CHAPTER 3

Understanding Those to Be Served and Their Communities

Learning Goals

Arthur Brooks in Social Entrepreneurship says that the knowledge an entrepreneur has about the population to be served is crucial to successful creation of new social value.¹ It is that knowledge that sets the stage for bright ideas, the something new that can stimulate the desired change.

The action of moving between issue and idea and linking to a good opportunity that can result in a viable venture concept requires two simultaneous discovery processes:

In a market-driven process, this would be described as “supply and demand” match. In social entrepreneurial processes, it is sometimes called the “social value proposition” which is the expected impact of a proposed venture on society that is achieved by fulfilling an unmet social need.²

The task at this stage is to find where the idea for action on the issue matches what the target population wants or needs. In many cases, the best a social entrepreneur can do is to determine that the service, action, or product has high potential to be what the target population wants or needs.

Choosing which idea(s) to pursue to drive the change desired must be informed by an understanding of the target population. For a purely business venture this group of people would be called the target market. To understand them, the business entrepreneur may use surveys, interviews, focus groups and more to inform the selection of strategies that will be of interest or meet the need of a specific customer.

In the social sector, this kind of information collection can also be helpful and may be included in an overall information collection plan. But there are many other factors that must be taken into account in addition to the specific interests and desires of a target market. Economic status, family status, life experiences, education level, and culture all add to a deepened understanding of those who are intended to benefit. While surveying the prospective target beneficiaries can assess the relevance of a perceived need, Kickul and Lyons caution “target beneficiaries’ responses to anything that may be of benefit to them tend to be skewed to the positive.”³ That information is only part of what is needed to guide the choices about the best approaches to take.

More broadly, the goal of the information collection strategy presented in this chapter is to provide a strong understanding of the context of the issue to be addressed. Gathering information about the target population and the community in which they live is critical to a successful opportunity selection process. As Brooks argues, gathering this kind of information is a key part of the background necessary for the creative process of generating ideas and opportunities.⁴

While many successful social entrepreneurs reach to their own life and work experience and tap into their social networks to start building understanding of target populations, a new social entrepreneur may be starting from little experience so this information collection becomes critical. In either case these early notions must be augmented by conscientious information gathering process. Both experienced and new entrepreneurs benefit from close attention to understanding those they expect to impact.

Understanding the Target Population

The target population is a group of people that are the intended beneficiaries of the social entrepreneurial venture. A target population is described by what the people have in common. It can be described by demographic characteristics, common behaviors, common problems, illnesses, geographic area of residence, etc. Target populations can also be selected for their common psychographics such as attitudes, lifestyle choices, or life experiences.

Some ventures have more than one target population and will modify the action strategies to accommodate the differences. Some ventures have primary target populations and secondary ones. For example, a program to improve academic achievement of elementary school aged children will often have a secondary target population that includes the parents of those children or those who teach them. Strategies to reach their distinct but interconnected needs make for a stronger venture with increased likelihood of success.

A target population or target beneficiaries are different from a target market in a profit driven venture.

Target Market in a Profit Driven Venture

This is a group of people that the venture has selected to target with its marketing efforts. The venture may or may not modify its product or service to match the specific needs of that target market. A measure of success in this kind of venture is that the people in the target market purchase the product or service and become loyal customers. There is a direct interaction between the target market and the venture itself often measured by the price paid for the product and the volume of purchases.⁵

Target Market in a Social Entrepreneurial Venture Becomes a Target Population

In a social entrepreneurial venture, the target population describes the people who are expected to have changed behaviors and/or changed lives as a result of the venture. Those individuals may or may not purchase the product or service directly. Often the product or service may be subsidized by resources from others, including donors, foundations, or governments.

Target Beneficiaries

For some social entrepreneurial ventures there is no direct interaction with those who benefit the most. When a well is installed in a community without access to fresh water or when a solar energy field brings electricity to a community, only the local elected officials may be directly engaged, not those who will benefit over the long term. So the phrase “target beneficiaries” is often used to describe the people whose lives will change from these kinds of social entrepreneurial ventures.

For simplicity purposes we will use the phrase target population for target population and target beneficiaries here after. The selection of the target populations often requires difficult decisions about who to begin reaching and for whom the service will be delayed for some period of time. A target population may include any of the following:

Why Understanding a Target Community Is Important

When selecting a population to target, the social entrepreneur must also take into consideration the community in which those people live, work, and socialize. The differences in community experiences within a target population can be wide ranging. An understanding of the community in which the initial population to be reached enhances the choices of approach. That community becomes the target community.

