Oneida County CARE Project
CARE Facilitation Case Study
Facilitation Reduces Skepticism, Increases Community Participation
This case shows the importance of designing a group structure and decision-making
process that meets the needs of its participants. In this instance, the facilitation team
developed a group that encourages community members and regulatory agencies to
participate as equal partners in a community-driven, consensus-based project. The case
also illustrates that process management and project coordination roles are
complementary and do not have to reside in one individual. Both roles are essential to
the facilitation function.
Background
Oneida County is a large and sparsely populated county in upstate New York. While the
County is predominantly rural, the majority of its population is concentrated in the urban
areas of Utica (County seat) and Rome. The County faces a number of environmental
challenges that result from:
• Over 200 years of heavy industrial activity ranging from past activities such as
textile mills, tanneries, and metal industries to the present day uses including light
electronic and machine industries;
• Increased vehicular traffic and industrial emissions contributing to ever increasing
Particulate Matter (PM5.5) levels;
• Twenty-seven inactive waste disposal sites with identified contaminants including
heavy metals, waste solvents, and other environmental hazards;
• Pesticides application and concentrated animal feeding operations; and
• Antiquated wastewater infrastructure that is subject to leakage and system failure.
Residents identified environmental health as a major concern in the County's 2005
Health Assessment Report, which prompted the Oneida County Health Department
(Health Department) to apply for a CARE Level I Assessment grant. The Health
Department intended to use the CARE funding to implement the Protocol for Assessing
Community Excellence in Environmental Health (PACE EH). The PACE EH tool aligns
with CARE goals and requirements in its design to help communities systematically
conduct and act on an assessment of the environmental health status of their localities.
The Health Department was awarded a CARE Level I Cooperative Agreement in 2005.
EPA's Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center
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Project Roles
The former Director of the Health Department was the initiator of both the PACE EH
project and the CARE grant application. He made an early decision to hire personnel
external to the Health Department to serve as project coordinator and facilitator to
reinforce the message that CARE is a community project and not a Health Department
initiative. Additionally, he believed that using external personnel would help create and
sustain the neutrality of both the Health Department and EPA as partners in the process
equal to all other community partners. He foresaw the need for a project coordinator to
recruit group membership and manage the day-to-day activities of the group and for a
facilitator to design and manage an effective group decision-making process. For the
project coordinator role he recruited the former Cornell Cooperative Extension radon
coordinator because she was a well known and trusted member of the community, had
experience in the environmental health education and outreach field, and had
demonstrated outstanding relationship-building skills. For the third party facilitator role
he selected a seasoned facilitator with technical expertise in the PACE EH process. Both
roles were written into and defined in the grant proposal. Together, the two "facilitate"
the group process, easing the way for community members and other stakeholders to
participate.
Establishing the Group Structure
Based on the desire for broad community engagement and recognizing the multitude of
potential partners with differing levels of expertise and resources, the Director designed a
group structure that is somewhat elaborate. It includes a Community Team, broken into
two tiers. Tier 1 has approximately 30 members, meets monthly and makes all decisions
for the project. Tier 2 is made up of community members/groups that have a strong
interest in the project but cannot dedicate all the time needed to be in Tier 1. Tier 2
members are committed to becoming more involved in discussions or activities where
their particular expertise or point of view would benefit the outcome. This two tier
approach allows community members to get a feel for the project and chose their level of
commitment. The community team is supported by a five-person Steering Committee,
whose members include the EPA Region 2 representative, a Health Department
representative, the project coordinator, the project facilitator, and a rotating Tier 1
Community Team member. The Steering Committee prepares all meeting materials,
ensures that all information needed to make monthly decisions is brought to the
Community Team before each meeting, and advises the project coordinator in managing
the project. Finally, the Technical Advisory Group, composed of researchers and
scientists, is available to identify and clarify any scientific information or technical data.
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Establishing the Group Process
The facilitator needed to design a process that would encourage and enable both
community members and the grantee to participate in this community-led decision-
making process. In designing the process, the facilitator had to be mindful of two
perspectives:
• Some community members are skeptical of the ability of group processes to bring
about positive change in their communities. Hence, community members are not
accustomed to participating in groups like this and, therefore, needed to ease into
the process.
• The grantee is a regulatory agency and is accustomed to serving in the role of a
sole decision maker.
To provide participants with a big picture sense of the process, she developed a clear
process map, with specific interim goals and milestones, to help guide the group. This
helped ease community members into the process by establishing a context for
understanding where the group was relative to where it was going. To emphasize the
community's role in the project, the group also decided to make all its decisions by full
consensus of the Tier 1 members, meaning that all members agree they can live with, or
none of the members object to, the decision.
In addition to designing and managing the overall group process, the facilitator is also
responsible for structuring each community team meeting to encourage efficient and
effective decision making. She develops a clear agenda with a well defined purpose,
process, and meeting outcomes, and creates an atmosphere that encourages participation
and keeps the group focused and on track. She also draws on her technical knowledge of
PACE EH to ask probing questions when further discussion is needed.
With facilitation assistance, the community team has realized many accomplishments
during its short history. It has:
• Identified and documented the project vision, objectives, and scope of the
process;
• Strengthened community support for and ownership of the process;
• Provided a concrete illustration of a successful assessment process;
• Increased the ability of the community team to communicate the goals of the
process to others; and
• Heightened the inspiration and motivation to complete the project.
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Value of Facilitation
The facilitation team has contributed to this project's early success. By creating a
process in which the Health Department, EPA, and the community participate as equal
partners and make decisions together, the facilitation team has encouraged some
community members to recognize the potential for how their participation could result in
positive change and innovation. The efforts of the facilitation team have increased the
level of community engagement, both in terms of the number of persons involved and
their degree of participation in the project. Once community members choose to become
involved, the facilitator sustains engagement by reminding the group of where it is in the
overall process relative to where it began and its final goals. Finally, the facilitation team
assists the Health Department navigate its role as a regulatory agency and technical
advisor and its role as community member, helping the department differentiate between
its customary role as a regulatory agency and its role as a community team member.
EPA's Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center
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For more information on whether facilitation may be helpful for your project, please contact EPA's Conflict
Prevention and Resolution Center at 202-564-2922, or visit the CPRC Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/adr
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