Community Development services Learning Project - Reporting on Project Learning

8/14/2019 Community Development services Learning Project - Reporting on Project Learning

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which follow an outcomes measurement framework. This means we have a set of outcomes (changeswe want to happen because of people engaging in project activities) and measurable indicators(evidence that such changes are happening) that help us apply a rigorous process in documentinglearning and experience. At specific times in the project we pull back from activities and analyze thedata. As our understanding increases we adapt or adopt activities for the next stage of projectactivities.

This paper captures our learning so far in the project. The following diagram is a work-in-progress aswe attempt to create a map of our understanding of how learning from experiences in communityleads to social change.

Community Economic Development

Informed ActionPeople doing local & regional work to address

opportunities, needs and issues

Knowledge-In-Action Lifelong & Lifewide LearningWeaving theory in to action Growing our skills, knowledge &to create change at a systems level attitudes from within experiences in

work and our lives

Reflection-On-ActionAllowing us to create knowledge/theory from

our experiences and the experiences of others

Community Economic Development

3. Community Economic Development

Across Canada communities are organizing their work within comprehensive frameworks becausethey recognize that economic, environmental and social challenges are interdependent, complex andever changing. To be effective, solutions must be rooted in local knowledge and led by communitymembers. This approach is known as Community Economic Development (CED). CED promotesholistic approaches in addressing individual, community and regional levels recognizing that theselevels are interconnected. CED has emerged as an alternative to conventional approaches toeconomic development. It is founded on the belief that problems facing communities - unemployment,poverty, job loss, environmental degradation and loss of community control - need to be addressed ina holistic and participatory way 1.

1 www.cednet-rcdec.ca


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4. Learning in community settings

In this project we have been exploring how learning in community settings contributes to local peoplebeing better able to address problems facing their communities. This meant we had to reallyinvestigate what learning in community looks like. Weve also had to sort through the different types of learning that exists in community. Early on in this project we looked at the locally developedprogramming of Storytellers Foundation including their community development learningprogramming and community development service learning. We also looked at community service

learning, which is offered by many Canadian universities. Weve worked hard to understand each of these programs and to see the similarities and differences between the programs. It has been difficultbecause the naming of programs is not necessarily a shared language but rather is a name thatmakes sense to different people in their own locality.

After looking at this programming and engaging members of CCEDNet in discussions about learningin community we decided it wasnt so much programming that we needed to look at but rather anapproach to CED work that included a learning lens. Influenced by the informal education approachesof Storytellers Foundation we started to talk about the notion of introducing tool kits that outlined thisapproach to other CED organizations. We hoped that by testing these learning tools the CEDpractitioners would develop a shared language. We also believed that many of these organizationswere using learning strategies already and this would be an opportunity for peer learning. We sensed

that the practitioners involved in the testing process were probably just not naming their work in thisway and so we anticipated that by giving a name to learning approaches wed also heighten the intentof each practitioner to continue using learning as a tool for change.

We had to work hard to show examples of informal education and different ways in which to createopportunities for informal learning within CED work. We found out early on in this project that whenpeople hear the word, learning, they tend to think only of formal education.

We like the way that the Canadian Council on Learning describes the role of learning in our lives:

Learning lies at the very core of human potential. It fosters our ability to think, create and solveproblems. It enables us to envision and embrace the kind of lives we want for our children andourselves. Beginning in early childhood and continuing throughout the adult years, learning is

fundamental to our experience of being human and shapes virtually every aspect of our lives.2

This explanation of the role of learning has helped us sort through our thinking. It has also helped usname how we have used learning within this project. Community Economic Development work oftenhappens in disadvantaged neighbourhoods or communities. In these arenas people are usuallystruggling with dire, joined-up problems. By bringing a learning lens to the CED work we createopportunity for people to learn what they need when they need in a way that serves their level of understanding. For the most part we have focused on functional learning in this project. People usinglearning to meet their needs and help them address a problem faced by their community.

