OVERVIEW

STEP 1: Mobilizing Resources

STEP 2: Understanding Social Capital as it Relates to Organizational Mission

STEP 3: Identifying Program Links to Social Capital

Once the organization, in its social capital retreat has restated its mission in social capital terms, it can move on to an examination of the specific program or programs to be evaluated. Staff and volunteers who work directly with participants and the public must be very involved in this step. We recommend that you bring a diverse group of stakeholders together for your social capital retreat. While this diversity of thought may make it more difficult to conduct such retreats and manage the conversation, it increases the chance that you will not miss out on an important observation. The ultimate decision as to what you want to evaluate is yours, and this may be important to identify up-front, but you will benefit from diverse perspectives.

We expect that program specifics will be discussed in a second meeting that may be held a week or more after the first meeting or meetings that dealt with the issue from an organization-wide perspective. If the members of the organization cannot answer some of the questions that follow, it may be necessary to undertake a small internal "study" of program operations.

Note: If your organization operates only one program, the thinking just done in Step 2 may significantly overlap with this step.

PROGRAM'S RELATION TO COMMUNITIES SERVED (expand)

SOCIAL CAPITAL FORMATION STRATEGIES (expand)

WHICH TIES ARE ORGANIZATION TRYING TO BUILD? (expand)

IS SOCIAL CAPITAL AN ESSENTIAL PART OF PROGRAM OPERATIONS? (expand)

Go on to Phase Two