Assessing and planning a community#
Paper sections 2.1 and 2.2.
Section 2.1: Community Maturation Indicator#
The indicator combines six levels of community participation with six stages of community building. A community’s status is written as a “Level - Stage” pair.
Levels of community participation |
Stages of community building |
|---|---|
1. Inform the community |
1. Community initiation |
2. Invite community feedback |
2. Planning and design of community strategy |
3. Engage and involve members in initiatives |
3. Implementation of community strategy |
4. Mobilise and connect groups |
4. Growth and scaling |
5. Empower groups to make decisions |
5. Monitoring and evaluation to build sustainability pathways |
6. Decentralise decision-making power |
6. Sustaining or sunsetting the community |
Practical uses#
Place a community on the indicator at the start of a project, then review it at regular points.
Work through the stages at one level before moving to the next level of participation.
Use Supplementary 1 of the paper for descriptions and examples of each combination.
Section 2.2: Adapting strategies to maturation status#
Technical and cultural context shapes the infrastructure and practices an RCM chooses. The paper contrasts open source software projects (a permissive licence and open repository), public health data projects (trusted research environments and Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement), and participatory projects (citizen science approaches).
For the end of a community’s life, see the team’s sunsetting guide.