SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MODEL

1. Design and execute projects that meet the needs of the community
2. Include local people intimately by giving them ownership of the process and providing them with skills to tackle the needs within their community
3. Foster active participation and therefore engender individual and collective empowerment

1. Become positive role models and active participants in our partner communities
2. Build positive relationships with community members across all sectors of society
3. Coordinate with local and regional authorities to secure local approval of Project WOO’s presence within our partner community
4. Conduct general meetings to officially introduce Project WOO to our partner community

1. Foster critical thinking skills among community members
2. Conduct a series of formal “Community Diagnostic” workshops that introduce practical analysis tools, which allow the community to understand and investigate:
   1. The dynamics of family, education, economy, politics, religion, associations and health care existing within the community;
   2. Internal strengths and weaknesses as they relate to external opportunities and threats
3. Conduct individual home visits with community members to:
   1. Discuss issues raised in formal diagnostic workshops
   2. Inspire and support individuals as they create and develop ideas for programs, activities, and projects that address the needs of the community

1. Conduct “Project Proposal” meeting wherein community members formally, publicly propose their own ideas for programs, activities or projects to address the community’s needs
2. Conduct informal small group meetings and individual home visits to discuss, analyze, and prioritize the proposed project ideas
3. Conduct “Project Selection” meeting wherein community members systematically and democratically elect the most important projects through an open town vote
4. The outcome of this process is a list of community generated project ideas, including the project idea that received the most votes, which will become the focus of Project WOO’s efforts in the months to come

1. Allow any interested community member the opportunity to participate with Project WOO as members of the local Project Planning Committee
2. Conduct both formal and informal life skills trainings, including: leadership, communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, vision for the future, etc.
3. Conduct both formal and informal project design skills trainings, including: action planning, budgeting, feasibility studies, project proposal writing, coordinating with local authorities, grant solicitation, etc.

1. Lead the Project Planning Committee through the process of designing and implementing the community selected project
2. Provide the Project Planning Committee the opportunity to apply skills learned in previous skills trainings (outlined above)
3. Support the Project Planning Committee with both human and material resources needed to carry out the selected project

* This is the real process of creating a tangible result based on the preparation and planning carried out in the previous four phases. For example, if the community decides to carry out a recycling program, we coordinate with local waste management authorities to gain their support; we create the budget for the short, medium, and long term project costs; we actively seek funding; we conduct the door-to-door recycling education campaign; we build the recycling facilities; we hire and train workers to manage the facility, etc.

1. Provide continuing support to the first WOO sponsored project, because all projects are ongoing in some form or another and require monitoring and evaluation
2. Learn from mistakes and build on successes to revise the Project WOO strategic model
3. Undertake steps two through five on WOO sponsored project # 2

٭ This entire process will be repeated at least three times within each partner community. This allows community members to become intimately familiar with each phase; gain confidence in their abilities to participate in and lead the activities in the absence of Project WOO; and ultimately achieve a sense of empowerment that can only be gained by conceiving and designing a project that yields tangible results.