Community Action Day: 2011

Stimulating, strengthening and connecting local responses

An invitation

Imagine what would happen if every single community in the world would discuss in depth the local issues of concern? It would identify its strengths and plan to take action together based on these strengths. It is our great pleasure to invite you to participate in the Community Action Day (CAD) this year between 12th to 18th September 2011.

We (communities, families, individuals) are the key actors in responding to the issues that challenge our communities well being. CAD 2010 gave organisations and communities from different parts of the world an inspiring opportunity to discuss together and learn from each other across cultures and countries. CAD 2011 builds on the success of CAD 2010.

During the day

We invite you and your community to choose one or more days between 12-18 September to observe CAD. During this day you can build a common dream for your community; assess where you are on the path towards that dream; analyze and prioritize your actions for achieving your dreams; develop action plans as you together sketch the way forward.

A set of tools and facilitation tips are available for each step, but feel free to use your own! The day can lead to a plan with small feasible actions that your community can take to improve, primarily using your own local resources. Discuss the issue that is most important for your community, which can be gender, HIV, malaria, climate change, living peacefully together or any other issue.

Last year, communities discussed multiple issues like HIV, drugs, domestic violence, climate change, sex work, youth issues, life skills education and many more. They drew their dream for the issue and made action plans to achieve those dreams. A group of children in Cameroon decided that they would use programmes on TV as an entry point to raise sexuality issues with parents. In India, a group of sex workers build a dream for house sites as the area they lived in a flood prone area and within two months they were able to procure house sites. A group met in Belgium on issues of climate change and in US the domestic violence against children was the issue of concern of a community. For Indonesia, groups of sex workers, IDUs, transgenders and other community members met in a UNFPA sponsored event and used this platform to celebrate Community Action Day!

After the day

After the day, you can share the experience, challenges and plans through written stories, photographs and videos on the Community Life Competence online platform. You and others will be able to refer to this site for inspiration, information and ideas on how communities around the world are dealing with similar issues.

Our support to you

1. A toolkit is available with tools and facilitation tips that worked for other communities. Feel free to add tools that work in your context.

2. A global pool of facilitators is available to help you facilitate the event.

3. Connect online with other communities. We invite you to discuss preparation and experiences on our online community https://aidscompetence.ning.com/group/communityactionday and brief updates on our Facebook page ‘Community Action Day’

Feel free to contact me (rituu@communitylifecompetence.org) for more details and participation in CAD 2011.

Warm regards,

Rituu B. Nanda and the Working Group, Community Action Day 2011, Constellation

(Americas- Autry and Korey, Europe- Boris, Olivia, Marlou and Laura, Africa - Jeanne d'Arc, Namara, and Ukeme,  Asia - Joy, Gerlita, Wiwin, Roli, Ng Hui Xin, Laurence, and Rituu)