501-05 PLANNING FOR PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY LEARNING

 

Community Learning Development Resource 501 – 05

 

PLANNING FOR LEARNING – A FRAMEWORK FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS AND LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS

 

SUMMARY

This resource develops a framework for modelling a learning strategy in relation to working with the community, which includes developing understandings and skills within local people – their capacity for effective empowerment and participation. The framework draws on the Community Learning model shown in Diagram One.  This models the process of building people awareness and capacity, in relation to their participation, individually or collectively within regeneration – modelling Capacity Coaching.

 

THE RATIONALE FOR USING THE FRAMEWORK

  • To engage local people (learners) effectively in service delivery and initiatives, may require that they are enabled to do so
    • The enabling strategy involves learning
    • For the enabling strategy to be effective, the learning strategy and processes must be planned for to respond to identified and assessed needs and wants.
  • The framework identifies four key areas of focus for planners:
    • What are the outcomes the service or agency needs?
    • Who are the learners the service  or agency wishes to involve in these outcomes?
    • What is the learning that needs to be put in place?
    • What learning processes will best support successful learning?

PROMPTS FOR REFLECTION, DISCUSSION AND MODELLING

  • Is it true that learning is a key process within any working relationship within any community work by any responsible body, agency or worker?
  • Is it true that local people have a key participatory role to play as significant stakeholders, in any aspect of community work, including development and regeneration, which seeks to engage with them and their lives?
  • Is it true that all adults have the capacity to learn and become more effective in their lives, but that some less experienced and less confident learners, have longer learning journeys to travel in order to be successful?
  • Is it accepted that all community work should be informed and underpinned by the core values of:  equality; the valuing of human diversity; inclusion; and quality improvement in the lives of individuals, communities and society as a whole?
  • What are the outcomes of using and applying the framework within work?

 

 

1. The Generic Framework – the four key areas identified within the rationale are identified and examples of the issues and questions in each area, are presented.

LEARNERS

Who are the learners the service wishes to involve in these outcomes?

LEARNING PROCESS

What learning processes will best support successful learning? 

LEARNING

What is the learning that needs to be put in place?

SERVICE/AGENCY

Strategy & work sector

INTENDED OUTCOMES
Who are the target learners?

 

Where are the learners coming from – their starting points?

 

  • Learner needs?

 

  • Barriers to be overcome?
 How will the learners  be enabled to learn?

 

How will we:

  • inform them?
  • enable them to build their skills?
  • support them to change their attitudes and feelings?

 

By:

  • Individual capacity coaching?
  • Collective capacity coaching?
  • Citizenship courses?
  • Successful community actions?
  • By promotional literature?
  • By information on the website?
  • Through events/activities – consulting and/or informing?

 

 What are the learning outcomes that the learners need to achieve, for the service/agency outcomes to be more achievable?

 

What is the learning agenda and content?

 

What are the changes in learner behaviour that are needed?

 

 

What is the learning that needs to be put in place:

 

  • Gains in knowledge and understanding?
  • Skills developed?
  • Feelings and attitudes changed?

 

 What do we want to achieve – the nature of the intended service/agency outcomes being planned for:

 

EXAMPLES:

  • Delivery of services?
  • Improvement to services?
  • Community development?
  • Responses by local people?
  • Involvement of local people?
  • Participation by local people?
  • Improvement targets being met?

 

 

 

2. Using the Framework  – working with Local Partnerships, in a Community Strategy and Action Planning Outcomes

LEARNERS

LEARNING PROCESS

LEARNING

SERVICE/AGENCY

Strategy & work sector

INTENDED OUTCOMES
Who are the target learners? 

Where are the learners coming from – their starting points?

 

  • Learner needs?

 

  • Barriers to be overcome?
 How will the learners  be enabled to learn? 

How will we:

  • inform them?
  • enable them to build their skills?
  • support them to change their attitudes and feelings?

 

By:

  • Individual capacity coaching?
  • Collective capacity coaching?
  • Citizenship courses?
  • Successful community actions?
  • By promotional literature?
  • By information on the website?
  • Through events/activities – consulting and/or informing?

