Community Animation Handbook

Background Context

The White Bear Media project was a Community Animation Project within which I prototyped outthe rule-set for the community animation task. Although I had done this sort of work project in varying forms all of my life, I decided to focus on articulating that process more formally, as I knew that "Community Development" as a philosophy of approach had shifted over the years and I wanted to articulate my own understanding of the term.

As the term "community development" is a "reserved" term when used as part of a name of a company, I decided to coin another term for what it was I did. In addition, the CD term was also now frequently used as a synonym for economic development, and I viewed that definition as far too narrow.

The task I did in community was to come alongside it and supply the missing ingredient until the community could become functional once again, and begin to produce the types of things which only a community can produce.

Approach Used

I took Michael Gerber's format and used it to tease out the issues and questions. I did this by reverse engineering his questionnaire and relating it to his support materials for small business development. I transposed this approach to my own task and sketched out the requisite issues and questions.

These issues were then grouped into relevant headings and sub headings

The issues, which I needed to develop more detail on, were flagged. Other information which emerged, was collected on the subjects as well. The wealth of material now on he web was not available to me at the time, but is now readily available to be linked in to this material.

Current Status

• The content of the material is assembled in my head
• Some additional material is on hand
• A web site is now in place with some content made available to my target audience
• The base of material from the MRD experience is also available for mixing in to the product
• The relation of my material to the existing CD material and field is updated
• My target audience has been narrowed considerably as I have become aware of the other materials in the market which do not now require duplication.

Findings To Date

The base CD materials have been worked through in CA terms and modified over the last decade. These materials have been updated through the MRD program exposure and brought into sharper focus. The mix I bring in this product is its tuning to a unique target audience rather than adding all that much that is new. It has a different twist for that reason.

It can be summed up in an answer I made to a banker type asking about the connection of ministry to community development..."Ministry is community development", to which he replied "I can relate to that".

Lateral Connections

Required for Completion

Writing it up, and refining it for publication and dissemination of some sort.