The Community Toolbox is a global resource for free information on essential skills for building healthy communities. It offers more than 7,000 pages of practical guidance in creating change and improvement.

In this comprehensive toolbox, the section on “core principles and values” resonates:

“Although values can and do change as people grow and learn, there are some basic values that most people hold: the need to protect and preserve human life, for instance, or the responsibility of adults to care for children.  These and a number of other values – many set down in lists of rules such as the Judaeo-Christian Ten Commandments – are held by the majority of people in most societies, and are often the foundation of laws and social norms.”

CORE VALUES

• Everyone in a community has a right to a decent quality of life.

• Everyone is worthy of respect and equal consideration.

• Any community work or research should have the ultimate aim of being useful in improving people’s lives, particularly the lives of those most in need and/or least powerful.

• Racism and bias – because of religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic background, disability, etc. – have no place in a civil society.

•  This work isn’t about power or turf, but about the public good.

CORE PRINCIPLES

• “Fair” doesn’t mean that everyone gets the same thing; it means that everyone gets what she needs.

• Community work is far more likely to be successful if it involves all stakeholders from the very beginning.

• Leadership from within the community should be encouraged and nurtured.

• Community work takes careful planning at every stage of the process.

• Evaluation is absolutely necessary, and useful in many ways, although probably most useful as a tool for improving your effort.

• Outcomes matter.

• Time is of the essence.

• Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

• Make sure that your funding and other resources are adequate for what you’re trying to do.

• Community action should take place at the level and time to make it most effective.

• Community intervention should be replicable and sustainable.

• Don’t lose sight of your vision, your principles, and your values in the struggle to get things done.

• The real goal of community work is positive social change.

“Development of the Community Tool Box has been ongoing since 1994, and is a public service of the University of Kansas. The Community Tool Box is developed and managed by the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas, and partners nationally and internationally. Because of our work building capacity for community health and development work and our participatory research to extend the evidence base for community efforts to promote health and development, we have been designated at as World Health Collaborating Centre since 2004.

“Our team has worked to identify what users might need to know to be able to do this work of building healthier and more equitable communities.  The Tool Box provides more than 7,000 pages of practical information to support community health and development work. The focus is on specific practical skills, such as conducting a meeting or participatory evaluation, that help create conditions for health and human development.”  – The Community Toolbox