solutions.

The 'ladder of citizen participation' developed by Sherry Arnstein is used in community development to assess:

Answer: The degree of power-sharing between residents and institutions

Arnstein's ladder describes eight levels of participation ranging from manipulation (no real power) to citizen control (full community authority).

When engaging communities with limited English proficiency, which practice is most essential for authentic participation?

Answer: Hiring bilingual staff and offering interpretation at all community events

Proactively providing bilingual staff and interpretation ensures meaningful access rather than placing the burden on residents with limited English.

Which outcome measure BEST demonstrates successful community engagement in a CAP program?

Answer: Percentage of program decisions influenced by resident input

Authentic community engagement should result in measurable influence on program decisions, not just activity counts like outreach events or materials distributed.

In community organizing, what does 'power mapping' help an organization accomplish?

Answer: Determine which decision-makers have influence over a community issue

Power mapping visually identifies stakeholders, their relationships, and their levels of influence to help organizers develop targeted advocacy strategies.

A CAP agency is implementing a place-based community development strategy. This approach emphasizes:

Answer: Concentrating resources and interventions in a specific geographic area

Place-based strategies concentrate comprehensive resources within a defined geographic area to create systemic change and address concentrated poverty.

Which of the following is an example of 'collective impact' in community development?

Answer: Multiple organizations aligning around a common agenda with shared measurement

Collective impact requires five conditions: common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and a backbone organization.

When facilitating a community meeting in a low-income neighborhood, a CCAP professional should prioritize:

Answer: Creating space for community members to define problems and solutions themselves

Authentic facilitation centers community voice and self-determination rather than seeking validation for agency-driven conclusions.

A community action professional is working on reducing childhood poverty in a rural area. Which strategy best reflects a systemic approach?

Answer: Addressing income, education, healthcare, and housing barriers simultaneously

Systemic approaches address the multiple interconnected root causes of poverty rather than treating individual symptoms in isolation.

What is the primary purpose of a community coalition in antipoverty work?

Answer: To leverage diverse stakeholder strengths toward shared community goals

Coalitions bring together organizations with different resources, expertise, and constituencies to address complex community challenges more effectively than any single entity.

Which federal legislation requires community action agencies to conduct a Community Needs Assessment at least every three years?

Answer: The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Act

CSBG requires eligible entities to conduct comprehensive community needs assessments to guide program planning and demonstrate responsiveness to local conditions.

A CAP agency wants to build social cohesion in a neighborhood with diverse ethnic communities. Which strategy is MOST effective?

Answer: Creating shared projects that require cross-cultural collaboration

Shared projects and collaborative activities build bridging social capital by creating relationships across different groups around common interests and goals.

In the context of community development, 'bonding social capital' refers to:

Answer: Strong ties and trust among members of the same group

Bonding social capital describes dense networks of trust within homogeneous groups, while bridging social capital connects people across different groups.

When conducting focus groups with residents experiencing homelessness, a community action professional should:

Answer: Offer incentives and ensure voluntary, informed participation

Ethical community engagement requires voluntary informed consent and often includes incentives to compensate participants for their time and expertise.

Which approach is characteristic of 'community-driven development' (CDD)?

Answer: Communities control decision-making over resources and program implementation

CDD empowers communities to directly manage resources, make investment decisions, and oversee implementation rather than serving as recipients of externally designed programs.

A community engagement plan should include measurable goals that track:

Answer: Participation levels, representativeness, and influence on decisions

Effective engagement measurement tracks who participates, whether they reflect affected populations, and whether their input actually shapes outcomes.

What is 'participatory action research' (PAR) in community development?

Answer: A collaborative process where community members co-lead research affecting their lives

PAR positions community members as co-researchers who help design questions, collect data, analyze findings, and determine action steps based on the research.