Author: elissa.j.brown@gmail.com

Different types of projects and what’s involved in getting them done. When you first start imagining doing something in your community, it appears in your mind as a beautiful, exciting vision. 

2. Visioning Visioning (Pre-Planning) You know what you want.  It’s clear in your mind.  A sunny park, a cheerful pre-school, a classy face-lift on the buildings down town, a culinary training institute for the local junior college with a great on-site restaurant where young people learning to be top chefs serve fabulous meals at rock… Continue reading Excerpt 2

3. Measuring Program Benefits Program benefits are measured in two ways, ‘outputs’ and ‘outcomes’.  Outputs are a measure of the actual activities that you undertake.  Outcomes are the results of those activities on the lives of the participants and/or the surrounding community.  Both outputs and outcomes should be measurable. Let’s look at some examples: Program: … Continue reading Excerpt 3

4. Forming an Advisory Committee As you approach your stakeholders, you will find a range of responses.  Chances are that some will have a negative or dismissive response to your overtures.  Don’t let this discourage you unless it is the majority response.  If it is, you might want to re-think your project.  (My mother often… Continue reading Excerpt 4