Community psychologists believe that the problem an individual experiences is defined always with awareness of the person’s environment and their own adaption to it and the specific circumstances in the ecosystem in which the person functions.⁶ Sometime viable approaches focus on the individual, but more often approaches focus on community strategies in combination with products and services directed to individuals.

Ideas generated to address an issue often include community wide strategies. Creating a community that effectively cares for all its members is a dream of many individuals and is the mission of many social institutions. Time, money, group efforts, and more are pulled together and directed at problems that affect community members. Institutions are called upon to lead an army of resources to “attack” complex community problems. Yet what it takes to resolve community problems is too often seen as a mystery. Without an understanding of how the community works, the chances of success are less.

Knowing how a community functions, how its various members take on roles and assign responsibilities, determining what roles are played by various institutions, and understanding how community change happens will improve the effect of those directed actions. Better results are likely if actions are targeted to areas that block change or are ready for change.

Building Knowledge About the Target Community

Understanding the target community includes understanding how the social systems and institutional infrastructures engage with the target population. This is crucial information for the ultimate selection of the best strategies. Understanding how a community functions requires bringing together information about individual behavior, social practice, institutional behaviors, cultural attributes, and the government policies that can encourage or block success. Without that information, the choice of approach has much higher risk of failure.

A target community is often a geographic community. The geographic boundaries of a target community are determined by the homogeneity of the environment and the community factors. In some cities for some issues, the social interactions and resources available to residents vary by neighborhood, so the target community would be a specific neighborhood. For other social issues, there is a uniformity of interactions and resources for the whole urban area. For example, food deserts have distinct geographic boundaries identified by the distance a resident is able or willing to travel to obtain food for themselves and their families. A target community for an unemployment issue analysis may be determined by the area where most unemployed live and by the reach of public transportation available to them. A target community for a K-12 education issue action is most often framed by the boundaries of the school district.

There are target communities that are widely dispersed. For example, people with a specific chronic disease may be widely dispersed across many states. Still those individuals have much experience in common that should be understood by the social entrepreneur.

A tool to sort the information was designed by Terri Barreiro in her work to assist United Way volunteers do planning for the best use of funds raised by that organization.⁷ The Community Ecosystems Circles Model provides a way to visualize the complex social systems that are at work in any given community. It identifies dominant institutions, it frames the interaction between elements of that community, it points to where social norms, community practices and laws are set, and it provides a way to focus on the best chances for change.

A social entrepreneur can use this framework to combine deeper understanding of the issue in focus with a deeper understanding of what might work best within the target community.

Using Ecology Principles to Understand Large Groups of Humans

The concept of community ecosystem is borrowed from biologists and ecologists who focus on the community of living organisms (plants, animals, and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water, and mineral soil), interacting as a system. First used for family systems thinking by Urie Bronfenbrenner,⁸ a human community as ecosystem framework has also been used by the business community. James F. Moore wrote about it in the Harvard Business Review in May/June 1993 defining “business ecosystem” as:

The Community Ecosystem Model is a reflection of a social community. Its structure will change depending on the social cultural context of the community. We will primarily use a description of the model as seen for a typical United States urban community to introduce it.

The diagram presents a view of the various elements of a complex human community ecosystem. Social practices, structures, and institutions all play roles that support or limit individual and family members of a community. By understanding the roles and interplay of these various institutions, those working to address an issue can improve the chances for success and expand on the community capacity to meet the needs of all citizens.

There are common, socially reinforced roles that people take on. For example, families often play significant roles in addressing an issue that is experienced by one or more of its members. When a child struggles in school, parents may increase the time they spend at home helping the child understand their homework assignment and encourage the child to do his or her homework. In a family where there is only one parent, the time available for this kind of attention to the child can be limited. In a family where English is not spoken at home assistance in understanding the homework may not be possible. Knowing the underlying family structure predominant in a given community helps set priorities among the ideas for action that a social entrepreneur has identified.

In any community there are formal and informal social networks that add to the resources an individual or family can turn to when in need. Extended family, friends, and neighbors are often those first turned to. Neighborhood-based resources, such as a local church may be the next to get an inquiry for help.

Using Community Ecosystem thinking also helps a social entrepreneur to gather the information about what these resources are for a target population. It also helps identify where a lack of resources may be the barrier to progress. It helps to identify potential partners and reveals opportunities. And finally this information gathering can help point to potential best avenues for actions.

