Community Capacity Strengthening Guide

Communities play a crucial role in children’s development and well-being and in their own development. They provide the social, cultural and organizational support structures and services closest to families and children. They also establish social norms and make decisions on how to allocate and manage their resources and address challenges that affect their members. A number of current and emerging global trends highlight the need to pay increased attention to community capacity strengthening to address their needs and goals, and to promote greater resiliency.

The goal of the Community Capacity Strengthening Guide is to articulate Save the Children’s overall approach in supporting capacity strengthening of communities and to provide tools to strengthen their ability to work toward positive change in the lives of children, families and communities. This manual, focused on communities, has two primary audiences: 1) program designers who need to incorporate capacity strengthening into proposals; and 2) program managers and implementers who work directly with communities to facilitate capacity strengthening. It points toward innovations, resources and best practices that can be found within Save the Children and beyond.