Developing effective projects

Connecting with your local community and identifying potential projects can be challenging. Assessing your community’s strengths, weaknesses, needs, and assets is an essential first step in planning  an effective project. By taking time to learn about your community, you can discover the most relevant opportunities for projects and maximise your club’s ability to  make a meaningful impact. 

A community assessment can help you get a better understanding of the dynamics of your community and help both you and the beneficiaries make important decisions  about service priorities. Even if you’re actively involved in your community, an assessment can reveal additional strengths and opportunities for growth.  Perhaps you’ll find a new way to address a known issue. Before you start an assessment, consider what you specifically want to learn about your community.  An effective assessment will reveal things you did not know before. Doing an assessment also helps you build valuable relationships and encourages community members to actively  participate in making lasting improvements. It’s a critical first step in creating trust, community ownership, and sustainability.

Project management

A project is a temporary and unique endeavour designed to produce a product, service, or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or available people) undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value (Wikipedia accessed 24 April 2023).

MyRotary has a wealth of resources to help you plan a project, acquire the resources you need, implementing the project and promoting it, and then evaluating its results. It will help make your project successful whether it's local or international and whether it's funded by a club, a grant from The Rotary Foundation, or outside sources. Find out more. Projects should be aligned to Rotary's key areas of focus