Organizing the Community; Preparing it for Action by Phil Bartle, PhD Module Introduction Documents Included in this Organizing Module: Action Training, pushing the envelope past the usual purposes of training; 15k Forming the Executive (CIC), the community selects its managers; 16k Assessing Conditions, the community makes an appraisal; 17k Preparing a Community Action Plan (CAP), the community decides its future; 17k Project Design, proposals, outside resources, balancing self reliance with help; 21k Monitoring Arrangements, how well are we doing? 18k Organizing for Action, getting the community set up to do something. 15k How to organize a community for effective action Most educators and trainers know that learning in the classroom, listening to lectures or presentations, reading text books, are all less effective than letting the trainees learn by doing. You want the executive of the community organization to become stronger by being organized effectively and trained in the necessary skills. This module shows you how to combine action and training. With the whole community, you organize an executive. (See Organizing by Training). It may have different names, eg CBO Executive, CIC (Community Implementing Committee), Project Committee, or Development Committee. Then, with this executive, you make a detailed participatory assessment of conditions (including problems and resources) in the community. Using brainstorming techniques, you show the committee how to prepare an action plan. You then guide the executive in presenting their findings to the community as a whole. Then, using brainstorming techniques again, the community modifies (if necessary) and approves the action plan. You also explain about requesting outside resources (the skills of writing proposals), warning them of the danger of the dependency syndrome. You also train them in the importance of monitoring and have them decide on how it should be done. Finally, you help them to organize for action; their action. If you copy any text from this site, please link it back to http://www.scn.org/cmp/. Updated: 2003 March 23