Through the testing of tools and reflective practice, CED practitioners have described their differentapproaches to putting a process in place, locally, that ensures those who arent engaging in public life

have support to do so. This project has, in a small way, provided support and resources for CEDpractitioners to offer a system of learning that nurtures and promotes curiosity, reflection and informedaction.

As a project team we have used two frameworks to help us understand more about learning incommunity and to guide how we reflect and use our discoveries to inform the next phase of projectactivities.

2 State of Learning in Canada: Toward a Learning Future, July 2008


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Spectrum of LearningWe have spent a lot of time thinking about definitions and contexts for learning. We have foundourselves struggling to clearly define learning boundaries. We have been concerned that our terminology and understanding of learning and its relationship to citizen engagement is somehowweak.

Lifelong and life wide

And yet, when we read academic research about learning and education we realize that there is noright answer, what there is, is different schools of thought. We lean towards the thinking of D. W.Livingstone from OISE, University of Toronto 3 in his definitions of learning outlined in a paper aboutinformal learning and adults. The following definitions were highlighted in a research paper written byHelen Colley, Phil Hodkinson & Janice Malcolm for the infed.org informal education website 4:

Formal education occurs when a teacher has the authority to determine that people

designated as requiring knowledge effectively learn a curriculum taken from a pre-established body of knowledgewhether in the form of age-graded and bureaucraticmodern school systems or elders initiating youths into traditional bodies of knowledge(p2). [page11]

Non-formal education or further education occurs when learners opt to acquire further knowledge or skill by studying voluntarily with a teacher who assists their self-determinedinterests, by using an organised curriculum, as is the case in many adult education coursesand workshops (p2).

Informal education or training occurs when teachers or mentors take responsibilityfor instructing others without sustained reference to an intentionally-organised body of knowledge in more incidental and spontaneous learning situations, such as guidingthem in acquiring job skills or in community development activities (p2).

Informal learning is any activity involving the pursuit of understanding knowledge or skillwhich occurs without the presence of externally imposed curricular criteriain any contextoutside the pre-established curricula of educative institutions (p4).

Reflective ContinuumWe have followed a reflective continuum when creating knowledge and understanding from our experiences within the various project activities. We find Joy Amulyas paper on reflective practicehelpful. In this paper Joy Amulya writes:

By developing the ability to explore and be curious about our own experiences and actions, wesuddenly open up the possibilities of purposeful learning derived not from books or experts,but from our work and our lives This is the purpose of reflection: to allow the possibility of learning through experience. 5

3 Livingstone, D.W. (2001) Adults Informal Learning: Definitions, Findings, Gaps and Future Research, Toronto:OISE/UT (NALL Working Paper No.21) athttp://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/sese/csew/nall/res/21adultsifnormallearning.htm , accessed 1 March 2002. 4 www.infed.org 5 Joy Amulya. What is Reflective Practice. Center for Reflective Community Practice, Massachusetts Institute for Technology.

Formal

Education

Non Formal

Education

Informal Education Informal Learning


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When we reflect we are allowing our experience to inform our future actions. Experience becomes our teacher. This reflective practice continuum 6 helps our understanding of reflection and it guides us aswe use reflection in this project.

ReflectivePracticeContinuum

Performance

I do

Appraisal

I unpack

Analysis

I sort

Discovery

I realize

Integration

I re-pack

InformedAction

I do with

intent

So far in this project we have been trying to stimulate interest, discussion and action on using learningwithin community work. We now want to reflect on our learning from project activities so that we canexplicitly articulate what learning in a community setting looks like and the changes that happenbecause of it. This paper is one method we are using to report out on our learning and experiences.Next, we intend to organize conversations between formal education institutions and communityorganizations about the role of learning, particularly service learning, in increasing the ability of localpeople to be better equipped to address problems facing their communities.

Before we describe what weve learned, we will describe how we have used learning within communitysettings. CCEDNet has partnered with Storytellers Foundation of Hazelton, BC to deliver projectactivities. Storytellers has been using informal education approaches to intentionally buildrelationships so that local people can work together to try and resolve problems faced by their community. The have designed learning tools that guide relationship building, action, reflection,curiosity and dialogue. The end result of this process is that people are informed in their actions wheninvolved in social, economic, cultural and environmental decision-making. And, people have increasedability to work for a common good alongside their neighbours. Storytellers has also been able tocreate theory-in-action, which allows them to be explicit in their talks and advocacy work with

government.

