Strategies for Successful Community Mobilization: Lessons from a Community Center

Abstract

When looking at all the programs that did not work, the program that was the most glaring was Community Mobilization.  Community Mobilization is when a community pulls its resources and stakeholders and floods the community with assistance (Sherman, et al., 1996).  These are people that live within the community that is fighting for the community.  It was very surprising to see this did not work, especially since our project is a community center with a huge list of resources that we are providing at low to no cost. Digging a bit deeper they had an issue with evaluation and consistency of program delivery (Sherman, et al., 1996).  They had several sites around the community, and everyone was doing their part a bit differently which made it difficult to track (Sherman, et al., 1996).  This is how our program will differ from Community Mobilization.  First, our stakeholders reside in the same county, but in other communities that are successful. This gives the advantage to bring new innovative ideas to the table with proven evidence of success.  An example of this is Panther County Boys and Girls Club.  They are so successful that they are pouring money into this project to help it succeed. Second, this community center is in one location.  Program consistency will not be a problem as all the programs are under one roof, and with weekly management meetings, it is easier to keep everyone on the same page.  Finally, the evaluation process was kept extremely simple by using data already collected by the county.  Using these three different approaches the community center will be a success by impacting not only the youth but the community as a whole. REFERENCES Sherman, L. W., Gottfredson, D., MacKenzie, D., Eck, J., Reuter, P., & Bushway, S. (1996). Preventing Crime: What Works,...