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Lessons learned in capacity : a review of the community development education projects of the Social Planning & Research Council of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

In rural areas across British Columbia capacity building is seen as an answer to declining economic, social and ecological conditions and regional capacity building organizations are delivering community development education projects in response. However, not enough is known about how community development education projects or regional organizations contribute to capacity building in rural regions. The intent of this thesis is to learn from the experience of Social Planning & Research Council of BC (SPARC BC) about the ways regional capacity building organizations can use community development education to positively impact capacity building in rural regions such as those in BC. A review of SPARC BC materials was conducted to locate SPARC BC within capacity building typologies identified in the literature. A questionnaire was administered to SPARC BC's project participants to gain an understanding of how its approaches to community development education impacted capacity building. Questionnaire findings were interpreted in consultation with SPARC staff. This thesis draws conclusions at three levels. First, the questionnaire highlights the experience of community members and demonstrates that SPARC BC's workshops were well-received, with the most impact being seen at the level of community relationship building. Second, by combining these findings with evaluations of two other projects, a number of themes are exposed, including the need for understanding community context, providing follow-up, and recognizing the diversity of each community. Third, the questionnaire and themes are used to explore the lessons that have been learned and which inform regional capacity building organizations providing community development education. Two of the lessons, encouraging community ownership and recognizing the iterative nature of capacity building, speak directly to the long-term nature of delivering community development education, while the lessons of diversity and transparency suggest improvements to how regional organizations work with communities. The final lessons of reflection and collaboration speak to the internal operations of capacity building organizations. Overall, the lessons learned from SPARC BC suggest that regional capacity building organizations have an important role to play and that increased reflection on both the process and outcomes of capacity building projects could strengthen community development education in rural regions.

Text

2009-12-16

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/16782

Planning

University of British Columbia

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