Training Module No.

1 Day Training Programme on Community Mobilisation

Date :_________ Venue:__________

Participants: 30 Persons
 Staff members of Partner NGO
 Forester /Forest Guard

Objectives of the Training

The objective of the training is
1. To enable the participants to understand and put into the perspective of the need and
justification for mobilising communities for partnership at harnessing input from all
stakeholders in a participatory project.

Training Outcomes
Participants are able to
1. Define and explain “community” and understand why communities to be involved in
implementation of any participatory project.
2. Understand the community mobilisation process
3. Identify the challenges and causes of failure in community mobilisation
4. Illustrate the role of effective communication in a successful community mobilisation
process
5. Realize the roles and responsibilities of Community Mobilizer.

Registration of Participants (30 Minutes Prior to the Start of First Session)

Pre-requisite for this Training:Nil

Instructional Requirements
1. White board with marker
2. Over head projector/Laptop
3. Pointer (stick/ Laser)

Materials and Aids Required

1. Drawing sheet
2. Flip chart
3. Colour sketch pen (2-3 sets)
4. Markers
 Details of Session Plan

Duration Key Steps/ Key activities Method

(Min)
Session-I: Community Mobilization
10 Self Introduction Lecture
 Educational background of the participants
 Experience in rural development sector
60 Introduction on Community Mobilisation Lecture
 Introduction to the subject
 Definition and characteristics of the community
 Composition of a community
 What is Community Mobilization
 Principles of Community Mobilization
10 Questions from participants Group discussion
10 Class wrap up with concluding remarks from the Lecture
trainer
Session-II: Community mobilisation Process and Key issues
10 Introduction to the topic Lecture
60  Community Mobilisation Cycle Lecture
 Characteristics of a mobilization cycle
 Key issues in Community Mobilisation
10 Questions from participants Group discussion
10 Class wrap up with concluding remarks from the Lecture
trainer
Session-III: The Role of a Community Mobilizer
10 Introduction to the topic Lecture
40  Selection of a Community Mobilizer Lecture
 Traits of a community Mobilizer
 Roles and responsibilities of a community
Mobilizer
40 Demonstration by the participants on how to Role Play
mobilize community
Session-IV: Communication and Community Mobilization
10 Introduction to the topic Lecture
30  Media for Communication Lecture
 Steps in designing IEC Activities
 How to develop IEC messages
30 Group work on content of communication and Group Activity
medium of dissemination on a burning issue of their
area
20 Presentation by the participants (atleast in 2 teams) Interaction
Session 1 :
Community Mobilization
1.0 Introduction
Close involvement of community members in participatory forest management is
extremely critical as it promotes ‘bottom up approach’ not only in effective planning and
implementation of interventions in the protection of forests but also in effective monitoring,
evaluation and ownership of the government program by the community. Active
participation of the community also ensures transparency, accountability and helps in
leveraging the cumulative knowledge of the community for better conservation of the forests.
Field level research has shown that protection and regeneration of forests has improved
significantly in places where communities have been involved actively.
To facilitate a participatory decision-making process, Community Mobilisation is a
method whereby a group of people rise above their differences to meet on equal terms in
order. In other words it can be viewed as a series which begins a dialogue among members of
the community to determine who, what, and how issues are decided, and also to provide an
avenue for everyone to participate in decisions that affect not only their lives but also their
socio-economic development.

