In rural areas across British Columbia capacity building is seen as an answer to
declining economic, social and ecological conditions and regional capacity building
organizations are delivering community development education projects in
response. However, not enough is known about how community development
education projects or regional organizations contribute to capacity building in
rural regions. The intent of this thesis is to learn from the experience of Social
Planning & Research Council of BC (SPARC BC) about the ways regional capacity
building organizations can use community development education to positively
impact capacity building in rural regions such as those in BC.
A review of SPARC BC materials was conducted to locate SPARC BC within capacity
building typologies identified in the literature. A questionnaire was administered
to SPARC BC's project participants to gain an understanding of how its approaches
to community development education impacted capacity building. Questionnaire
findings were interpreted in consultation with SPARC staff.
This thesis draws conclusions at three levels. First, the questionnaire highlights
the experience of community members and demonstrates that SPARC BC's
workshops were well-received, with the most impact being seen at the level of
community relationship building. Second, by combining these findings with
evaluations of two other projects, a number of themes are exposed, including the
need for understanding community context, providing follow-up, and recognizing
the diversity of each community. Third, the questionnaire and themes are used
to explore the lessons that have been learned and which inform regional capacity
building organizations providing community development education. Two of the
lessons, encouraging community ownership and recognizing the iterative nature of
capacity building, speak directly to the long-term nature of delivering community
development education, while the lessons of diversity and transparency suggest
improvements to how regional organizations work with communities. The final
lessons of reflection and collaboration speak to the internal operations of
capacity building organizations.
Overall, the lessons learned from SPARC BC suggest that regional capacity
building organizations have an important role to play and that increased
reflection on both the process and outcomes of capacity building projects could
strengthen community development education in rural regions. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/16782 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Welch, Danyta Leigh |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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