[TimorLesteStudies] Online Course: Strengthen your Community Engagement skills

[Deborah Cummins]

Dear friends,


I’m excited to announce that our flagship online course, the Principles of
Good Local Development course
<https://bridgingpeoples.com/principles-of-good-local-development/>, is now
open for enrolment!


Enrolment for this round closes 6 April 2023.


What’s it about?


Principles of Good Local Development is for anyone wanting to learn the
fundamental principles of working effectively and sustainably at the local
level. It’s a practical course, designed to support people working in a
range of positions—from community workers, to program designers, to
researcher/MEL specialists conducting assessments at the community level.
Students join from all over the world, and there are opportunities for
networking and learning from each other.


Here’s a brief overview of the core modules that are covered in this
four-week course:

1.    Why do projects fail?

2.    Understanding the binary of top-down and bottom-up

3.    Moving beyond top-down and bottom-up approaches

4.    Taking a charity vs justice-based approach

5.    Sharing decision-making power

6.    Addressing community dependency

7.    Working across worldviews, cultures & customary law

8.    The Bridging Peoples Framework to localising project design


Also included are these bonus offerings:

9.    Masterclass: community organising (including a case study of
community organising in Syria)

10. Masterclass: working with hybrid systems of local governance (including
customary and/or religious governance that co-exist with state-based
governance.)

11. Case study: using the power-sharing spectrum to assess a community
health initiative in SE Asia.

12. Case study: applying the Bridging Peoples Framework to improve
community outreach & engagement of a public health initiative in East
Africa.



How does it work?



The course runs for 4 weeks, and is flexibly designed for people working
full-time jobs. Students often find that they need a bit more time to go
through all of the exercises, which is why I give 6 months’ ongoing access
to course materials, at the end of the 4 weeks. I also continue to be
available during this time, to answer questions and give other support.



The Principles of Good Local Development course
<https://bridgingpeoples.com/principles-of-good-local-development/> works
really well for teams. Going through the course together helps team members
to speak the same ‘community engagement’ language, and figure out ways to
collaborate for better local impact. This is why I offer a 10% discount for
groups of 3 or more.



I designed the course to cater to different levels: it’s just as relevant
for program managers as for people just starting out. The concepts are all
the same, but there are different sections in the course that cater for
more experienced program managers who want to support their teams in
improving their overall impact at the local level. If you are a program
manager enrolling your team in this course, I recommend you also consider
joining them.



What are the course outcomes?



By the end of the course, students will be able to:


✅ Analyse the top-down and bottom-up elements to your, and other
organisations', work - and trace the factors leading to this situation.


✅ Recognise charity-based versus justice-based approaches in your sector,
and develop strategies to working in greater solidarity with community
members.


✅ Understand the real contributing factors to the problem of community
dependency, how this intersects with the saviour complex, and how to
address these issues in your own work.


✅ Measure the extent to which you and your organisation share power with
community members, and develop a strategy to open up your project to
greater community involvement.


✅ Understand the importance of customary/traditional law & religious and
cultural norms, and engage effectively with these systems as part of your
basic operating environment.


✅ Reach beyond the local leadership, to engage more deeply with other
sectors of the community in a manner that is legitimate and effective.



Want a test run, without the commitment?



We also have a free 3-part mini-course How To Work Better Locally
<https://bridgingpeoples.com/how-to-work-better-locally/>, which gives a
good insight into the types of topics that we discuss. It’s hosted on the
same platform as our other courses, to help you decide whether this style
of learning will work for you and your team. Just go to How To Work Better
Locally <https://bridgingpeoples.com/how-to-work-better-locally/>, enter
your name and email address, and get started!



Any questions? Just let me know


If you have any questions, please just get in touch with me at
deborah at bridgingpeoples.com.


Looking forward to hearing from you.


In solidarity,

[image: image]


Deborah Cummins,

Director, Bridging Peoples


NB. We also have 3-day in-person courses in Tetun for people living in Dili
- this one is online, in English, and for people anywhere in the world.
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