Purpose
To assist coalitions in exploring the range of possibilities for the community
to work together in problem prevention efforts
Objectives
- Define collective work and relate its
importance to community development and ATOD problem prevention in African-American
communities
- List the five levels of collective
work
- Identify the four key ingredients of
collective work
- Examine various approaches to collective
work and their importance to community development and ATOD problem prevention
in communities
Key Ingredients
- Effective communication
- Culturally appropriate models
- Effective leadership
- Cultural competence
- Self- and group reflection
Questions About Co-work
- Do we work with others or not?
- With whom do we work?
- On what do we work with others? On
what do we work by ourselves?
- How do we work with others? Do we communicate,
coordinate, cooperate, or collaborate?
- What are the barriers to working with
others?
- What resources do we have or are available
to overcome the barriers?
Principles of Collective Work
Collective
work must:
- involve a legitimate, community-wide
process that is indigenously generated, strongly led, and includes broad multicultural
involvement
- encourage individuals, groups, organizations,
institutions, and the community to proceed step by step from no communication
to collaboration
- assist people to discover compelling
reasons for moving from no communication to collaboration
move genuinely toward the "higher rungs" of the ladder of citizen
participation
Are based on the philosophy that:
- community is responsible for conditions
and for solutions
- community has a right to mobilize to
impact its own neighborhood
- community is concerned and wants to
play and is able to play a vital role
- community and individuals are resilient
and communities have a wealth of resources; collective work efforts will build
on and enhance the resiliency of resources that exist
- programs need to be based in a model
that reflects the community experience
Communication (Let’s Talk)
Communication
should take into consideration:
- context
- agenda
- styles
- process/etiquette
- experience
- emotion
- interaction
Cooperation (Let's Stay in Touch)
Cooperation
should take into consideration:
- talking
- relating
- timing
- decisionmaking
Coordination
(Let's Plan and Support)
Coordination that will:
- balance the self-determination needs
with coordination needs
- build on the collective work skills
and rapport established through communication and cooperation—especially
respectful communication and consensus decisionmaking
- develop a clear purpose that is related
to needs of the group and its members, as well as community needs
- develop leadership that is situational
and shared struggle with the equitable distribution and appropriate use of
resources to be coordinated
Collaboration (Let's Create Something New Together)
Collaboration supports and
reinforces:
- mutual decisionmaking
- mutual respect
- community empowerment
Collaborate in a manner to have:
- harmony
- equality
- balance
- unity
The Collective Work unit is taken from a course developed by the Institute for
African American Mobilization. The Institute's goal is to facilitate African-American
inclusion, mobilization, community development, and empowerment. The course
can be found at: http://p2001.health.org/cti04/cti04ttl.htm.