Village Earth is proud to announce that we have selected a winner for our first VE Grassroots Scholarship to attend one of our online community-based development training courses. Grace Wairimu Ndungu is 36 years old and works in Kenya for an organization called Youth Action for Rural Development (YARD). As a project officer, she works on their orphans and vulnerable children project. With over six years of experience in community work, she holds a diploma in community development and several certificates in child-related courses and HIV management. Most of the beneficiaries she works with are either affected or infected by HIV. She focuses on children as the point of entry to working with the entire household. These beneficiaries are identified with the help of community members, teachers and leaders. You can read more about Grace’s organization here. While working in the community, Grace has come across cases of gender disparity in development. For this reason, she has decided to attend Village Earth’s Gender Equity in Development to learn more about addressing some of these issues. If you are interested in learning how to sponsor a grassroots community organizer or aid worker like Grace to attend a training course through the VE Grassroots Scholarship program, please contact Jamie Way at [email protected]
GSLL 1501 – Approaches to Community Development
This course provides a framework for community development based on a participatory, bottom-up, multi-sector model. Various approaches have been used in community development with varying degrees of success. One approach that has consistently demonstrated effectiveness is the Village Earth model based on participatory practices.
Through personal and structural empowerment, the objectives of economic well-being, environmental sustainability, and socio-cultural vitalization can be met. By looking at an overview of the entire development process and using case studies, this course will prepare participants to work in the field of community development and illuminate how all of the development efforts fit together to support the overall goal of sustainability.
Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:
Compare different development approaches and evaluate their effectiveness.
Understand the basic principles that underlie sustainable development.
Incorporate participatory practices into community development activities
Design a development project based on the Village Earth model
Who should take this course? This course is suited for people who are interested in community development and work or plan to work in this field. This includes people working or volunteering at NGOs, NPOs, governmental organizations, without border organizations, or missionary organizations. In addition, people involved in funding community development projects benefit from this course.