The Competences
Purpose and context.
| Site: | i-develop learning for cld |
| Course: | The Competences |
| Book: | The Competences |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Friday, 19 April 2024, 3:41 PM |
Table of contents
- 1. Know and understand the community in which we work
- 2. Build and maintain relationships with individuals and groups
- 3. Provide learning and development opportunities in a range of contexts
- 4. Facilitate and promote community empowerment
- 5. Organise and manage resources
- 6. Develop and support collaborative working
- 7. Evaluate and inform practice
1. Know and understand the community in which we work
Purpose: so that practitioners can work with individuals and communities to identify and plan action based on knowledge of some of the internal and external influences at work.
Context: understanding the context within which our work takes place will be based upon our knowledge of social, political and wider environmental influences on communities. Competent CLD practitioners are aware of the relevant global and local factors that impact on the community with which they work.
Indicators: As a competent practitioner with an understanding of the community/ environment in which you work, you will be able to demonstrate that you can:
- conduct an external community/ environment assessment, considering the political, economic and social context of the community;
- investigate internal views and information relating to the area within which you work;
- critically analyse internal and external factors impacting on individuals and communities;
- identify needs, assets and opportunities using relevant information and evidence;
- involve other stakeholders in identifying and agreeing needs and local priorities;
- evidence an awareness of challenges relating to barriers to participation within the local community/environment;
- ascertain conflicting needs and demands.
2. Build and maintain relationships with individuals and groups
Purpose: so that people’s ability and opportunities to work together are enhanced.
Context: CLD is built upon the interactions between people, be these community members, activists or those working with organisations offering support. These relationships provide the basis to support learning and engage people in action to support change within their communities.
As a competent practitioner able to build and maintain relationships with individuals and groups you will be able to demonstrate that you can:
- seek out and engage with individuals, groups and communities;
- practise in different roles, such as facilitating, supporting, leading, advocating, that are appropriate to the work in which you are involved;
- use informal dialogue in individual relationships and within groups;
- handle challenges and opportunities constructively;
- understand and deal with the underlying dynamics at work within relationships and groups;
- work towards the resolution of conflict;
- recognise the power dynamic and action needed to equalise power relationships in decision making;
- facilitate endings for individual and group relationships where appropriate.
3. Provide learning and development opportunities in a range of contexts
Purpose: so that people can identify and achieve their individual and collective goals.
Context: CLD is based on providing learning and development opportunities that are accessible and responsive to individual and community priorities. These opportunities create personal and community benefits such as improving self-confidence and skills and enhancing employment opportunities, as well as supporting health and well-being, community regeneration and individual and community activity.
As a competent practitioner able to provide learning and development opportunities in a range of contexts you will be able to demonstrate that you can:
- provide education and development opportunities that are developed in dialogue with individuals and communities;
- generate learning opportunities that will stimulate personal and community change;
- tackle barriers to participation;
- develop, design and deliver learner-centred programmes;
- take advantage of learning and development opportunities in everyday situations;
- use appropriate methods and techniques;
- support progression and transition;
- use appropriately targeted methods to promote learning and development opportunities.
4. Facilitate and promote community empowerment
Purpose: so that people can take individual and collective action to bring about change.
Context: CLD practice is built on critical analysis of internal and external factors that influence individual and community priorities and has a distinctive role in working with people to take action to identify and influence decisions that impact on the quality of individual and community life.
As a competent practitioner able to facilitate and promote community empowerment you will be able to demonstrate that you can support individuals, groups and communities to:
- analyse and understand power dynamics and decision-making processes;
- use community action as a means to achieve change;
- be inclusive and involve the wider community;
- interact within and across communities;
- participate in decision-making structures and processes;
- campaign for change;
- identify and manage community assets.
5. Organise and manage resources
Purpose: so that individuals, communities and organisations can achieve effective management of community assets and resources, services and organisations.
Context: CLD practitioners need to understand the culture of organisations, the responsibilities of those involved and how organisation and management styles, practices and governance relate to sustainable organisations.
As a competent practitioner with an understanding of planning, organising and managing resources you will be able to demonstrate that you can:
- develop and plan programmes and project activities;
- manage and monitor programmes and project activities;
- promote and manage a culture based on equality;
- organise, deploy and monitor resources effectively;
- recruit, manage and support people (staff, volunteers);
- identify and access funding/ resources;
- understand and manage risk;
- interpret and apply relevant legislation (e.g. equalities, Child Protection, Health and Safety).
6. Develop and support collaborative working
Purpose: so that people can enhance decision making and collaborative activities that impact on the quality of life of individuals and communities.
Context: CLD practitioners need to understand, recognise and value the benefits of collaboration and build appropriate and effective alliances, networks and other forms of working together.
As a competent practitioner able to develop and support collaborative working you will be able to demonstrate that you can:
- develop and support collaborative working within your own organisation;
- initiate collaborative working with relevant organisations;
- participate in partnership and collaborative working;
- support community participation in partnership and collaborative working;
- clarify and articulate the role of your own organisation and that of others;
- negotiate and agree roles in collaborative and joint work, taking a leadership role where appropriate;
- identify, put in place or provide appropriate training and development opportunities for collaborative working;
- challenge and be challenged on issues undermining effective partnership working being aware of tensions and conflicts;
- manage the ending of collaborative and joint relationships.
7. Evaluate and inform practice
Purpose: so that robust evidence can sustain, inform, influence and change policy and practice.
Context: Competent CLD practitioners require to build evidence-based practice based on an appreciation of the value of research and evaluation. They need a knowledge of the methods and techniques commonly used and an understanding of the current issues and challenges in evaluation, quality assurance and performance measurement in CLD.
As a competent practitioner with an ability to evaluate and inform practice you will be able to demonstrate that you can:
- understand the differences between research, evaluation and associated concepts;
- employ appropriate tools, frameworks and methodologies in the evaluation of practice;
- draw on evaluation findings to inform your own practice;
- use participative evaluative processes;
- promote and support community led research and evaluation;
- analyse policy, research and evaluation evidence;
- learn from other perspectives and challenge your own assumptions;
- interpret and use evidence related to outcomes and impact;
- present evidence to a range of audiences using appropriate tools and technologies.