2.0 What is a Community?

A Community is defined as a group of people living together in the same geographical
area and share the same customs, practice and beliefs.
2.1 Characteristics of a community
1. Leadership: Every community has a form of leadership- be it elected, hereditary or
appointed. This leadership is respected by the people in the community. Therefore, in
order to influence the community, one needs to recognise and involve leadership.
Forms of leadership are also present in various institutions found in the community
e.g., school governing boards, farmers group etc.
2. Community Structures and institutions: In a given community, there are structures
and institutions. These structures and institutions depend on the level of leadership
found in the community, the level of awareness in the community and the resources
available in the community which includes school, community hall, religious place,
tribal court, gram panchayat etc.
3. Presence of social deviants: In every community, there are people who do not follow
the norms and expectations of the community but choose to do things contrary to
what everyone else is doing. These people are referred to as social deviants.
4. Shared geographical location: people in one community live within the same
geographical location/ area. Young and old people, males and females are found in
every community.
5. Communities highlight wrongs more than rights: It is human nature to remember the
wrong things done more than they remember good things. It is therefore, a challenge
for the community mobilizer to be a role model for the village.
6. Medium of communication: In every community, there are ways of communicating
which is understood by the people hearing the message. For example, the beating of
drums in a certain rhythm sends across a message that the community can understand.
 7. Culture, customs and beliefs: Every community has its own culture, customs and
beliefs which are shared by everyone which is expressed through language, dress,
food etc.
8. Survival instinct: Every community protects itself against extinction. Some of the
ways in which this is done include securing food, security and health.
9. In every community, there is an observed need for entertainment, socialisation and
recreation.
10. There are individual and communal responsibilities in every community. This means
that there is respect for individual and community rights and responsibilities and that
both the community and individual know them and carry them out.
11. Shared language and dialect: Every community has a common language and dialect
with which they communicate with each other.
12. Diversity: Not everyone in the community has the same opinions about everything,
yet the members of the community are able to live together in harmony.
13. Shared experiences in every community:The members have undergone some similar
experiences which bond them together and with which they identify. E.g.,-droughts,
famines etc.
2.2 Composition of a community
Communities are comprised of different categories of people. However, the proportions
of each may differ from one community to the other. These are:
o Leaders
o Male and female
o People of different generations
o Structures-Schools,Places of worship, Hospitals
o Various groups such as organised clubs, women groups, youth groups, ethnic groups
etc.

3.0 What is Community Mobilisation?

Community Mobilisation is a process of engaging communities to
identify community priorities, resources, needs and solutions in such a way as to promote
representative participation, good governance, accountability and peaceful change. It is an
attempt to bring both human and non-human resources together to undertake developmental
activities in order to achieve sustainable development.
What it is What it is not
1. Nurturing collective power 1. Using power over others
2. Continuous engagement with the 2. One-off activities
community 3. Ad hoc or done without a plan
3. Systematic 4. Done with one strategy
4. Multi-faceted 5. A project
5. A process 6. A technical quick-fix
6. Aneffort for social righteousness 7. About implementing activities
7. About fostering activism 8. Possible with few individuals or
8. Requiring a range of people, groups groups
and institutions
9. Going beyond individuals to 9. Focused only on individuals
influence groups 10. Dividing individuals or groups
10. Building social networks or capital 11. Providing only information and facts
 11. Promoting alternative values 12. Telling people what to think
12. Stimulating critical thinking 13. Limited to specific individuals or
13. Holistic and inclusive groups
14. Based on principles of human rights 14. Based on goodwill
15. Positive and supportive 15. Blaming and shaming
16. Democratic 16. Hierarchical
17. Changing Norms 17. Changing just specific behaviours
18. Collective: everyone must work 18. Possible with individuals acting in
together for change isolation

For community mobilization to succeed, energy and momentum is

Principles of Communitypeople's
needed otherwise mobilization
morale will decline as time goes on.
3.1 Engage the whole community (Circles of Influence)
Any grass root level transformation or development requires commitment and
engagement of the whole community. One-off efforts that engage isolated groups or
implementing sporadic activities has limited impact, because we need to build enough
support that the whole community works through the process of change. Success in any
project depends on reaching and engaging a broad group of women, men and youth at the
individual, community and societal levels. Since people live in community with others, the
whole community needs to be engaged for community-wide change to occur.

A Circle of Influence encompasses those concerns that we have some

control over and leads to become proactive. Each little victory
motivates to find new ways of exerting influence and each step builds
a sense
A Circle to feel stronger
of Concern and morewide
encompasses creative
rangethere by expandingfocus
of concerns.This the
circle
leads oftoinfluence.
more and more blaming and accusing, to feelings of
victimisation.This negative way of thinking, accompanied by inaction
to change things, results in the circle of influence shrinking.
1. Facilitate a Process of Social Change

Changing community norms is a process, not a single event. Projects based on an

understanding of how individuals and communities naturally go through a process of change
can be more effective than those that thrust haphazard messages into the community. The
process of social change mirrors the Stages of Change, and can be broken down into Start,
Awareness, Support and Action phases. Organizations that attempt this work can become
skilled facilitators of individual and collective change by working with, guiding, and
supporting the community along a journey of change.
3.2 Provide Repeated Exposure to Ideas
Community members need to be engaged with regular ideas that build on and reinforce
each other, from a variety of sources over a long period of time. This contributes to changing
the climate in the community and building momentum for change. Repeated exposure to
ideas from a variety of sources can make a difference in people’s attitudes and behaviours.
3.3 Promote Community Ownership
Effective projects aimed at changing harmful beliefs and practices in a community
must engage and be lead by members of that community. Organizations can facilitate and
support change, yet the change must occur in the hearts and minds of community members
themselves. Organizations can work closely with individuals, groups, and institutions to
strengthen their capacity to be agents of change in their community. In this way, their
activism will live long after specific projects end.
 Session 2 : Community mobilisation Process and Key issues

