"To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up." ~Oscar Wilde

The participatory approach to development and evaluation is rooted in the belief that people are capable of thinking and developing on their own and have the potential to bring about change. It constantly reminds organizations that communities work better towards their development when they have a sense…

PRA or the participatory rural appraisal is a technique deployed by people especially those working with development agencies, Non-Government organizations or education practitioners to incorporate viewpoints of the rural communities that they choose to work with. It is often seen that we have inherent biases when we incorporate pointers regarding issues of their concern besides lack of knowledge on the particular arena and no one better than the recipient themselves to talk of the same. The…

“Collective action remains the best way of renewing the march towards the great trinity of liberty, equality, and solidarity.”

-Guy Standing

The SALT approach is a mental attitudinal technique applied for the participatory evaluation process which helps in defining the collective consciousness for the necessary collective action.

My SALT experience started when I got the chance to closely observe the self-evaluation process of…

The Match of Our Lives’ tells how football training makes a group of young footballers in Mauritius fit for life The Match of Our Lives. The story follows a group of boys who come together to form a football team.

The content begins at 33 minutes and 50 seconds on the film (on the link above). A clip of this part of the film is shown on the link below. …

The Constellation and Visual Development have produced a series of five short films that present different stories of community change. Each episode tells the story of one community with both the beautiful and painful aspects that sit at the heart of community change. https://asyouopenyoureyes.com/

‘One of…

Hello all, Here's a new episode of our How To Build Community show which you might be interested in...

10-20% of young people globally experience mental health conditions of some kind. But the majority do not seek help or receive support. In this episode we ask how can a community support the mental health of its young people? Expert guests join us from around the world to help us find answers.…

Jean-Louis Lamboray gave a series of seminars to social service students of the Potsdam University, inviting SALT-CLCP facilitators from Belgium, England, France, India, Kenya, Spain, Thailand, and The Netherlands: “An authentic learning community unfolded as we shared about SALT and CLCP, so we decided to continue. Join us!”

Bellow are the minutes of our first session about storytelling and SALT on Friday, the 5th of February.

With Celicia,…

I learned about this in a session on Saturday.

As Laura Simm described the story of the rose in her garden and what it means to her - I was overpowered by the emotions I felt. For one, I could feel the powerful bond she had with her grandmother; at the same time feeling a sense of loss that I had nothing similar to hold on to. It was a very visceral reaction - happiness and sadness at the same time. 

As we continued on the storytelling and relating journey - I was amazed at the…

Continuing on my journey, our session on Saturday was on story telling. We were thrilled to have MariJo and Laura Simms share their experiences of using story telling to add SALT to the CLCP. This journey seems to be awakening my creative instincts and here are my thoughts: 

What are stories?

Words and images

Ideas and thoughts

Experiences and feelings

Stories empower us

Connect us

With others and ourselves

We create…

It is very interesting and inspiring for me how Storytelling has become a trending topic within The Constellation community at different levels.

I discovered Storytelling some 20 years ago when I was trying to build confidence in myself and also to different women's groups around me (in particular, HIV+ women).

I had never thought of the importance of the stories my dad used to tell me when I was a child, but then, all of a sudden, as important things usually come into our…

Place of stories in SALT

Some learning about stories for SALT

Kausar SK

Telling and listening stories is not a new phenomenon. Story telling has been around forever, it seems. It is not difficult to recall stories heard during childhood. As adults too we hear stories and tell stories, but when do we start reflecting on them ? While like fish in water we live with stories, we stop being a fish in water when we start  thinking about them , and wonder what they do…

Community%20Based%20Covid_19_Response_Strategies.pdf

1. Community based grain bank
2. Community based soap bank
3. Nutrition gardens

Since December 2020, I have joined a SALT training group which comprises of a group of wonderfully unique people.

These sessions are led by Rituu and Kausar Apa and have been a truly insightful journey so far. While I joined these sessions to learn about the SALT approach and how to engage and work with communities effectively, this experience has been so much more than that. Not only has it allowed me to interact and connect with a diverse group of individuals,…

Hello again. Some news from the How To Build Community show that you might interest some of you... 

This isn't a 'normal' episode of the show! Today we're pleased to announce that Arukah Network is joining forces with our friends at Tearfund's 'Footsteps' magazine in order to create this show together.

In this episode I speak to the Editor of Footsteps JUDE COLLINS to discuss what this new partnership means for the show.…

My SALT journey- part one I will share one of the reasons which made it my path...there are many paths but I chose this.

Communities and institutions hand-in-hand

Hi everyone! I am Yamini Suvarna from Mumbai, India. My SALT journey started in Dec 2020 with a group of wonderful people from across the globe. Led by Rituu and Kausar Apa, the journey so far has been wonderful, insightful and exciting; so much to learn, share and discover. Am sharing my thoughts and feelings in the image below. Look forward to our shared learning and growth.…

https://feedbacklabs.org/blog/3tt-community-cooperation-and-convergence/

https://feedbacklabs.org/blog/3tt-community-cooperation-and-convergence/

Hello all,

You might enjoy this new episode of the How To Build Community show... 

A growing number of churches in the UK are trying to show that the word 'gospel' means good news not just for people, but for the planet as well.

In this episode, we hear about the thousands of churches that have joined the 'Eco Church' scheme, and we learn how this scheme is impacting communities across the country:…

The movie is available here:

https://vimeo.com/asyouopenyoureyes/oneofusen

Panel:

David and Jessica: the movie makers (Visual…