Aim

The aim of the Capacity Building Program is a lasting step-up in community group effectiveness. The program integrates community group staff and skilled volunteers to harness a group’s existing capability and increase its long-term capacity.

Supporting capacity building

Community groups report that they often face a paradox: they are too busy and poorly resourced to spend time securing the help they need. goodcompany’s Capacity Building Program addresses this problem by using experienced and skilled volunteers, called Development Consultants, to support community organisations’ senior managers and secure further support from other skilled volunteers.

True capacity building involves the organic development of skills and knowledge among staff within the organisation. Development Consultants support staff learning and development as they facilitate organisational change that endures after volunteers have finished their engagements. Leadership of the overall effort always remains the responsibility of the community organisation’s executive management.

For more information, e-mail goodcompany General Manager, Andrew Coogan

Complementing the Employee Volunteering Programs

The Capacity Building Program complements goodcompany’s skilled Employee Volunteering Programs. EVPs increase the supply of skilled professionals, mostly from large corporations and institutions. However because many corporate volunteers have limited time available, they tend to be task-focussed and not able to be more deeply involved with the community group they are supporting. Development Consultants ensure these short term volunteers are used effectively, by providing a framework that ensures they are properly inserted into the community organisation.

Mentoring

Capacity building and the Development Consultant role is complementary to volunteer mentoring. goodcompany volunteers work as one-on-one mentors with community group CEOs and senior managers, supporting individual professional development. Mentoring can be a precursor to work at the organisational level in the Capacity Building Program.

Development Consultants

The Development Consultant role combines the functions of a management consultant, facilitator, catalyst, coordinator, manager, coach and mentor.

Development Consultants work with an organisation’s senior management and other staff as a facilitator, supporting them in identifying needs and opportunities, conceptualising productive pathways forward and managing change. They can also source and manage other skilled volunteers, providing project management support when appropriate

Some of the areas in which Development Consultants can support community organisations seeking a step-up in their effectiveness include:

• Strategy development and implementation (including collaboration planning)
• Planning and priority setting
• Management and supervision (including management of skilled volunteers)
• Team skills and processes
• Leadership and vision
• Organisational culture
• Human resource management (including recruitment, role specification, training, learning and development, rewards and recognition)
• Process and system design and implementation

Development Consultants act as a gateway for skilled volunteers entering the organisation. They support the scoping and writing of volunteer project briefs and recruit other skilled volunteers where the community group identifies a need for them. They may seek to fill skilled volunteer roles using goodcompany or any other matching service approved by the community group.

Supporting volunteer sourcing and management increases the immediate human resource capacity of community groups. However the emphasis of the DC role is clearly on supporting community group staff, working alongside them as they analyse their own unique situation to plan future action and lead organisational change themselves. This approach ensures that skills and capability grow organically from within the community group, building enduring capacity after the DC and other skilled volunteers have departed.

Commitment and suitability

Development Consultants should be able to commit to an initial period of engagement and investigation with a community group, ideally within two months following first contact. During this time the DC and community group leadership will identify what ongoing involvement is feasible. The frequency and duration of subsequent DC support must be subject to their availability and can be mutually agreed.
Development Consultants need solid experience managing people and organisations or processes. Typically they might be from any of the following groups with relevant experience:

• retirees;
• self-employed business operators;
• parents or carers with some ongoing part-time availability;
• mid-career professionals exploring new career directions;
• corporate, institutional or public sector employees on sabbatical or extended career breaks; or
• post-graduate students seeking to augment course-work or research.

Prior to their participation in the program Development Consultants take part in a half-day induction workshop run by goodcompany. The workshop outlines the Capacity Building Program and the role of DCs. It reviews the principles and techniques that will underpin successful engagement with community groups, enabling DCs to best leverage the skill and experience that they bring to the role.

For more information, e-mail goodcompany General Manager, Andrew Coogan

To download a Development Consultant Application Form, please click the link below.

Comm_gp_Capcity_Building_Application 86.50 kB