Center for Participatory Change
PublicationsCPC's publications aim to influence the way that grassroots organizing and community building is practiced locally, nationally and globally. We are committed to thorough evaluation--both of our own work and that of our grassroots partners--and we use publications to disseminate the lessons and skills we have learned.
Annual Reports. Since 2004, CPC has published an annual report that highlights our work, growth, and finances over the previous year. Annual reports are available online or by request.
Evaluations. CPC staff and volunteers periodically conduct surveys and interviews to explore what we are doing well and what we can do better. This qualitative evaluation is analyzed and published in documents called 'evaluation briefs'.
Features and Case Studies. CPC's learning is rooted in our experience working with grassroots organizations in Western North Carolina. We occasionally will produce special publications or case studies to highlight an event or organization whose lessons were particularly important to us, and we believe to the field of social justice.
Mountain Views. CPC's quarterly newsletter, Mountain Views, includes stories about our grassroots partners, profiles of community leaders, information about CPC programs, and how-to articles that teach skills and techniques for effective community and nonprofit work. Mountain Views is available free to U.S. residents, although donations to help cover printing and mailing costs are welcomed. Request Mountain Views by emailing us your name and address.
Capacity Building Brochures. CPC's Capacity Building Program publishes brief, informative brochures on a wide range of topics related to organizing grassroots efforts and building nonprofit organizations. We use these brochures to complement training sessions, and they are written as easy-to-use, hands-on guides for people building their skills and learning new techniques.
Professional Publications and Presentations. Professional articles convey theory and practice guidelines to professionals interested in grassroots community work. Working papers are more practice-oriented publications, targeted at grassroots leaders who can put these lessons to work.
Annual Reports Since 2004, CPC has published an annual report that features our work over the past year, major internal and external changes in the organization, and a report of income and expenses.
Evaluation CPC evaluates its work to better understand what we do and to better understand what changes we are helping make in people, the groups they work in, and their communities.
We do our evaluation work by going to the people we work with - our grassroots partners - and having conversations with them about our work. We tape record these conversations, then look at them carefully for the key points that our grassroots partners made about our work and its impacts. These are summarized (with quotes that illustrate the key points) in our Evaluation Publications.
This kind of evaluation, called qualitative evaluation, helps us figure out how to make our work stronger, building on what people say is particularly helpful, and by working harder in the areas where our grassroots partners suggest improvement.
Since 2000, CPC has carried out three evaluation projects and published four evaluation reports. The three evaluation projects (in 2001, 2003, and 2005) were conducted by Dr. Terry Gibson of the Department of Social Work at Western Carolina University (the 2003 evaluation), Lisa Johnson, a Ph.D. student in Social Work at the University of Louisville (the 2005 evaluation), and CPC’s Paul Castelloe. The reports from these evaluation projects tell the story of CPC’s work and its impacts in rich detail, and CPC uses these detailed evaluations to strengthen our work and guide our growth as an organization.
We also make these publications available as our contribution to the emerging body of literature documenting the importance of grassroots support in social change efforts.
Outcomes in Grassroots Support: 2006 Conversations with CPC's Grassroots Partners (2006)
Summary of Evaluation Briefs: 2002
Outcomes in Grassroots Support Work: Conversations with CPC's Grassroots Partners (2002)
Features and Case Studies CPC's learning is rooted in our experience working with grassroots organizations in Western North Carolina. We occasionally will produce special publications or case studies to highlight an event or organization whose lessons were particularly important to us, and we believe to the field of social justice.
Participation in a Grassroots Latino Center: A Case Study of Centro de Enlace of Yancey County, NC
Professional and Academic Articles and Presentations CPC believes it is critical to share the skills and approaches we are learning with teachers and other professionals around the world, in order to continue improving and deepening the field of participatory development. These papers, which were published in a range of professional journals, share CPC’s unique work with statewide, national and international audiences of both academics and practitioners. Click on the title to download the article in Adobe Acrobat format.
Grassroots Support Organizing in Western North Carolina: The Center for Participatory Change
Grassroots support organizing refers to the work of helping strengthen the web of grassroots groups, leaders, and networks that exists across a region. This paper looks at one particular approach to grassroots support organizing, developed at the Center for Participatory Change.
Charity and Reciprocity: Stories of Giving and Transformation
MANNA FoodBank Stone Soup Series 2007 Keynote Address
by Craig White, Center for Participatory Change
“Participatory Change: An Integrative Approach to Community Practice,” by Paul Castelloe, Thomas Watson, and Craig White, was published in the Journal of Community Practice. This paper features the most in-depth explanation of CPC's model, including its roots in community organizing, popular education, and participatory development; its underlying values and core principles; and ten steps in the participatory change process.
“Participatory Development: Approaches from the Global South and the United States,” by Josh Prokopy and Paul Castelloe, appeared in the Journal of the Community Development Society (JCDS). This paper reviews models of participatory development used in the global South and in the US, then develops a set of practice principles for nonprofit organizations aiming to make their work more participatory.
"Participatory Development: Supporting Local Grassroots Efforts," by Paul Castelloe, was published in a special edition of the North Carolina Geographer that focused on Remaking Tobacco-Dependent Communities. This paper, which was also presented at a conference at Eastern Carolina University, highlights the principles and processes of CPC's model of participatory development, and applies those to agriculture-based economic development efforts.
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