 

 What are the learning outcomes that the learners need to achieve, for the service/agency outcomes to be more achievable? 

What is the learning agenda and content?

 

What are the changes in learner behaviour that are needed?

 

 

What is the learning that needs to be put in place:

 

  • Gains in knowledge and understanding?
  • Skills developed?
  • Feelings and attitudes changed?

 

 Local Strategic Partnershipand Community Strategy

EXAMPLES OF INTENDED OUTCOMES:

 

  • Active participation by local people required?
  • Local people to be successfully involved in consultative processes?
  • Requirement that local people provide feedback about service improvements?
  • Community strategy action plans are to be implemented by local people at neighbourhood level?
  • Community Safety improvement targets to be met?

 

 

3. Using the Framework   – working with the intended outcomes of agencies and work sectors within agencies and  organisations   (Examples)

LEARNERS

LEARNING PROCESS

LEARNING

AGENCY/WORK SECTOR

INTENDED OUTCOMES
Who are the target learners? 

Where are the learners coming from – their starting points?

 

  • Learner needs?

 

  • Barriers to be overcome?
 How will the learners  be enabled to learn? 

How will we:

  • inform them?
  • enable them to build their skills?
  • support them to change their attitudes and feelings?

 

By:

 

  • Individual capacity coaching?

 

  • Collective capacity coaching?

 

  • Citizenship courses?

 

  • Successful community actions?

 

  • By promotional literature?

 

  • By information on the website?

 

  • Through events/activities – consulting and/or informing?

 

 What are the learning outcomes that the learners need to achieve, for the service outcomes to be more achievable? 

What is the learning agenda and content?

 

What are the changes in learner behaviour that are needed?

 

 

What is the learning that needs to be put in place:

 

  • Gains in knowledge and understanding?
  • Skills developed?
  • Feelings and attitudes changed?

 

 The nature of the work sector/worker intended outcomes being planned for? 

  • Youth work outcomes?

 

  • Housing/Residents  Association activity outcomes?
  • Health improvement outcomes?

 

  • Participation in Sport outcomes?

 

  • Community development outcomes?

 

  • Community safety improvement outcomes?

 

  • Number of active volunteers –  targets to be met?

 

  • New learner targets –within widening participation to be met?

 

  • Number of new service users involved – target numbers and range of activities

 

 

4. The Framework can be used to ensure that core values, etc., are being consistently implemented within the work of the service/sector/worker, etc.,  and are understood by learners – local residents/customers/clients/recruits, etc.

LEARNERS

LEARNING PROCESS

LEARNING

SERVICE/AGENCY

STRATEGY

VALUES AND REQUIREMENTS
Who are the target learners? 

Where are the learners coming from – their starting points?

 

  • Learner needs?

 

  • Barriers to be overcome?
 How will the learners  be enabled to learn? 

How will we:

  • inform them?
  • enable them to build their skills?
  • support them to change their attitudes and feelings?

 

By:

 

  • Individual capacity coaching?

 

  • Collective capacity coaching?

 

  • Citizenship courses?

 

  • Successful community actions?

 

  • By promotional literature?

 

  • By information on the website?

 

  • Through events/activities – consulting and/or informing?

 

 What are the learning outcomes that the learners need to achieve, for the service values to be implemented? 

What is the learning agenda and content?

 

What are the changes in learner behaviour that are needed?

 

 

What is the learning that needs to be put in place:

 

  • Gains in knowledge and understanding?
  • Skills developed?
  • Feelings and attitudes changed?

 
  •  EQUALITY

 

  • EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

 

  • INCLUSION

 

  • ACCOUNTABILITY TO LOCAL PEOPLE

 

  • PRIORITIES AND TARGETING

 

  • AUDIT OF RESOURCES

 

  • MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES

 

  • REQUIREMENT TO CONSULT LOCALLY WITH RESIDENTS

 

  • VALUE FOR MONEY

 

  • PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

 

 

 

 

5. Using the Framework – starting from the identification and understanding of a range of learner needs within the population that you wish to work with. From this perspective what will the Learning processes and learning be? 