The Community Ecosystem Model is depicted as a series of concentric circles (Figure 3.1). The diagram shows this interplay between the individual and those around him or her. For simplicity of visualization an individual is in the middle surrounded by the various circles of influence on them. Those circles also show the distance the institutions have from the individual and the roles those institutions play when they are healthy and effectively engaged. Each ring in the diagram can generate possible strategies needed to resolve identified issues.

Figure 3.1. Circles of support: Understanding a community ecosystem.

The Center

This is the individual. It should be noted that in the case of children, the child and the adult(s) who are totally dedicated to their nurturing are in the center. Bronfenbrenner first introduced this ecosystem model with a child focus in mind. When assessing the need of the individual in focus possible strategies can be identified just by better understanding that person. For example, improving the skills of the individual to face life’s challenges on their own may be needed. Opportunities for positive impact on the issue in focus often include direct interaction with individuals. Direct assistance or education and training offered to individuals may be the best or at least one of the necessary strategies. If all other aspects of a community are working well then this may be the only action needed.

Family Ring of Support

The family (in its broadest definition), when functioning well, is committed to the healthy growth and development of its individual members. Cultural variations in the roles and responsibilities of family members influence how this ring of support affects the problem. Improving the family’s skills and capacity to support its members may be needed and may be the best approach. The economic status of the family and the other issues the family is facing need to be taken into account when designing opportunities for family impact.

For example, action strategies can focus on the family by providing training for improved interaction, adding products to the household, stabilizing the length of time they live in the same home, or building knowledge in the family about the issue and how to counteract it.

Friends’ and Neighbors’ Ring of Support

Sometimes the help of close friends and neighbors is needed to face life’s challenges or to improve skills. These are people that families and individuals feel they can call on often and in a crisis. Equipping these individuals to be successful in the assistance they give can be effective parts of strategies selected. Expanding this network of support for individuals and families is also sometimes needed. Cultural differences in size and influence of this group should be considered as solutions are suggested.

Community/Neighborhood Institutions of Support

Churches, synagogues and mosques, schools, YMCAs, YWCAs, Scouts, community centers, and even the local retailer all provide more formal ways for individuals and families to regularly connect with others and to learn, grow and meet their own variety of needs for living. Assessing the prevalence of these important institutions as well as assessing what they may have contributed to the problem is a critical step in selecting the right mix of strategies to address an issue. Institutions may need to be created, expanded, strengthened, or updated to meet the needs of those they should be supporting. Understanding the cultural variations in the roles played by various institutions is essential to successful problem solving.

Professional and Interventive Services

Hospitals, counseling services, chemical dependency treatment centers, foster homes, and courts are examples of needed professional services. These institutions step in when the help needed is beyond the skills of a layperson or a community organization. Some communities do not have the necessary interventive services available to them. Others may have an overabundance of these services, which then can become overused to the detriment of the family and community. An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the professional and interventive institutions accessible to the target audience will enhance the knowledge needed to determine the best set of strategies to address an issue.

Policy Support

Governments set policies that direct and set limitations on how institutions operate. Policies define how the various circles of support interact with one another and ultimately support the individual and family. Sometimes policies need to be set or changed to improve how the individual and family are supported. Public policy also defines community standards for how individuals are expected to relate to one another. These may also need to be changed. Chapter 4 provides a guide for analyzing the policy contours of an issue and a means to assess ideas to determine the best opportunities for impact.

Public Values and Will

General public values create an atmosphere within which all these community ecology elements function. Prejudices, biases, myths, and cultural folklore are all part of the ecosystem that needs to be studied. These public attitudes are informed and reflected through the media, community dialogue, etc. Public will can encourage or discourage new approaches. Sometimes a strategy needs to be added to the approach to provide the general public new information, reminders of facts, or tools to debunk myths.

Gathering the Necessary Information; Doing the Research

Once an issue has been identified, a general target population has been selected and an array of ideas have been drafted it is time to study the community within which the target population functions.

Interviewing those living or working in the community or those who have studied it can be a way to gather important information. Appreciative Inquiry is a form of inquiry that works well in these kinds of information gathering processes as it starts with asking about the positives. David Cooperrider of Case Western Reserve University developed this method for use in organizational development in the mid-1980s. Appreciative Inquiry is a guided exploration of where an organization, a population or community is, wants to be and dreams to be. It concludes with specific statements that are grounded in the real experience and personal history.⁹ More can be found about this tool at www.appreciativeinquiry.case.edu.

Other steps to be taken include reading local newspapers or news websites as well as more traditional research literature searches.

