Indigenous Peoples' Commission applies SALT!

[Autry Haynes]

The Indigenous People’s Commission (IPC) is one of four Rights Commissions established under Article 212 G of the Guyana Constitution and tasked, inter alia, with setting up mechanisms to enhance the status of Indigenous Peoples.2012 is the first year of effectively working and one of the major activity is outreaches to Amerindian villages helping them to know and understand why IPC, its functions and how they can benefit from the IPC’s existence. During the visit IPC wanted to also get some measure of feedback about the concerns of Amerindians at the village level. Here an application was SALT was done. With a group of 50 leaders from 15 villages, an introduction about competence was done by indicating that the IPC’s mission is to contribute to creating an enabling environment for equal opportunity as other citizens of Guyana. The point was made that IPC will take Amerindians as a community from where they are now to a level of being competent in the management of their affairs.

                       

That this competent community is not a perfect situation but one where they, based on their own strengths can cope with their concerns by stimulating local response and ownership. So what were their concerns?

Each participant was given a heart-shaped piece of paper and asked to identify two major concerns they have about the village in which they live. In groups, each participant shared that concern. At the end of the discussion within groups, each group presented the group’s major concerns. There were a total of 25 listed. During the AAR, Commissioners remarked that was an ‘inspiring’ way of getting concerns from participants.

Sharing individual concerns in the group

 

Some of the concerns included alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, school drop-out, good leadership, poor health services, lack of cooperation, poor Literacy, no Love and Unity, lack of teamwork, political interference in activities, International Rights not adhere to. Similar activities will be held in different parts of Guyana to help guide the focus of IPC’s mandate. From the AAR the IPC learn about how they can do some things differently the next time.

 

 

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Dear Autry,

 

Thank you! Do you have an experience in Guyana where a community is doing self measurement of change?

We need to have this discussion in chennai. Hope you will make it for the Global Learning Festival. Warm regards from India!

[Autry Haynes]

Dear Rituu, why am I now seeing this (^_^). I could say no! I would say this, however. SALT stimulates community conversation. That conversation starts with people sharing their views on beinh human, sharing hopes and concerns, realizing that the hopes and concerns are similar or are related, barriers are broken and people feel more comfortable and more expressive. The result of the community conversation is a common dream or vision. Then the community asks itself, what do we need to do to achieve the common dream? The answer invariably results in a list of elements or practices, outcomes, call them what you may, but those are what the community would like to do. The community then prioritise the list and for the priorities they identify SMART [S: specific; M: measurable; A: appropriate; R: realistic; T: time bound] actions. Further, they [members of the community decides on the INDICATORS of achievement. All the while the SMART actions to be taken are based on the community strengths and are really an indication of local ownership and responsibilities. The tone of the SALT process all along mentions nothing of challenges / weaknesses / shortcomings, so the SMART actions addresses these without confronting them with negative stereo types. Can be illustrated this way, imagine you have a glass, halved with very dirty water and you pour from a large bucket of clean fresh water continuously into the glass what happens? SALT when applied effectively results with members of communities thinking "Out of the box."

My 2 cents (^_^)

 

Autry

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Thanks Autry for your sharing. I like the way you are integrating SALT in your work.

 

Now for some tips from coach Autry:) often the criticism against strength based approaches like CLCP is that they ignore shortcomings, weaknesses and challenges. How do you address this? I would very much like to learn from you. Thanks!

[Autry Haynes]

Dear Marlou, generally, yes we use the heart for 'hope n concern' but this time, so as not to confuse the issue, we focused on concerns at the grassroot level. Thats the main concern of the IPC at this moment. At a later stage we will expand to dreams ........... So participants described two major concerns, one on each side of the heart. So as they discussed in the groups, there were shared common concerns as the presentations indicated. The AAR indicated that more time was needed for this exercise alone, so for now, yes concerns are our focus. Thanks for the shared opinion (^_^).

[Marlou]

Thanks Autry for sharing - and thanks for applying SALT at this opportunity. Do you think on the heart we could also reserve a space for community members to describe their 'hope' for the community?