The Community Action Workshop Manual provides a proven and successful process for cooperative community project planning applicable to a wide range of environment and development issues. An invaluable resource for groups seeking to move from concern to action, the manual contains activities, facilitation strategies, and stepwise instructions to run a successful Community Action Workshop. This Manual provides you with all the material you'll need to run a successful Workshop: group process skills, facilitation strategies, and step-by-step instructions for each activity of the Workshop. It was developed with input from a broad range of experts in education, community capacity building, program facilitation and environmental issues.
The Community Action Workshop
The workshop provides a proven and successful process to work together to learn more about a selected environmental issue, identify community assets and needs, articulate a vision to solve a particular problem of your choice, and develop an action strategy. It is divided into five modules to make it as flexible as possible: a Pre-Planning Module provides you with detailed instructions on preparing to run the modules that follow. Together Understanding the Big Picture, Focusing Our Community Vision and Moving from Action to Awareness form the heart of the Workshop; and finally, a follow-up module ensures your group has a clear strategy for implementing your local initiative. You'll find agendas for each module in the Workshop Agenda. During the course of this Workshop you'll be encouraged to draw upon your skills and knowledge, cooperatively with other group members. By the end, you'll be ready to launch a practical and innovative project tailored to the environmental needs of your community. You'll find the Workshop is designed to work best for established groups with a shared purpose, but it can be adapted to meet your particular needs. This program can benefit many different types of organizations, including elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools and institutions; environment and community development groups; government departments at all levels; First Nations communities; and international organizations.
The Community Action Workshop Manual provides you with all the material you'll need to run a successful Workshop: group process skills, facilitation strategies, and step- by-step instructions for each activity of the Workshop. It was developed with input from a broad range of experts in education, community capacity building, program facilitation and environmental issues. We hope you'll find it a valuable planning resource and a comprehensive guide to leading your Community Action Workshop. Whatever issue you choose as the focus for your Workshop, you'll find the Background Reading: Sustainable Societies in a Global Village provides an excellent introduction to sustainable development. The heart of the Manual is the Community Action Workshop section. Finally, the Participant's Workbook contains all the materials your group members will need to prepare for the Workshop and take part in each activity.
To provide you with information on specific issues Harmony Foundation has and is continuing to develop a series of Profiles for Community Action. There is an array of tools available to you through Harmony's Building Sustainable Societies program on water, climate change, biodiversity, greening cities and more, excellent companions to the highly acclaimed Community Action Workshop Manual to help organize and plan your projects.
