Community partner case studies

You are here: Gathering data > Community partners > Community partner case studies

An effective community partner case study describes how the work of the CLC:

Who to involve in writing case studies?

CLC team members that undertook the activities
Community organisation partners that were involved in the problem or the activities
Clients.

The essential elements of a case study describe...

PROBLEM | SOLUTION | RESULT/OUTCOME

PROBLEM

Describe the problem within the broader social context and how the problem was a threat to commonly held values e.g. access to justice, voice, security, fairness, opportunity
Situate the problem as part of a bigger social problem e.g. homelessness, violence against women, police targeting marginalized groups, mortgage stress
Describe how the community partner was part of identifying the problem.

SOLUTION

Describe the activities that the CLC undertook and how they added value in addressing the problem
Highlight the quality and the relevance of the activities and how the activities were best suited to solving the problem.

RESULT or OUTCOME

Describe the changes or improvements that were made as a result of the CLC's activities.
The end of the case study should be able finish the sentence, 'Now that the problem is solved…'

DO:

Choose individual stories that suggest that they are symptomatic of a bigger problem so that the individual is not the problem
Describe the impact of the problem on people’s lives and communities
Describe how the relationship with the community partner was formed
Provide an overview of the activities that summarises why the CLC was best placed to help solve the problem, rather than another organisation
Emphasise that the relationship with community partner was critical to solving the problem
Include a testimonial from a stakeholder (community partner, client)
Describe the change from different perspectives such as the client’s, the community partner’s, other government or non-government organisations
Refer to the major area of impact and how it was specifically achieved in this case:
- Improved access to legal education to the community and partners and/or
- Increased capacity of community partners to meet legal needs of the community.

DON'T:

Provide so much background information it dilutes the impact of the CLC's work on the problem
Provide a blow-by-blow description of the activities undertaken by your centre
Use a testimonial as the outcome e.g. 'the client was happy that their legal problem was solved' is not an outcome that describes the change created.

Three example case studies have been generated for you as examples to follow.