WSA Courses – Understanding Community Development Practice

WSA Courses – Understanding Community Development Practice

Course title: Understanding Community Development Practice

Duration: One day

Customisation: This course can be tailored to your context and needs

A group of people sit around tables during an Understanding Community Development Practice workshop, talking, laughing and discussing postcards



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Community development is all about involving people in the issues that affect their lives. WSA Community’s Understanding Community Development Practice course is aimed at those who are looking to strengthen their understanding of community development and who want to build on what’s working well by using an asset-based approach.

 

The course explores the values and principles that underpin good practice and provides an opportunity to reflect on the impact community development has on communities.

 

Both community development practitioners and people looking to incorporate community development processes into other roles have found this course valuable.

Who is this course for?

 

  • Community development workers or volunteers and people from all sectors who have a community development part of their role.
  • It’s best suited to those who want to deepen their knowledge and develop the skills that underpin community development work.

What outcomes can I expect?

 

  • You will be better able to explain community development to others and actively justify a community development approach to a range of agencies.
  • You will understand the role and impact of community development and best practice, applying theory to underpin your practice. 

What will I learn?

 

  • What is community development?
  • What are the values and principles that underpin community development?
  • What does successful community development look like?
  • How can we build on community strengths, assets and needs?
  • How does community development address inequality, understand diversity and build equal and inclusive practice?
  • How can we build the confidence of community groups to tackle the issues that are important to them?

What tools and knowledge will I take away?

 

  • An appreciation of community development, its values and principles and the theory behind it.
  • Concrete examples of good practice to boost confidence in planning around community development 
  • Clear strategies around asset-based approaches.
  • Tools for measuring the impact of community development.

“[I feel better able to] apply the core values of community development to my own work projects and plans.”

“[I valued] learning about the role of a community development worker and how to support change – it’s useful to understand ways in which you can create an impact and empower people at the same time.”

“The deliverers were very knowledgeable and shared some great insight.”

“The planning tool adds value… I have not used this as part of a process but will now.”

“[I feel able to] understand our communities better and how they work together to make their communities thrive.”

“With the use of the planning tool I feel better able to have more of an impact in the community projects I am leading in.”


Other WSA training courses

How to Engage with Communities

Evaluating Community Development 

Train the Trainer