CA C 1 - Raising Voices
CA C 1 - Raising Voices
CA C 1 - Raising Voices
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<strong>CA</strong>C<br />
Community Activism Course<br />
Strengthening Capacity to Prevent Domestic Violence<br />
<strong>CA</strong>C<br />
Overview<br />
The Community Activism Course (<strong>CA</strong>C) is a specific, systematic, and in-depth course to build the<br />
participants’ capacity to prevent domestic violence. The course is designed to strengthen conceptual and<br />
practical skills. It spans the length of the project and includes intensive learning through three workshops<br />
over the course of 9 to 18 months. The groups most likely to go through the whole course are project<br />
staff, resource persons (i.e. health care providers, police, social welfare officers, etc.), community<br />
volunteers, and domestic violence watch group members. Special modifications for each of these groups<br />
are discussed, yet the core activities remain the same. In addition, the activities that make up the course<br />
can be used in short sessions with various groups involved in the project.<br />
Facilitating the Course<br />
What is participatory learning?<br />
Participatory learning may be different from what you are used to; it is not usually used in schools and<br />
other conventional learning environments. Participatory learning has proven very useful for promoting<br />
social change and working with participants who may not be used to being students. Instead of the<br />
customary teacher-student relationship, participatory learning methodologies use a facilitator to guide<br />
the group process and encourage participants to take an active role in various activities and discussions.<br />
The group process taps into the wealth of experience that exists within participants and uses it for<br />
collective problem-solving and learning.<br />
Conventional learning and participatory learning are both useful methodologies. The best method to use<br />
depends on the objectives of the process. This course is based on participatory learning. The following<br />
table summarizes some of the differences between participatory learning and conventional learning.<br />
Participatory Learning<br />
values subjective experience<br />
participants and facilitator share power<br />
everyone contributes to the learning process<br />
based on mutual respect and collective responsibility<br />
aims to create safety during the learning experiences<br />
encourages risk taking and diversity of experiences<br />
values emotions as well as logical thinking<br />
values cooperation among participants<br />
encourages creative and critical thinking<br />
focuses on building skills that affect one’s personal life<br />
What is facilitation?<br />
Participatory learning is facilitated, not taught. It involves using specific skills that enable participants to<br />
share, learn from, and use their experience to develop solutions to their situation.<br />
Facilitation begins from the assumption that the participants are the experts on issues that have a<br />
profound effect on their lives and that everyone has valuable experiences and knowledge that will enrich<br />
the group. Thus, the role of the facilitator is to use her/his facilitation skills to help participants learn from<br />
Mobilising Communities to Prevent Domestic Violence<br />
Conventional Learning<br />
values objective facts and knowledge<br />
teacher holds all the power<br />
teacher gives students information and knowledge<br />
based on fear of authority<br />
values obedience and ‘good behaviour’<br />
focuses on correct answers and success<br />
values logical thinking and discounts emotions<br />
fosters competition between students<br />
values memory based learning<br />
usually focuses on imparting theoretical knowledge
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