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Guidebook to Community Consulting provides advice for people interested in starting or growing a career in community consulting. Drawing on the authors' years of experience as community consultants, it offers a wealth of practical guidance to anyone considering or establishing a successful career serving and empowering communities. It includes guidance about the personal qualities, values, and technical skills needed; how to start a consulting practice; how to collaborate with colleagues, and most importantly, how to collaborate with communities. Practical advice and tips are motivated by core guiding principles and goals including an understanding of consulting as a partnership between consultants and communities; decoloniality; anti-racism, and equity. The text is animated with illustrative anecdotes and lessons gained from real-world experience.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. Community consulting - how to prepare and where you might work; 3. Do you have the personal qualities to be a community consultant; 4. Community consulting values and knowledge; 5. Skills you might need or want; 6. Setting up your practice and managing the practical matters; 7. Collaboration with colleagues; 8. Collaboration with clients and the community; 9. Money matters; 10. The future of community consulting; Appendix 1: Community consulting professional development planning tool; Appendix 2: Resources; Glossary.
About the author
Dr. Susan M. Wolfe, CEO of Susan Wolfe and Associates, has been working with communities for over thirty-six years. Her award-winning work includes research, evaluation, coalition development, advocacy, needs assessments, and strategic planning. She has published her work in journals, books, and blogs, and regularly teaches workshops and gives presentations to professional audiences nationally and internationally.Dr. Ann Webb Price, President of Community Evaluation Solutions, works with community coalitions, non-profit organizations, and foundations that focus on systems change. She conducts workshops throughout the country on coalition development and evaluation. She has a podcast called Community Possibilities where she speaks to community leaders doing the hard work of community change.
Summary
A practical and accessible guide for those interested in working with communities and specifically, those interested in starting a community consulting business. This book offers need-to-know information for designing a successful business while serving and empowering communities.
Foreword
A practical guide to collaborating and consulting with communities to enhance social change.