In the project, we are wrapping up a testing period. CED practitioners and interns across Canada havebeen using tool kits designed by Storytellers Foundation. Two tool kits have been tested:

Making the RulesThe Making the Rules tool kit is designed to train young people to be peer educators. It is astep-by-step guide for youth to lead their peers (or others) through a community developmentproject while paying attention to how engaging in community development work increasescitizenship skills and social capital.

Reflection-on-ActionThis process involves practitioners coming together on a regular basis and using a set of framing tools to document, process and explore elements of their weekly practice. The framingtools challenge a practitioner to look at goals, beliefs and influences that lie behind their practice along with the actions and consequences that their practice results in.

These tool kits use informal education methodology. That is the practitioner takes the responsibility for guiding learning that is responsive to the realties, needs and interest of the people they are workingalongside within a community project. These tool kits frame an approach rather than describe a

6 Reflection-On-Action for Literacy Practitioners: From the Ground Up Project, Ripal B.C. Anne Docherty & DeeMcRae. 2007

Point of Assessment:

What hinders me from re-packing this in to my work?

What will help me re-pack this in to my work?


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curriculum. This means the learning outcomes and the actual learning tasks are determined only oncethe group comes together to work on a project.

The testing period has given us examples of how integrating learning in to CED work looks like on theground. For example, one tester is working with street youth in an urban environment. She is usingMaking the Rules to try and support these young people so they can address the issues they face andbring the youth voice to community issues. As she supports the youth to take on a community projectshe is also supporting them to deal with daily issues that come with living on the streets. By

approaching her work with a learning lens she remembers her role is to guide learning so that theseyoung people can not only increase their skills and ability to deal with the immediate and pressingissues they face daily but to also be involved in decision making around social, economic and politicalsystems that lie at the root cause of the issues they face daily.

By bringing a learning lens to CED work the testers stay mindful of creating opportunities for people tolearn what they need when they need in a way that serves their level of understanding. This has notbeen easy. CED work is complex and people are busy meeting many needs while attempting to createchange at both a local level and a systems level. The testers in this project have struggled to find thetime to use the tools on a consistent basis. The testing phase has left us with as many questions asdiscoveries. These questions will be explored in the next phase of the project, which involvesdiscussion and demonstration projects with universities. Our learning will also be shared with our

university colleagues in attempts to use service and learning to assist local people as they try toaddress problems and build on opportunities within their neighbourhoods and communities.

5. What weve learned

As we engaged in project activities we also created forums for reflection. This has ensured a rigour inhow we track the learning from our activities. We used several collection methods to track our learningincluding on-line forums, evaluation surveys, tester feedback forms, digital stories and dialoguesessions. We collected this data from the different individuals and groups who have participated in our project activities.

Four themes are emerging from the data weve collected:

Theme One: Culture of overcommitment -- How do we stop the treadmill? Throughout the CED sector, community programs, projects and action is often delivered by stand-alone non-governmental organizations (usually not-for-profit societies).

Practitioners are often paid less than professional wages and do not receive benefits. Administrativeresponsibilities are often carried out by bookkeepers or off the side of the desk of a busy practitioner volunteer. Jobs are most often less than fulltime, resulting in workers with more than one position, atmore than one ngo. Money coming into the ngo is almost always project-based with little base fundingmoney available for staff support, capital or administration. Funding is usually based on programsuccess, participant numbers, and/or on regular and regimented reporting and almost continuousproposal writing.

Often CED work is happening in disadvantaged communities. They face real barriers in terms of human capacity to fill practitioner positions as well as barriers in terms of organizational capacity towrite the proposals, manage the projects and complete the reporting. These practitioners are doingcommunity development work that may take years to show results. In these bare bones operations,amazing projects and programs are happening. Practitioners are able to connect activities to people inmeaningful ways. Peoples lives are being changed. But at the same time, practitioners are facing realneeds in terms of training, professional development and self care, on top of trying to be all things tothe organization and the people they work with.

