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A Tool for Communities Seeking
Full Agency to Realize Their
Community Vision

Dr. Deidre Sanders, PhD ArkSpring Consulting

Continuum of Community Power©

  • 0. Ignored

    Uninformed, uninvolved, unconsidered.

  • 1. Notified

    FYI, BTW, “To whom it may concern…”

  • 2. Tokenized

    Community “leader” proxy(ies).

  • 3. Patronized

    Performative public participation

  • 4. Pacified

    The Passive Power of "No”


  • 5. Parity

    Equilibrium, or mutually-shared dependence

  • 6. Creator

    Ideates and creates beneficial community development plan

  • 7. Initiator

    Supplicant. Uses positional leverage

  • 8. Driver

    Compel support of community priorities through control of community institutional resources

  • 9. Partner

    Considers only complementary resource providers

  • 10. Full Agency

    Recognized, respected, resourced, protected. Identifies and implements community priorities

Power Factors

Rank factor as "High", "Moderate", or "Low" for each stakeholder

The extent to which each party will benefit from, or be burdened by, the pending action. The higher the impact or incentive, the higher the relevance, importance and "intensity".

Relevance

What are the comparative resources of the external stakeholder(s) relative to those of the community? (e.g., staff, issue expertise, access to decision-makers, money, time, leadership, comprehensive strategic plans, etc.)

Resources

(1) Formal organizations that credibly represent community interests in decision-making forums and make commitments on behalf of their communities. (2) External stakeholders that have transparent decision-making and resource allocation processes engage with community consistently across their internal business/issue groups.

Organization

Power Assessment

Given Issue Relevance, Comparative Resources, and Organizational Credibility and Transparency, rank the relative power dynamic among the external stakeholders and the community

Relevance + Resources + Organization = Power

When the right message meets the right tools and structure — that's when real transformation happens.

  • Relevance

    The importance/intensity of the initiative to the affected stakeholders (e.g., a public health concern, significant GHG source reduction, key business growth opportunity/risk management need)

  • Resources

    Such as time, funds, issue capacity, subject expertise, process control, asset control, access to information, and access to decisionmakers,

  • Organization

    Mission, funding, issue alignment, expertise, maturity/experience, credibility, and leadership quality.

The Result: Power

The degree of issue relevance combined with resources, and organizational effectiveness that a group brings to the interaction with other stakeholders greatly predict its ability to achieve its goals or protect its interests.