Training as Mobilization for Community Development
by
Phil Bartle, PhD

Training Handout

The strengthening community management methodology involves community
development techniques plus community management training

Our Special Meaning of "Training:"

 The word "training" is often assumed to be only the transfer of
 skills to trainees. Encouragement is seen as a peripheral aspect. In
 community management training, it goes much further in its role of
 poverty reduction and capacity building. It also includes mobilizing
 the group to take action and organizing to increase capacity and
 strength.

 The essential elements of training in this special sense
 include:
   Awareness Raising;
   Providing Information;
   Transferring Skills;
   Stimulation or encouragement; and
   Mobilizing; and
   Organizing.

 It is the last two of those elements that make this training special;
 training AS mobilization, not merely training ABOUT mobilization.

Awareness Raising:

 Training is used as a method to raise public awareness about issues,
 eg gender awareness, environmental appropriateness, the
 revolutionary motion that poverty is not just an act of God or
 Destiny but can be changed if people are willing to take the
 necessary steps. Sensitisation in community management training
 includes letting the target groups know that we are not a charity to
 depend upon, but provide training that will assist them to help them
 selves.

Providing Information:

 When awareness raising results in a better understanding of problems
 (eg that there is gender imbalance which hinders development),
 training then complements the result by providing information that
 there are solutions to problems, so long as the target group
 participants are willing to undertake them.

Skills Transfer:

 The orthodox meaning of "training," often assumes only the skill
 transfer element. That means the trainer imparts skills to the
 trainees. The special meaning of community management training does
 not exclude skill transfer, it merely makes other elements more
 explicit.

 While some practical skills such as carpentry and masonry
 are useful, they are not urgently lacking in most communities. What
 is needed are skills in mobilizing, in planning, in resource
 identification, is assessment of needs and community priorities, in
 project design, in proposal writing, in keeping records, in simple
 project accounting, in monitoring progress, in reporting and report
 writing, and in financial reporting (accountability). The transfer
 of these management skills is one of the key purposes of community
 management training.

Stimulation:

 The encouragement of people to act on their own behalf, not to
 simply hope and wait for outside assistance, is done by letting the
 target groups know that they have the right (even the duty) and the
 ability to change things for the better. They are informed of their
 assets and admirable qualities, not criticised, and they are praised
 and recognised for their achievements. This encouragement affects
 peoples' attitudes, makes them more willing to act on their own
 behalf and altruistically on behalf of their communities.

 When a group or a community is more encouraged, it is
 stronger. (See the Elements of Community Strengthening).

And, especially:
Mobilization and Organizing:

 An important element of a community becoming more empowered, is for
 it to engage in action. Simply forming some structures (with a
 Chair, Vice, Treasurer and Secretary, for example) is not action in
 itself, such structures are means towards organizing the community
 to act.

 Mobilizing means moving; getting something done. Organizing
 to get something done effectively is important in management
 training.  This is a methodology that marries techniques from
 widely varied sources, (1) trade union organizing and (2) high level
 corporate executive management training. Both are aimed not at
 individual skill transfer but at group formation and organizing for
 increased capacity and effectiveness. (To look at the distinction
 between organizing for decision making and organizing for action,
 see the training module Organizing).

 The trainees are not merely students absorbing skills and
 information. They are participants who are already part of an
 organization, or expected to become part of an organization as a
 result of the training sessions. The sessions use such techniques as
 "The brainstorm" (See: Brainstorming Techniques) to draw out of the
 participants the purpose and goals of the group, and the most
 effective way to organize the group for (1) decision making, and (2)
 action. The output of the training is not only more informed and
 skilled trainees, but participants who are organized (or
 reorganised) and mobilized for action.

 Community management training has adapted these to community
 strengthening
 and empowering. See Management Training for more explanation of the
 mobilization and organizing aspects of management training.

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Updated: 2003 March 23