Mentor discussion: Learning from past successes

One way to investigate what you define as success is to think about examples of community efforts that were successful in the past. For example, in one rural Montana community, a high school student had a car accident that left him unable to use his legs. A group of men who work in construction donated their time and materials to build a ramp to the front entrance of the high school gym.

Examples of success criteria

• Increased awareness of a problem and solutions
• Improved outcomes (health, participation, access to affordable housing)
• Increased services delivered
• Structural changes (system, services, infrastructure, built environment)
• Increased/improved relationships
• Increased program participation
• Increased access to other services (health care, food benefits)