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Activity 1
In your community, which current issues could be addressed using an action learning approach? For one issue, write down the different activities you could do in the four action learning steps; Plan, Act, Observe and Evaluate. You might want to include a couple of cycles of action learning to show how a plan can be updated and improved.
For example, an issue facing your community could be water pollution of a lake. As a community the activities you could do are:
- Plan - develop a plan to identify the sources of pollution by talking to people around the lake;
- Act – carry out interviews with people from various households, shops and factories to locate pollution sources;
- Observe – observe whether the plan is working by seeing if you have identified all of the pollution sources;
- Evaluate – evaluate how successful the interviews have been at locating all pollution sources;
- Plan – amend your plan to improve identification of pollution sources by undertaking water quality monitoring etc.
Introduction
Engaging all members, voices and opinions within a community is vitally important when developing solutions to social and environmental challenges the community face. This unit discusses the core concepts behind how you engage with your wider community or engage with another community to identify solutions. The most effective community solutions are ones that benefit the community, are fair and do not impact negatively on the environment. The aims of this unit are to introduce the following: how to follow an action learning approach to engagement and management; why community engagement is important and approaches to successful engagement; the concept of community owned solutions; and how to determine impact.