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Organizational & System Capacity
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Organizational & System Capacity is critical to the success and sustainability of school health, safety & social development programs. The concept of organizational capacity can be applied to at two levels, first in defining the baseline or minimum staffing, financial and policy requirements and secondly, by defining several operational capacities that promote effectiveness.
Baseline Capacity The basic or baseline capacity of health, school and other systems to promote learning, health, safety and social development requires an essential number of staff, minimal financial resources and legislative/policy authority to operate a minimally effective and coordinated school-based or school linked approach or to implement a defined number or type of programs, services and policies. These basic capacities include the physical aspects of the schools, social supports such as parent and community involvement, essential preventive health and other services, core instruction in health, family studies, physical education, environmental studies, social studies and moral/spiritual/religious instruction and essential policies requiring schools, agencies and ministries to work together. Although there are many organizations who have advocated for particular capacities such as staffing ratios for school nurses or minimum time to be devoted to health education learning in mandated curricula, the evidence base and the actual experiences with these specific baseline capacities is not well researched nor often discussed by systems decision-makers. Operational Capacity Working with the baseline capacity summarized above, a number of operational capacities are also required within schools, neighbourhoods, agencies, ministries and systems to maintain their overall effectiveness and sustainability. These capacities include:
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This summary was first posted in June 2012. Currently it has been posted as an "excerpt/adaptation", "first draft" or "revised draft" and "first or revised edition" version..We encourage readers to submit comments or suggested edits by posting a comment on the Mini-blog & Discussion Page for this section or posting a comment below: Due to the length of Handbook Sections (similar to a book chapter) prepared for this web site and knowledge exchange program, we post these documents as separate documents. Click on this web link to access the draft or completed version on this topic. Come back to this page to post any comments or suggestions.
This summary was first posted in June 2012. Currently it has been posted as an "excerpt/adaptation", "first draft" or "revised draft" and "first or revised edition" version..We encourage readers to submit comments or suggested edits by posting a comment on the Mini-blog & Discussion Page for this section or posting a comment below: Bibliography/Toolbox on
Key research, reports and resources on this topic are highlighted below. Many of the topics in this web site also have extensive bibliographies/toolboxes (BTs) published as separate documents. Click on this web link to access the full version of our Bibliography/Toolbox on this topic. These lists use our outline for these collections that we have developed over several years of curating these materials.
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Section: Capacity & Capacity-Buildoing
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(The number of summaries completed or drafted in this section are listed below. - Overview - Key Definitions/Elements
- Organizational & System Capacity - Baseline Capacities
Use of Ecological/ Systems Approach Research Questions/ KDE Agenda |