Social Work with People Practicing Same-Sex ... - ILGA Europe

Stage four
An expansion of vision, of the number of members, work with a bigger number of
organizations and individuals and with broader populations. The goal is achieved. The
coalition completes its activities. Strategic evaluation of activities should be performed
to identify the impact on the life of people in the local community in the future. This
is a final stage of the coalition work. Even if coalition has not managed to achieve the
result, which was set in the beginning, any member would agree that “perhaps we are
not there where we wanted to come, but we are not there from where we started”.
Objectives of Community Capacity Building
The capacity building objectives at the level of coalitions (networks and partnerships)
include the development of knowledge and skills among the initiative group members,
which they will need to implement activities on the protection of rights and interests of
community members, and to provide necessary services. It is the clustered organizations
(partnerships) and networks that build the capacity of local initiative groups in the
communities and that can become a platform for the community consolidation on the
national level.
All clustered organizations are united in the networks that perform the following
tasks:
• coordination of activities;
• information and analytical work;
• methodological and organizational support.
Horizontal and democratic system of organization of these networks and the work of a
coordination body is a very important goal for all participants to the process.
In order to avoid the vertical trends in decision making and usurpation of power/
resources, the following steps can be taken by the networks:
1) Alignment of coordination procedures and of the distribution of resources and
information.
2) Mobilization of different resources and services within the network performed by
different participants.
By developing a consolidated application a network/coalition of the clustered
organizations and initiative groups determines the amount of services needed to
develop initiative groups, as well as the partners who will implement this application.
A tentative range of such services may include:
• training sessions;
• summer camps to build capacity;
• regular meeting to share experience and provide mutual support;
• monitoring and evaluation;
• project development, fundraising.
Participation in the planning, as well as implementation of some components of the
consolidated application of initiative groups is one of the most effective methods to
build capacity of the local vulnerable community.
93