Unit overview

Below are a number of units that have been incorporated into the Living Earth Network’s Training programmes.

Local Government’s Role in Effecting Positive Change

The key objectives of this unit are to:

  1. Understand the structure and role of local government, its limits and the constraints it faces in providing effective services
  2. Understand their roles and responsibilities within local government
  3. Understand how to determine and prioritise the various needs and demands on local government being expressed by local people
  4. Understand the concept of transparency and their role in promoting good practice.
  5. Recognise the effectiveness of their own work and how to make improvements.

Involving People in Community Groups

The key objectives of this unit are to:

  1. Understanding the nature and role of community groups and how to promote effective community participation.
  2. Understanding how to engage with community groups and with marginalised groups in the local area.
  3. Understanding how to determine the level of community representation and the need to involve all sections of communities.
  4. Understanding how to create an enabling environment to encourage people to get involved.
  5. Identifying learning needs within community groups.
  6. Recognise the effectiveness of measures/indicators have been developed which try to identify the level of community involvement and how to make improvements.

Identifying Needs in Communities

The key objectives of this unit are to:

  1. Understand the significance of who determines the needs of communities.
  2. Understand current issues in determining the needs of communities.
  3. Understand the issues to be resolved before undertaking a community profile/appraisal.
  4. Recognise the stages involved in planning and implementing community profiling/appraisal.
  5. Know methods for handling information and its dissemination.
  6. Understand the importance of evaluating community profiles/appraisals.

Identifying Sustainable Development

The key objectives of this unit are to:

  1. Understand the different functions of the environment in a community.
  2. Understand what sustainable development means to a community.
  3. Understand the tensions between development and the natural environment.
  4. Facilitate an appraisal of a community’s use of natural resources.
  5. Understand the purposes of communication in raising awareness of sustainability.
  6. Understand how involving different stakeholders can help resolve
    environmental issues.

Organising and Managing a Community Project

The key objectives of this unit are to:

  1. Understand the different stages of organising and managing a community project.
  2. Work with others and communicate effectively.
  3. Demonstrate organisational and interpersonal skills.
  4. Understand health and safety issues relating to the project.
  5. Understand of the value of promoting the project and the ability to prepare a selection of material, which will promote your project.
  6. Review work for this project.

Community Consultation, Purpose and Process

The key objectives of this unit are to:

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the value of community consultation.
  2. Demonstrate an understanding of the role of community consultation in relation to community economic regeneration.
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of the methodology used to achieve an effective consultation process.

Effective Partnership Working

The key objectives of this unit are to:

  1. Understand the rationale behind different partnerships and the reasons why different sectors (public, private, voluntary, community) become involved.
  2. Understand the different models of informal and formal partnership arrangement.
  3. Understand the implications for community groups or organisations in becoming involved in partnership arrangement.
  4. Understand the techniques and approaches to involving people and organisations in partnerships.
  5. Understand the potential for conflict between members of partnerships and ways to defuse and tackle conflict constructively.
  6. Recognise what constitutes good decision making processes and accountability.

Funding and Resources for Community Groups

The key objectives of this unit are to:

  1. Understand how to determine the resource needs of a community group/network.
  2. Understand the key components of a funding and resource strategy.
  3. Understand how to gather and use information on opportunities for funding and resources.
  4. Understand how to prepare a funding application to meet funders’ requirements.
  5. Understand how to develop monitoring and financial systems to ensure accountability.
  6. Understand the range of non-financial resources available to the community sector.

 

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