As you frame a plan to collect the necessary information, it is best to determine what is critical to your future understanding of the target population and the ecosystem around it for the specific issue in focus. Key questions should guide this information gathering for each ring in the model:

Figure 3.2 reflects what the discussion of one issue can uncover when the social ecology model provides focus.

Figure 3.2. Issue: Too many children are dropping out of school in a poverty-stricken area of the city and too many are not completing high school.

Often during the information collection process and in interviews of larger group discussions there is a request for additional facts that are not readily available. Sometimes the best approach for this collection of important information is to make it part of the set of strategies selected to implement in the social entrepreneurial venture.

Awareness of important available resources for implementation often emerges during this process as well. A quick mapping of resources can help to see where strategies may need to be focused and where possible resources and partners may be found. Figure 3.3 shows resources that could be applied to addressing school success in a specific community.

Figure 3.3. Ecosystem snapshot: School success resources and barriers.

Partnering for Greater Impact

When a community ecosystem model is completed, a new understanding of the target community and its behaviors around an issue is formed. In addition a new set of partner resources can also be discovered. Local communities often have an array of institutional resources that can be recruited for action. Those resources can be recruited to join in the efforts to be launched or recognized as available relieving the necessity of initiating a needed action.

Following is the list that shows the kinds of resources that can be identified while doing a community assessment. During the community information collection process attention should be given to finding these kinds of services.

Educational Programs, Information, and Referral Services

These kinds of services provide individuals, families, or neighbors the information they need about an issue and details about how to connect with existing community services or Interventive services. If such services are not available extra work may be needed to ensure this information is collected and available. Enabling the individual to change themselves along with informal assistance around them can be good solution for a portion of the target population.

Existing Institutions and Services

As the community information collection focuses on this circle more in-depth information may be needed. This tally could include: where existing services are, what they do, any admission requirements, facilities, fees and some information about service quality such as customer reviews. Names, areas of expertise, and contact information are also critical. Once you know the services that are currently available for individuals and families the social entrepreneur may be able to use their space, talents, administrative services, and more to reduce program costs and increase impact. In addition this information defines the local “industry” that the social entrepreneur will be operating within.

New Program Host Possibilities

Sometimes the best solution is a new program model that does not exist in the community. Sometimes a local social service is willing to take on the role of home base for the effort.

Research Sources

Sometimes additional more in-depth information or research is needed. Local government offices, higher education institutions, United Ways, Community Foundations or city, county or state governments are good places to contact to determine if the needed information is already available or they can be encouraged to can do added research.

Public Awareness Education

What institutions are ones that are trusted by the community as an information source? What public information has been given to the community about this issue? Often the community is not aware of the scope or seriousness of the issue or that there are solutions. Partnering with a respected organization that is the expert at getting the attention of the total community can be instrumental in creating momentum to act on the issue.

Ecosystems Can Vary Widely from Community to Community and from Culture to Culture

As we said earlier the tool is introduced here with a United States urban community in mind. The ecosystem framework itself changes depending on the kind of community in focus. The first aspect of community to understand is to determine what elements are in a specific community ecosystem. The array of elements and their interrelationship should reflect the actual ecological environment of the society. Within a given society or social group the elements of the ecosystem tend to be similar in their role and in the relationships among them. But between different societies or social groups the constituents’ ecosystems can vary markedly. These unique ecosystem distinctions can easily be found between social classes, ethnic and religious groups and entire societies.¹⁰

Cultures have significant variations in how a community ecosystem functions. Staff from the United Way of Halifax created a version of the basic template to better reflect the First Nation communities they work with in Nova Scotia, shown in figure 3.4. Here the family is the core, and the individual is always considered within the family context. Instead of the friends and local neighborhoods elements of the ecosystem it is the nation or tribe itself that plays both roles in these tight knit communities. Any social entrepreneurial venture would need to gain support and a strong relationship with the nation and its leadership. In this case the information collected would be sorted differently to reflect the community ecosystem reflected below.

Figure 3.4. Illustration: Community ecosystem map adapted for first nations in Nova Scotia.

Summary

This chapter challenges the social entrepreneur to engage deeply with the populations to be served and to build an understanding of how the community in which they live operates. It guides the social entrepreneur to assess the social ecosystem of the target community. It argues that understanding the interactions between those to be directly reached and those around them is integral in affecting long-term change. It argues that the social entrepreneur can better focus strategy selection after taking on this study and analysis. And it provides a visual framework, Figure 3.1, that is easy to use in summarizing that analysis.

Venture Development Questions