The “Community Mobilisation Process” is also termed as “Community Mobilization

Cycle” or is sometimes called “The Community Participation Promotion Cycle," or the
"Problem Solving Cycle," or "The Community Development Cycle," or "The Social
Animation Cycle". It is a series of interventions (carried out by one or more mobilizer)
designed to increase the level of involvement of a community in the decisions that affect its
own development.
It is called a "Cycle," in that it is repeated, each time building on earlier successes,
errors, and lessons learned.

1.0 The cycle:

 Is a series of interventions in a logical and progressive order
 Is carried out by a justified, authorized and recognized mobilizer (or mobilizers)
 Uses the community choice of action as a means of strengthening
 Requires that the mobilizer(s) be informed and sensitive to community characteristics
 Can be implemented by a ministry or department, or by a non-governmental
organization
 Promotes (encourages, advocates for, trains in skills necessary for, and supports)
community participation in controlling and decision making of all actions affecting
the community as a whole.

2.0 Characteristics of the cycle:

o Are logically linked with each other and to the cycle as a whole;
o Are all needed (absence of any one will seriously weaken its impact); and
o Are initiated in the following order, although there may be some overlap and
continuation:
 1. Participation of all members of a target community (irrespective of biological or
social characteristics)
2. The key decisions to be made, and control to be exercised, include: (i) assessing
needs and potentials (ii) determining priority problems (iii) planning community
action plans (iv) implementing and monitoring them, and evaluating their results
3. The community as a whole takes responsibility (not leaving that to an outside
party)

3.0 Steps:
1. Sensitization and Clearance:
The community mobilizers must be recognized by authority and obtain official status
to avoid any kind of vulnerability. Further, the sensitization must be well planned and
executed and should not be taken as mere formality. The counteracting of rumours and false
assumptions must be integral to the sensitization strategy.
2. Awareness Raising:
Before encouraging the community to act the mobilizer must make the community
members aware of specific realities.During this step, it is important to avoid raising false
expectations, and actively counteract the inevitable assumptions and rumours about the kind
of assistance to expect.
3. Mobilizer Training:
The few mobilizers available can not reach every community in need of an
intervention to encourage empowerment and self reliance. Hence, proper and effective
training of the mobilizers is a must.
4. Unity Organizing:
No community is unified, there are divisions and factions in every community. The
degree varies. When there is much social disparity, it is more difficult to reach a community
consensus of the priority problem, and thus the priority goal. Hence,Unity organizing is a
necessary precedent to most community mobilization, and continues throughout the cycle as
needed.
5. Participatory Assessment:
Although the mobilizer must first make an assessment of community resources,
potentials, hindrances and needs, the strategy of the mobilization cycle requires that an
assessment be done with the community as a whole. This might not be done all at once, and
may be done or continued to be done by the VSS/ other grass root level committee later, after
it is formed and organized.
6. Management Training:
One of the elements of the community management programme that distinguishes it
from orthodox animation or community development interventions, is the addition
of management training. It is not sufficient to allow or even stimulate a low income or
marginalized community to participate in democratic and developmental decision making
and actions; it is also necessary for that community to have the capacity to participate.
Management training is designed to increase that capacity (skill transfer, awareness raising,
information transfer, encouragement and restructuring)
7. Community Action Plan (CAP):
The community must agree on what it wants to achieve over the next period of time,
one year, five years (usually the same period as for the project plans). The plan can also
include one or several community projects.
 8. Community Project Designs:
The key to management training is the asking and answering, of four key questions:
(1) What do we want? (2) What do we have? (3) How do we use what we have to get what
we want? and (4) What will happen when we do? These are expanded in detail to become a
community project design. In the methodology here, the answering of those questions, and
the design of a community project, is participatory, in that it is guided by the mobilizer as
trainer (who asks the questions), and generated by the participants as a group (who answer
the questions).
9. Negotiation:
The mobilizer is walking a fine line here. On one side the community has too much
reliance on the existing resources; on the other is the genuine need for supplementary
resources needed by the community. Where a project design is used as a proposal, written by
the representatives of the community, it becomes an instrument of negotiation between the
community and external authorities and potential sources of resources.Whether the
community seeks resources or approval, or both, its project design and/or proposal is its
instrument for negotiating.
10. Implementation Begins:
At this point the community and its leaders will be more interested in the actions and
results and needs to be reminded and encouraged that monitoring and reporting must be
concurrent with the action. While the goal of the community is the finished facility, the goal
of the strategy and mobilizer is increased community strength and capacity development
(financial and accounting skills, report writing, technical skills).
11. Monitoring and Reporting:
While the monitoring and reporting is aimed at observing the action in order to make
adjustments and avoid getting off track, it is then supplemented by more in-depth assessment
and evaluation. This includes the assessment of impact of the action, and a value judgement
about how it was carried out, if it should have been carried out, and what instead should have
been planned.
This in turn opens the door to repeating the cycle, because it serves the same purpose
as the initial situation analysis and community assessment.
12. Official Completion Ceremony:
The completion ceremony is an opportunity to make a publicized public event, to
raise awareness about community empowerment and about the project, and to confirm the
legitimacy and appropriateness of community participation promotion and

