The Community Diagnostics and Social Impact Toolkit: Development and Validation of a Reliable Measure

Abstract

Although there are questions concerning the extent of the problems facing rural Americans, there is considerable evidence that many nonmetropolitan communities are facing a multitude of serious challenges. These issues do not exist as distinct and unrelated problems. For instance, one cannot focus exclusively on depopulation without also confronting economic decline and lack of employment opportunities, deteriorating social bonds, cultural atrophy, decaying infrastructure, and so on. Rural communities are systems in which each problem is linked, and managing these issues requires a holistic approach. Despite the need for robust diagnostic tools to support agricultural educators to work with communities there has been a notable gap in empirical tools to do so. The purpose of the study was to develop and validate an instrument to gauge community perceptions according to the Community Capitals Framework. The results of the study found the proposed instrument demonstrated content, response process, and internal structure validity based on a pilot of six counties in Georgia. Furthermore, the scale demonstrated initial consequential validity based on county level comparisons and statistically significant observed differences.

Do Community Capitals Influence Climate Adaptation? Critique of Financial, Physical, Human and Social Capital in the Adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture Technologies among Smallholder Farming Community in Lamu County, Kenya

“…Based on established social science standards, an observed value of 0.70 or above should be considered acceptable (Lamm et al, 2020). In comparison to the literature, the Cronbach's Alpha of all set of questions on a variable was above 0.70 and a response rate of 82.3 were typically satisfactory.…”

Insights into Rural Stress: Using the Community Capitals Framework to Help Inform Rural Policies and Interventions

“…Political capital is defined as an individual's access to personal and structured power, as well as group capacity to take collective action [12,13]. Natural capital is understood to be a community's natural assets, both renewable and non-renewable [16], while built capital refers to a community's manufactured and structured assets [17]. Finally, financial capital is defined as the monetary assets available to individuals for community improvement [12].…”

“…To quantify community capital stocks, Lamm, Borron et al [17] developed the Community Diagnostics and Social Impact Toolkit (CD + SI TM Toolkit), which measures capital assets through community perceptions. Completing such evaluations prior to program administration provides professionals with a "baseline set of data that serves as a diagnostic tool for a targeted community" [12] (p. 84).…”

“…Completing such evaluations prior to program administration provides professionals with a "baseline set of data that serves as a diagnostic tool for a targeted community" [12] (p. 84). With this baseline data, professionals can identify critical entry points within a community that can be leveraged to inform program development, research design, and policy intervention [13,17]. Personal agency, or an individual's ability to act within an existing structure, may be combined with community capital perceptions to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a community and its assets [17].…”