Prepare To Mobilize
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STEP 6: Develop your team.
Once you have drawn up your mobilization plan, you and your team will need to give some thought to the role your organization is going to play in implementing your plan. Outside organizations can play a variety of different roles as mobilizers, depending on the nature of the effort and the needs of the community. Some of the more common roles include:Mobilizer or Catalizer: Works directly with existing leaders and community groups to stimulate action.
Organizer: Forms new organizations or brings existing organizations together in new ways around an issue.
Capacity-builder/trainer: Helps to build capacity to achieve CM goals.
Partner: Complements local organizations in a joint effort.
Liaison: Links communities with resources and partners, builds networks.
Advisor: Provides assistance to communities who request specific advice/technical expertise.
Advocate: Supports community efforts to obtain resources or change policies.
Direct Service Provider: Provides a service (health care, education, etc.).
Donor: Provides funding to the community to the address health issue.
Marketer: Shares experience with others to expand CM.
Your team's role may change over time as both your own organization's needs and the community's needs and abilities change and as other circumstances change. It is a good idea to think through your short-term roles and plan for your long-term roles so that you may lay the groundwork more proactively. For example, if you begin work with a community as an organizer, you may want to gradually move toward being a partner and then a liaison or advisor as the community organizations' capacity is strengthened. You should continually reassess your team's role(s) and be flexible enough to respond to new community needs as the community mobilization process unfolds. As important as defining what your role is, it is equally as important to define what it isn't. Team members who understand and can present clearly what their role is and is not are better able to avoid future misunderstanding and confusion.
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BOLIVIA: Mobilizers, Not Educators
In keeping with a participatory approach, program managers realized that critical to the success of Warmi's community mobilization methodology in Bolivia would be viewing the role of project staff as mobilizers or facilitators rather than educators. Taking the approach that the only lasting form of development is one where the participants take control of their situation and make collective decisions on improving it, project staff were then able to assume the role of assistants in this process, facilitating and aiding participants in making their decisions and in converting them into action. This underlying project philosophy relating to staff roles was of central importance. The approach encouraged staff to continuously assess the learning taking place in the areas of knowledge, attitudes and practices both of participants and of staff. The approach taken with project staff was one of learning through actually doing. Initially, many staff members were inhibited in their work, believing that they should have answers for every question (which, of course, they didn't). The project fostered the idea that there is no one correct answer to any question nor is there any one solution to a given problem. It is only through a process of collective decision-making and action that an issue affecting a community can be addressed. Warmi's program managers recognized that before staff could begin to work with the Inquisivi community there were particular skills needed to prepare them for their role as facilitators, and as effective actors in the community mobilization process. Accordingly, Warmi program managers built sufficient time for staff training into the initial stages of the project. |
One of the last things you and your team will do in this preparation phase is to look again at the tasks you've set for yourselves and decide who is going to be responsible for what. Once you have done this, it will become clear as to whether your team members have the skills they need for the duties they've been assigned. If they don't, you have several choices:
- you can add people to your team who do have the needed skills
- you can train people in the needed skills
- you can partner with another organization that has people with the needed skills
The size of the team is also an important question. If your team is going to be directly involved in facilitating the community mobilization effort, the ideal size is two people for every eight to ten communities. If your team is going to play a less central role, you can have fewer members.
However you decide to handle the matter, you want to approach the next stage in the community mobilization process-organize the community for action- confident in team members' ability to do the work you're about to embark on.
At this point it may also be helpful/necessary to spend some time on basic team-building activities (see tools section).
Finally, it may help the team and the team manager to discuss and agree on the role the team manager will play in the CM effort. The team leader (usually the program manager) will need to work on the following areas to develop his/her team:
- Create a shared team purpose with a common vision, goals and objectives
- Establish and model values
- Clarify roles and responsibilities of team members
- Create a "learning" team (create an organizational culture to stimulate self and group assessment of individual and team strengths and weaknesses in critical areas such as facilitation, communication, participatory methods and approaches, Nonformal education, community organizing, etc.
- Work to prevent and/or resolve conflicts among team members
- Encourage and reward creativity and innovation
- Problem solve, troubleshoot
- Build consensus around strategies and approaches
- Serve as institutional representative liaising with donors, partners, communities
- Celebrate successes!
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