Above: A proud film crew makes their way through San Francisco’s agricultural land. The workshop and film project were more successful than any of us at Village Earth ever dreamed possible. The Shipibo have an increased sense of hope of achieving their collective vision for the future. Future collaboration is already being planned with Village Earth, the Inti Wayna Foundation, and Engineers Without Borders. And now the Shipibo have a documentary film that they can use internally amongst themselves as an educational tool, and also as a fundraising tool to sell to tourists or send to funding agencies. And this whole project was done with an extremely low budget with the help of many volunteers who made it possible. Now that the workshop participants have returned home, they have begun to work with their individual communities to collectively decide on their strategic directions for the future. As well many horizontal linkages were created amongst the participants and their communities, and also between the Shipibo and these other resource organizations. As well, this workshop helped to foster greater collaboration amongst NGOs working in the area. Overall, the workshop has been deemed a success by all involved.
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.