LEARNERS

LEARNING PROCESS

LEARNING

SERVICE/AGENCY

STRATEGY /

WORK SECTOR

INTENDED OUTCOMES
Learner needs – the individuals need:

 

  • Time and space (to learn, apply their learning & benefit?)

 

  • Money

 

  • Confidence (Self-confidence)

 

  • Knowledge (of what?)
  • Discipline (self-discipline – the discipline to organise and plan? Or do we mean they need to be ‘corrected’ – their attitude and behaviour changed?)
  • Awareness of effects on others
  • Leadership skills (chairing meetings?)
  • Need self-belief – a ‘can-do’ mind-set
 How will the learners  be enabled to learn? 

How will we:

  • inform them?
  • enable them to build their skills?
  • support them to change their attitudes and feelings?

 

By:

 

  • Individual capacity coaching?

 

  • Collective capacity coaching?

 

  • Citizenship courses?

 

  • Successful community actions?

 

  • By promotional literature?

 

  • By information on the website?

 

  • Through events/activities – consulting and/or informing?

 

 What are the learning outcomes that the learners need to achieve, for the service outcomes to be more achievable? 

What is the learning agenda and content?

 

What are the changes in learner behaviour that are needed?

 

 

What is the learning that needs to be put in place:

 

  • Gains in knowledge and understanding?
  • Skills developed?
  • Feelings and attitudes changed?

 

 What do we want to achieve – the nature of the intended/service outcomes being planned for: 

EXAMPLES:

 

  • Delivery of services?

 

  • Improvement to services?

 

  • Community development?

 

  • Responses by local people?

 

  • Involvement of local people?

 

  • Participation by local people?

 

  • Improvement targets being met?

 

 

6. Using the Framework – starting from the identification and understanding of a range of barriers and constraints facing the local people that you wish to work with. From this perspective what will the Learning processes and learning be? 

LEARNERS

LEARNING PROCESS

LEARNING

INTENDED OUTCOMES
The barriers and constraints:

  • The environment (the community/ neighbourhood?)
  • People’s low expectations ( of themselves/of others/of life?)
  • Workers are perceived as ‘The Council’ (can this be a positive?)
  • Inaccessibility (of communities and/or services?)
  • ‘C … p’ neighbourhoods, schools and facilities
  • Lack of support from parents for young people
  • The negative perception of targeted programmes (whose negative perception?)
  • Lack of commitment by people – apathy – not turning-up
  • Too much dependency on other people (on the workers?)
  • Lack of sense of purpose – lack aims & goals
  • Lack of self-belief
  • Self-doubt about being able to make a difference ( no expectations of being able to bring about changes?)
  • Lack a sense of purpose
  • No joined-up services
  • Low expectations of success within the organisation (District Council and/or within sections of the organisation?)
  • Workers needing to be seen to be doing things – ‘duty’?
  • Acceptance of failure.
 How will the learners  be enabled to learn? 

How will we:

  • inform them?
  • enable them to build their skills?
  • support them to change their attitudes and feelings?

 

By:

  • Individual capacity coaching?

 

  • Collective capacity coaching?

 

  • Citizenship courses?

 

  • Successful community actions?

 

  • By promotional literature?

 

  • By information on the website?

 

  • Through events/activities – consulting and/or informing?
 What are the learning outcomes that the learners need to achieve, for the service outcomes to be more achievable? 

What is the learning agenda and content?

 

What are the changes in learner behaviour that are needed?

 

 

What is the learning that needs to be put in place:

 

  • Gains in knowledge and understanding?
  • Skills developed?
  • Feelings and attitudes changed?

 

 What do we want to achieve – the nature of the intended/service outcomes being planned for: 

EXAMPLES:

 

  • Delivery of services?

 

  • Improvement to services?

 

  • Community development?

 

  • Responses by local people?

 

  • Involvement of local people?

 

  • Participation by local people?

 

  • Improvement targets being met?

 

 

7. Using the Framework for modelling individual practice and planning.

 

LEARNERS

LEARNING PROCESS

LEARNING

SERVICE/AGENCY –

WORK SECTOR

INTENDED OUTCOMES