Issues are often intensified by the local neighbourhoods they live in; a neighbour today may be a clienttomorrow, a relative may become a client, a client may become a staff member. This creates concerns


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related to personal boundaries, ethical practice and best practice. It also means that practitioners whowork and live in these conditions need support and training to meet those specific needs andsituations.

More people are using the term culture of over-commitment for the ngo world. It is almost expectedthat if you work for an ngo you will work yourself to exhaustion. People are busy with busy work, lesstime for reflective spaces and less time to remember why they started doing this work in the first place.Some people suggest this growing busyness is because of successful advocacy work resources arenow available, government branches are more willing to engage thus a need for greater consultation,electronic communication allows for coalition and network building all good stuff but requires moretime and attention.

It seems to me that our work lives get more and more intense. There are a lot of resources beingpresently poured into initiatives we really care about, and with a focus we've been advocating for formany years. But, it's all happening at once, and seems to be all about capacity building. And, little haschanged in terms of the nature of communities and people and it's still a relatively small group that'slargely under-resourced for the long term. So, with everything coming at us at once, and with the focusthat we've been advocating for, we are trying to be responsive to rfp's, to grant dollars, toopportunities.

Tester

Others believe the opposite and see this busyness is because more people are disadvantaged, thehave nots have less and their voices are disappearing, corporate and government relationships arestronger and so the need to work at both the grass roots level and systems level is greater, fundinghas been cut and so the ngo is busy trying to operate social enterprises in order to sustain operations,government downloading has placed greater stresses on ngos.

Were busy doing services that in the past government agencies provided. We see this as downloading.So now the local non-government agency is delivering services that government services offered beforecutbacks. It is easy to get caught up with doing this because it provides fee-for-service almost likecore funds yet it takes time away from thinking of the bigger questions around purpose and long termchange.

Tester

Regardless of the reasons, many practitioners say they are busy to the point of breakdown.

Theme Two: Daily struggles faced by disadvantaged populations -- How do wesupport people to be part of the decision-making while, at the same time, support them asthey overcome immediate issues they face every day?

In her research report, Walking Alongside , Mel Sondergaard 7 talks about the importance of makingsure there is space for conversation in community development work. She notes this is especiallyimportant when engaging young adults who face tremendous personal barriers:

As youth work to make change in their community there are many opportunities for growth and learning

for life about what it takes to make change. In our (community development) project there were naturalopportunities for the youth team to explore and experience what it took to be a change agent as theyassessed the risks they were willing to take along the way, and as they were pushed to new levels of responsibility in their thinking, attitudes and actions.

This research focused on youth engagement, however, the findings are relevant to adult communitydevelopment processes. The CED practitioners we have talked with share a common belief thatregardless of how difficult their circumstances may be, people have the capacity and will to grow anddevelop. What they often need are opportunities and support to take advantage of such opportunities.

7 Walking Alongside: YouthAdult Partnerships in Making Change Mel Sondergaard, 2006


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In this project we have heard over and over how difficult it is to find the balance between supportingpeople to deal with immediate (and often crisis) issues and intentionally using learning tools so theycan bring people in to the decision-making process.

In doing this (project) we hope that the youth we work with can be active participants in how theircommunity is represented. Who knows how this could lead to positive changes?

Tester

The CED practitioners involved with this project want greater inclusiveness in community decision-making. They have described how, regardless of urban or rural, the same people show up. They arehesitant to accept the theory that decisions are made by those who show up because they are awareof what it takes to show up. And they want to see greater diversity among those in decision-makingarenas.

Attendance at visioning sessions is often low, or we see the same people at each one. Now, even if wego with the concept that those that are there, are the ones that are meant to be there, it still meansparticipatory action is not all that representative or inclusive at times.

