<div dir="ltr"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><a href="http://bridgingpeoples.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(5,80,255);background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;display:block"><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"><img alt="image" src="https://sendfoxprod.b-cdn.net/media/qQShx1LShgxLEmc24tci9uqrGh78sgXj2ezikxg254928" width="null" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-style: none; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%; display: block; margin: auto;"></a></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">Dear Friends,</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">I am thrilled to announce that the <a href="http://bridgingpeoples.com/academy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(5,80,255);background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">Bridging Peoples online Academy</a> is now open for business!</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">Over the next nine months, we will be releasing five new courses & group coaching programs. I will be personally delivering each of these courses & group coaching programs to support you in improving your work and impact at the local level - whether you're a community worker, program manager, researcher, or MEL professional.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">Our first course is now open for enrolment: a <span style="box-sizing:border-box">4-week online course called </span><a href="https://bridgingpeoples.com/principles-of-good-local-development/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(5,80,255);text-decoration-line:none">Principles of Good Local Development</a><span style="box-sizing:border-box">. This is a general course, covering a lot of the big questions of community work, including tricky issues such as community dependency, getting past the binary of top-down and bottom-up work, and working across cultures & worldviews. The focus is on providing clear information to help you understand and analyse how your work is implemented at the local level, and the many different local factors that can lead to project success - or failure. The course is created to be accessible and practical, to support students from a range of backgrounds. But while as jargon-free as possible, rest assured that the information is all based on well-respected academic research, theories and concepts.</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:700">To celebrate the launch of the Academy, we are offering 40% discount to anyone who signs up to Principles of Good Local Development course before 24 August 2021. To redeem this offer, just apply the coupon code "LaunchLove" when you pay.</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">Our other four courses/group coaching programs are due for release over the next nine months, and you can register your interest by submitting your name and email in the relevant course page. These are:</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><ul style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 35px;color:rgb(46,54,76);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap"><li style="box-sizing:border-box;line-height:24px;margin:0px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;list-style-type:none;padding-left:0px"><a href="https://bridgingpeoples.com/theories-and-concepts-of-good-local-development/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(5,80,255);background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">Theories and Concepts of Good Local Development</a>. This is a more academic course, designed for research students or those who want more of a deep dive into the theories and concepts that underpin good local development. There are no pre-requisites for taking this course.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;line-height:24px;margin:0px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;list-style-type:none;padding-left:0px"><a href="https://bridgingpeoples.com/ldip-community-workers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(5,80,255);background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">Local Development in Practice for Community Workers</a>. This is an intensive group coaching program, to support community workers in putting community engagement ideas into practice, and adapting them to their unique work and community context. To enrol in this program, applicants must have already completed (or be enrolled in) either Principles of Good Local Development, or Theories and Concepts of Good Local Development courses.</li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;line-height:24px;margin:0px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;list-style-type:none;padding-left:0px"><a href="https://bridgingpeoples.com/ldip-program-designers-and-managers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(5,80,255);background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">Local Development in Practice for Program Designers & Managers</a>. <span style="box-sizing:border-box">This is an intensive group coaching program for people responsible for designing and managing programs for good local engagement. Participants will be supported in managing their community work staff/local partners, and adapting project design to suit their unique work and community context. To enrol in this program, applicants must have already completed (or be enrolled in) either Principles of Good Local Development, or Theories and Concepts of Good Local Development courses.</span></li><li style="box-sizing:border-box;line-height:24px;margin:0px;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;list-style-type:none;padding-left:0px"><a href="https://bridgingpeoples.com/ldip-researchers-monitoring-evaluation-specialists/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(5,80,255);text-decoration-line:none">Local Development in Practice for Researchers & MEL Specialists</a><span style="box-sizing:border-box">. This is an intensive group coaching program, to support researchers and monitoring & evaluation professionals in improving their community engagement, undertaking participatory research, and incorporating local perspectives & understandings into their work. To enrol in this program, applicants must have already completed (or be enrolled in) either Principles of Good Local Development, or Theories and Concepts of Good Local Development courses.</span></li></ul><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">The Bridging Peoples Academy is a labour of love, bringing everything we have learned through our own work, together with well-respected research conducted by experts all around the world - and packaged to support you in your work. Some of the tools that we share are not available outside the Academy: these are tools that we have created to support our own work at Bridging Peoples. I'm confident that you will find them just as useful as we do.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">One final request - please be sure to add <a href="mailto:deb@bridgingpeoples.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration-line:none">deb@bridgingpeoples.com</a> to your email contacts list… This will ensure our emails don’t end up going into your junk or spam folder.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">Yours in solidarity,</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap"><br style="box-sizing:border-box"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">Deborah Cummins</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;line-height:24px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;white-space:pre-wrap">Director, Bridging Peoples</p></div>