International Organizational Development

CCSR Community and Organizational Specialist Teresa Strausz, LMSW, had an opportunity to go to Bolivia in June to do organization development consulting with the nonprofit organization Hospitals of Hope. Her experience was an international component of her Master of Organization Development program at Friends University.

One of the ways the students worked with this organization involved hosting a World Café for the staff of the hospital in Cochabamba, Bolivia. World Café is an event that provides structure for creative and open conversations about topics that are important to an organization or community.

Jim Maddox, MSOD program director at Friends, posted about the World Café this group hosted. It was the first World Café documented for this country. One story he tells is particularly moving: 

A cleaning woman talks with Dr. Ricalde, Medical Director at the hospital.

"There were many thanks and a lot of hugs from participants to the hosts/facilitators. One cleaning lady, with tears streaming down her cheeks, thanked us, saying she had worked at the hospital for 7 years and this was the first time anyone had asked her ideas or what she loved about the hospital or what the hospital could become; for the first time, she was given a voice. This was powerfully moving."

If you’re interested in hosting a World Café for your organization, contact CCSR at 316-978-3843 or send us an email.

What's it like to work with CCSR?

Photo courtesy of Ramon Soto

When organizations want to work with the Center for Community Support and Research, they might have some idea of what they want to get done, but they need help figuring out how to do it. In this post over on the American Evaluation Association blog, Dr. Tara Gregory describes one creative way CCSR might help an organization complete a logic model:

"We ask participants to think of their program and its outcomes in terms of a movie trilogy. ...We specifically ask them to think of Part 1 as the story of what people experience while involved in the program; Part 2 picks up at a later date (the specific timeframe depends on the program) and reflects the progression of outcomes; and Part 3 represents the transition to 'happily ever after.'"

The American Evaluation Association is a group of evaluators committed to improving evaluation practices and methods. CCSR has ten researchers on its staff and regularly provides program evaluation services to nonprofit organizations and government agencies across Kansas.

If you are interested in CCSR's research and evaluation services, contact Dr. Tara Gregory at 316-978-3843 or email us.