Tester Practitioners are busy designing creative strategies to help people engage in broader learningprocesses and decision-making activities and yet are sensitive to the pressing issues that people areliving with and the realities of what that looks like in day-to-day CED work.

The main focus is whatever issue they are dealing with that day whether it be homelessness, addictions,arrests, court appearances, having there kids taken away, or whatever else happens everyday for theseguys. My main purpose is to deal with all those factors first and then if there is time we get toeverything else

Tester

We are left wondering how to balance the micro and the macro. How do we ensure that people arereceiving the support they need as they struggle with dire, immediate issues and also pay attention tosystems change? Mike Lewis, Executive Director of the Centre for Community Enterprise, pointed outin a presentation to the Canadian Community Economic Development Network membership that if wefocus solely on services to the disadvantaged then we are only supporting people to live in poverty,however, if we also pay attention to social change at the same time as meeting immediate needs thenwe are challenging the policies that created poverty in the first place. This is the systems change thatis a critical part of Community Economic Development.

Theme Three: Success is about quality relationships and capacity -- How do we find the time to build relationships that are of a nurturing nature? How do we build our capacity?

We repeatedly hear about the need for relationships. In the first discussion paper written for thisproject we reported out how CED work is done because of peoples ability to work collaboratively. The

following paragraph is taken from our first discussion paper.Collaborative acts and partnerships are at the core of community economic development work. Ashuman beings we are born into social relationships and we live in relationship with others for the rest of our lives. Our sense of self and a sense of community are formed through interaction with others.Through our conversations, and our reciprocal exchanges, we develop relationships with others. Theserelationships in turn help us create a sense of attachment, a sense of belonging and a sense of communion with others. Like dropping a pebble into a pond, there is a rippling affect that broadens outthe sense of community and our participation in it, person-by-person, interaction-by-interaction,relationship-by-relationship. These direct and informal relationships create a level of trust that isessential to creating the norms of reciprocity and building of social networks that lead to acts of


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collaboration. Trust and reciprocity are the pillars of any sound partnership. These qualities enable us totake risks and deal with the uncertainty that is inherent in community economic development efforts 8.

It takes time and capacity to build quality relationships. When we think of relationships that help tosustain CED work we appreciate how much time has been spent on building trust and solidarity. InCED work, quality relationships foster active participation. We have learned that an individual is morelikely to engage in community when they feel like part of the glue. Much of CED work is done incommunities where people feel isolated and disconnected. We have heard from CED practitionersthat there are just not enough of us doing the work. It is the same people that show up, this leads toexhaustion and questions about inclusion. Practitioners are questioning how to change the busynessso that time can be given to relationship building and capacity building. The testing period proved tobe an opportunity to slow down and intentionally build relationships while building our understandingaround purpose and intent of our work. Practitioners entered the testing period hopeful that they mightshare deeper conversations with colleagues as well as discover strategies to include more people in tobeing active participants around issues that affect their lives.

In the end though I'm not sure we are really examining if we need the initiative, if we have the capacityto build more capacity without more capacity, and if the initiative is addressing real change. I havehopes that by using the tool we can SLOW down a little and really explore the effectiveness of what weare doing. Not only the effectiveness, but the purpose - what is the reason for the work, what is it thatwe are truly trying to achieve. I'm hoping that the tool affords opportunities to have moreconversations about the latter, and if we honestly find out that what we are doing is not meeting thatpurpose, that we are able to refocus, redirect our energies.

Tester

Theme Four: Citizen involvement is central to CED -- Can CED exist without citizenengagement? How do we ensure theory-in-action so we pay attention to root causes of injustice rather than reacting to symptoms?

There are quiet (and not so quiet) discussions about the role of non-government organizations. Somepeople believe that these organizations have become delivery agents for government programs thatare under-funded and have too many gaps in a service continuum. Eric Schrage of ConcordiaUniversity suggests that, as ngos, we are no longer concerned with mobilizing people to challengeinjustice polices but instead are delivering state defined solutions and in the process have lost our passion and power.

