“You Can’t Just Start and Expect It to Work”: An Investigation of Strategic Capacity Building in Community Sport Organizations

Abstract

Capacity building is a targeted approach to addressing organizational challenges by focusing development efforts on specific needs. Utilizing Millar and Doherty’s process model of capacity building, the purpose of this study was to (a) gain insight into the nature of the conditions and processes of capacity building in the community sport context and (b) examine the veracity of the proposed model. Interviews were conducted with organizational members from two community sport organizations that were purposefully chosen and happened to have introduced new programs: one that experienced successful capacity building that enhanced program and service delivery and one that experienced unsuccessful capacity building where organizational needs were not effectively addressed. Findings revealed that the thoroughness of the needs assessment, the selection of appropriate capacity building strategies, and readiness to build capacity were key factors in the (lack of) success of the capacity building efforts. Implications for practice and future research on organizational capacity building are presented.

Mobilizing capacity to achieve the mainstreaming of disability sport

“…The second, has examined how organizations go about generating or building elements of capacity to address gaps in these dimensions (Casey, Payne & Eime, 2009a;Millar & Doherty, 2018). Both of these relevant areas are introduced forthwith.…”

“…In implementing this framework, they stress that most research in the area of capacity building, seeks to understand how sport can be used as the tool to develop individuals or communities. Because of this insufficient focus on impacts at the organizational level (Millar and Doherty, 2018). We are cognizant of their recommendation to focus the unit of analysis at the organizational level, and as such this is where this current study is situated.…”

Return to community sport: leaning on evidence in turbulent times

“…Critical capacity needs frame capacity building objectives (Millar & Doherty, 2016), which may need to be prioritized in the face of complex and urgent challenges with the return to sport. Relevant strategies for building capacity should then be identified, appreciating that clubs are open to new and alternative ways of tackling challenges rather than relying on what they may have done before (Hanlon et al, 2019;Millar & Doherty, 2018). However, clubs' readiness to build capacity prior to doing so is a critical feature in its success (e.g.…”

Capacity Building in Community Stakeholder Groups for Increasing Physical Activity: Results of a Qualitative Study in Two German Communities

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study using the capacity building approach to develop and implement programs to promote physical activity of older men. Other studies used community capacity building approaches mostly for other target groups, other health promotion fields, or use core strategies differing from stakeholder group meetings [16,50,55].…”

“…A Canadian study compared the process of capacity building in two community sport organizations [55], and showed how a similar capacity building approach in different contexts can have differing results; one organization could successfully build capacity on a large scale and implement a new program, however, the other organization failed. The authors attributed this to differences in the already existing capacity.…”