Our First Year of Community Technology Partnerships

What is a CTP?

Community Technology Partnerships represent an approach developed since 2016 to help communities connect without relying on corporate platforms. The foundational concept uses PlaceCal, a tool designed to function as a simple, community-owned events calendar.

The core philosophy: “Disadvantaged communities and their people are not the problem – they are the solution.” This perspective shaped how the initiative shifted its priorities during the first year as communities expressed more interest in practical tools than additional frameworks.

Year One Realities

Initial expectations didn’t match ground-level needs. Rather than establishing formal partnerships, communities requested immediate access to functioning technology. The overwhelming demand centered on event discovery and calendar management—essentially what people valued about Facebook Events before that platform’s decline.

The project encountered significant headwinds: pandemic aftereffects, cost-of-living crises, sector-wide burnout, and institutional capacity constraints all complicated community organizing work.

Key Findings

A critical insight emerged: “there is no meaningful dividing line between what is experienced as a social problem and what is experienced as a technical one.” Organizing a yoga class involves addressing space access, social networks, finances, and technical promotion simultaneously. These dimensions remain inseparable in practice.

Community Organizers Are Essential

Rather than institution-led initiatives, successful work centered on existing community organizers—individuals already maintaining informal networks and possessing trusted relationships within their areas. These “curators” maintained calendars by interest (home education, yoga, food banking) and demonstrated capacity to expand their coordination work.

Four-Level Impact Framework

The initiative targets change across interconnected levels:

Grassroots: Activist-led community work
Niche: Local partnerships around shared interests
Regime: Networks connecting these partnerships
Landscape: Policy frameworks enabling community activity

Barriers to Digital Participation

Community groups face overlapping obstacles: venue access costs, limited social capital, financial constraints, and technical confidence gaps. Many possessed technical skill but lacked confidence to attempt new tools, particularly after pandemic-induced digital fatigue.

Practical Learning

Support Mechanisms Matter

One team member noted: “providing a space where people could ‘have a go’, ask ‘silly’ questions, and do it together, showed people they were more tech savvy then they thought.” Hands-on, low-pressure assistance proved invaluable for building trust and capability.

Data Management Is Fundamental

Community data practices remain largely dysfunctional. Mass email lists, unmanageable contact records, and unclear consent systems characterize current operations. PlaceCal attempts addressing these issues through transparent, person-controlled information management using basic database principles (create, read, update, delete).

Geographic Assumptions Required Revision

Initial plans assumed ward-level hyperlocal organization would drive engagement. Reality demonstrated that interest-based communities (trans groups, holistic practitioners) operating across wider areas showed greater motivation to coordinate through PlaceCal.

Numbers from Year One (May 2022–April 2023)

86 partner sign-ups
4 live PlaceCal sites operational
6 additional sites under active development
50+ inquiries from additional organizations

What’s Required Going Forward

The work demands new organizational approaches balancing community needs, developer capacity, funder expectations, and sustainable operations. The initiative seeks philanthropic partners who recognize that previous “digital inclusion” investments often failed to integrate meaningfully with community work.

Supporting communities to coordinate themselves requires sustained, human-centered assistance alongside appropriate technology—and neither works effectively in isolation.