How to identify community owned solutions

4. Activity 3 - Community viability

Activity 3 introduces the concept of community viability and explores community viability in your community as you have learnt in Unit 1

Objectives

To introduce the idea of community viability; to explore how community knowledge and its associated practices have developed in order to cope with current challenges

Duration

1-2 hours

Who should be involved?

The community team selected in Activity 1

Process

Step 1

Introduce the concept of community viability, that you learnt about in Unit 1, to the community team. Explain the six different categories of community viability, and how they contribute to overall community viability

Step 2

Split the community team into two groups of 4 or 5 depending on numbers.

Step 3

Explore community viability. Ask each group to use the community viability diagram examples (from Unit 1) and ask them to identify whether the examples are relevant to the situation in their community or not. If a strategy is not relevant, then it should be removed. Also get the groups to discuss whether any strategies are missing and should be added or not.

Step 4

Draw up a table with 4 columns and as many rows as you have strategies. Get each group to list the strategies in the first column. Discuss whether each strategy uses community knowledge or not. Record in the second column whether they do or not.

Step 5

Ask both groups to present their strategy lists to the other group and agree a combined list.

Step 6

Ask each community team member to rank, in their opinion, the 5 most important strategies by putting a mark by the strategy in a third column.