Hi, 
I have been 'lurking' on the edge of this discussion about citizen
participation, waiting until I have some time to reply.  
While I agree with Alison that the HP Capacity Checklists are a useful
health promotion tool (I was a part of the writing team at the PRHPRC), they
are mostly intended as an evidence-based assessment process for those
involved in health promotion, either at the  community, institutional or
practice level. 
I have found the following authors/resources, who have been writing about
partnerships with citizens provide me with a more nuanced take on what it
means to involve people in community, beyond the 'ladder' or even
Bjaras/Rifkin (although I have adapted the spidergram representation of
different dimensions of participation in a variety of settings). These
authors are writing about collaboration, partnerships, and public input
processes and either get to the philosophical heart of what your intents
are, or provide evidence about what works:  
Barbara Gray  - her book "Collaboration"  and other writings
Joan Roberts - might still be at [log in to unmask]; has written
extensively on partnership relationships
Amherst H. Wilder Foundation - "Collaboration, What Makes it Work" by P.W.
Mattessich and B.R.Monsey  and the Foundation's "Collaboration
Questionnaire"
Caledon Institute of Social Policy - "Partnerships, the Good, the Bad and
the Ugly" by Sherri Torjman
"Transforming participatory facilitation: Reflections from practice" by Lori
and Cindy Hanson published in PLA Notes (?) August 2001
"Community development and Partnerships" by Ron Labonte, Cdn Journal of
Public Health July-August 1993
Canadian Policy Research Networks:  "Mapping the Links:  Citizen Involvement
in Policy Processes" by S D Phillips and M Orsini April 2002
"Deliberations about deliberative methods:  issues in the design and
evaluation of public participation processes" by J Abelson et al in Social
Science and Medicine 57 (2003)

So, hope these are useful to some....
Georgia Bell


-----Original Message-----
From: Health Promotion on the Internet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Alison Stirling
Sent: March 23, 2006 11:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: tools to evaluate participation in community groups

Thanks Susan and Liz for bringing our attention to these great 'old tools'.
I have used both the Rifkin 'spiderweb' and Arnstein's ladder in
consultations with community groups on assessing leadership, participation
and capacity building. Unfortunately, it's been a few years and I do not
have access to my files to determine exactly how they were used.

I came across the Bjaras, Haglund and Rifkin 'spiderweb' recently in an
excellent health promotion 'tool'. It is the 64 page pdf "Health Promotion
Capacity Checklists: A Workbook for Individual, Organizational and
Environmental Assessment" from the Prairie Region Health Promotion Research
Centre (April 2004).  In it, they suggest that the graphic could be used as
a visual record of progress in health promotion domains (p.
13).  You can access this tool at the PRHPRC at
http://www.usask.ca/healthsci/che/prhprc/programs/finalworkbook.pdf

If there are people on the CLICK4HP list who have applied this checklist or
the Rifkin tool, it would be great to hear how they worked, and if they were
used with community groups.

Alison Stirling

On Thu, March 23, 2006 8:21 am, Susan Lilley wrote:
> Another useful tool to facilitate a discussion on participation is 
> Sherry  Arnstein's "ladder of citizen participation", which I have 
> used in conjunction with the Rifkin model because it brings in some other
issues.
> Both these tools have been around for awhile but they are still 
> excellent, in my opinion. Thanks for reminding us about them Liz.
>
> Some references:
> Armstein, S.R. 1969. A ladder of citizen participation. American 
> Institute of Planners Journal, 3: 216-224.
>
> Bjaras, G., B.J.A. Haglund and S.B. Rifkin. 1991. A new approach to 
> community participation assessment. Health Promotion International, 6 
> (3):199.
>
> Rifkin, S.B., F. Muller and W. Bichmann. 1988. Primary health care: On 
> measuring participation. Social Science and Medicine, 26(9): 931-940.
>
>

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