Participants in this project believe this is true because of government cutbacks. Ngos are deliveringservices that only a few years ago were housed within government agencies. We hear the termdownloading. People within ngos that deliver such services (some examples include health care,income assistance) are so busy meeting needs of clients that they rarely stop to reflect on the bigger purpose of their work. Yet, does it have to be one or the other? Can ngos deliver services whilebuilding a movement for change?

There are excellent examples of community-based practice that focussed on and created socialchange, while delivering immediate services to a target population. The womens movement was a

consciousness raising group; the Antigonish movement included study circles; the civil rightsmovement was church sponsored literacy and discussion, and the environmental movementorganized and shifted thinking and behaviours.

The local organizing behind such movements stayed intentional and focussed on a bigger picture of change than what was presented right in front of them. Sometimes, it seems easy for a community-based organization to disconnect the daily tasks with a bigger picture of social change. And, whencommunity based organizations deliver government services as a means of funding themselves,

8 Storytellers Foundation (1998) Learning Happens Everywhere . A Final Report to the Office of Learning Technologies . Hazelton


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keeping focussed on social change, and staying true to the culture and practices of a civil societyorganization can become distant.

It seems that both practitioners and academics who study social change agree that a key ingredient inrealizing social change is citizen mobilization. And that citizen mobilization needs to be recognized asa job (or piece of work) if it is to be effective.

More learning needs to be done at home, in offices and kitchens, in the contexts where knowledge isdeployed to solve problems and add value to people's lives. (Charles Leadbeater, The Weightless Society , 2000: 226-227)

6. Creating theory-and-action

The Canadian Council on Learning stresses that like formal learning; informal learning is a necessarypart of our lives. The informality of community arenas such as worksites, clubs, churches, individualhomes, and community gathering places offer an abundance of opportunity for real-life learning. Yetthe role and purpose of informal learning is still largely unknown and untapped outside the field of education.

Research shows that although formal learning is vital, informal learningin the workplace, at home andin the communityis also important and can improve technical skills, impart specific knowledge and

develop the softer skills increasingly demanded by todays workplace. Yet informal learning and thesignificance of its contribution are largely unrecognized by governments and employers.

The testing phase of this project has given us some understanding of the role of learning within theinformal arenas of community. And, we are gaining knowledge about the impact of informal learningon change that goes beyond the immediate needs of an individual, group or neighbourhood. MargaretLedwith argues that it is critical that we take the time to build knowledge from our experiences so thatwe can create change both locally and in broader political systems.

We need to be vigilant about changes in the political context and to get better at weavingtheory into our practice. We need to be able to explain why we are doing what we are doing atany stage of the community development process, and so creating knowledge-in-action based

on practical experience9

.

We are entering the next phase of this project with increased understanding of the importance of relationships, the value of local knowledge, the need to connect action to individual and communityconditions while, at the same time, using our knowledge to inform governments of alternative solutionsto addressing local contexts. We have also a heightened appreciation of the capacity of communitymembers to learn with and from each other and how essential this is in creating the conditions for healthy, sustainable communities.

7. Next Steps

The next step in this project is to build theory based on what we have learned. This will inform the nextphase of project activities. In this next phase we will connect representatives from communityeconomic development organizations, with universities (faculty, staff, students) to explore how wecommunities can benefit from formal and informal learning. We will be looking at a program thatcombines service, learning and citizenship known as community service learning. We want to discover how we can make use of both informal and formal education so that those working in CED candevelop skills, knowledge and attitudes to apply solutions that are rooted in local knowledge and ledby community members.

9 Ledwith, Margaret (2007) 'Reclaiming the radical agenda: a critical approach to community development', Concept Vol.17,No.2, 2007, pp8-12. Reproduced in the encyclopaedia of informal education.


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The next phase starts in January 2009 with a one-day dialogue in Toronto between representatives of universities, community economic development organizations, youth and students. CCEDNet andCASCL will work closely together in this next phase. We anticipate supporting a few demonstrationprojects that will highlight the opportunities and challenges of using formal and informal learning for citizen engagement and social change.

Documents

Community Development services Learning Project - Reporting on Project Learning