community capacity research project

[Michele Lempa]

Dear List Serve Members:

Members of a research team at Tulane University School of Public Health and 
Tropical Medicine and the Xavier University Deep South Center for Environmental 
Justice seek your help on a project to develop measures of community capacity 
funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

We are currently assessing the reliability and validity of a survey instrument 
that will ultimately assist community-based organizations in examining factors 
that help and hinder them in achieving their goals.  The survey is to be 
administered to a national sample of 400 grass roots organizations in order to 
assess the properties of the survey - not the capacity of organizations who 
complete it.  We are seeking groups with diverse constituencies and causes from 
various geographic areas across the United States to add to our understanding 
of the survey’s utility and applicability across a broad range of issues and 
communities.  

We believe that you, as members of this list serve, can be a great resource for 
our team in identifying grassroots, community-based organizations from your 
area to complete the survey. We are seeking three respondents from each 
organization working on a specific initiative.  Respondents should be: 

-One central leader of the initiative,
- One staff person or volunteer who works closely and regularly on the 
initiative,
- One individual who works or volunteers with the initiative from time to time, 
as available.

PLEASE NOTE:  This survey is not an assessment of the organizations who 
complete it.  Rather, we are administering the survey for reliability testing 
and refinement of the instrument. 

What we can offer in return to groups participating is the instrument once it 
is tested and results of the reliability testing when they are complete. 

If you would be interested in helping identify some candidate organizations in 
your area, please contact Michele Lempa, Research Assistant, at 
capacity at tulane.edu or (504) 585-7100. 

We expect to begin contacting survey respondents in July of this year.  Any 
help or direction you can provide as soon as possible will be appreciated!  
Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions or for additional 
information.

Thank you for your consideration.

Michele Lempa