4.0 Key issues in community mobilization

 Community assessment must precede any community intervention, so that planned activities
match the needs and assets of the target audience. Participatory rural assessment
and participatory strategy and/or action planning with prospective target audiences are most
likely to yield the rich qualitative information needed, and to generate momentum for the
project.
 Ensure that the community mobilization strategy is based on a theory of change. There are a
number of theories based on psychological and social sciences that provide a framework for
thinking about pathways to change.
 Communicating, early and clearly, the purpose and nature of the project prevents raising and
disappointing expectations, e.g. any hopes by members of the community to receive
immediate benefits such as financial support, etc.
 Participative monitoring and evaluation with target audience members helps to understand
what change means within the particular community. What may seem irrelevant to an
outsider can be a bold step forward within a particular community.
 To prevent message drift or local activities that may conflict with the project strategy,
community activities should be accompanied and monitored by experienced mobilizers who
can solve issues arising around misinterpretations in a constructive, participatory process.
 Session-3 : The Role of a Community Mobilizer

1.0 Selection of a mobilizer

The following things to be assessed before selection of a Mobilizer:
 "Is he willing to give his time and interest to help community members to solve their
problems themselves?"
 "Can he behave himself in such a way that the people will not see him as boasting?"
 "Can he work in the settlement while avoiding political and factional disputes?"
 "Can I keep up the interest of the people?"
 "Is he willing to work in such a way that community will say they did it themselves?"
 "Does he has enough elementary technical knowledge –in agriculture, appropriate
technology, construction, disability, roads, nutrition, social work, soil conservation,
hygiene, water– to assist community members to analyse their own problems?"
"Is he willing to keep from being discouraged when many things go differently from
the way he expected?"

2.0 Who can be a Community Mobilizer?

 Ability to read and write well in local languages, and the national language
 Ability to speak and listen well in local languages, and the national language
 Ability to stand in front of a group without showing fear or arrogance
 Ability to learn mobilization skills
 A desire to contribute to national development through community empowerment
 Strong morals viz. honesty, transparency, generosity, altruism and respect
 Well motivated, team member able to work alone and/or without supervision
 Ability to observe and analyse social indicators
 Willingness to undertake further training offered by and required by the programme.

3.0 Major roles and responsibilities of a Community Mobilizer

 To begin baseline research of selected communities, and continue to monitor social
change and new social information relevant to community empowerment
 To identify potential leaders and/or organizers
 To motivate and encourage potential leaders to talk to their fellow community
members about unity and self reliance
 To initiate actions aimed at breaking down passivity, apathy and attitudes of letting
others do things for them
 To raise awareness that community members themselves can move each community
out of poverty, and to show them ways they can do this for themselves
 To assist community members to identify needs and to generate solutions, identifying
priority issues and to analyse their problems
 To encourage and stimulate community members to organize for action aimed at
solving their problems and to plan, implement and monitor action that they define
themselves
 To provide community leaders with management skills and knowledge in getting
community members interested, organized and motivated
 To develop trust, tolerance and co-operation among community members
 To assist the community in obtaining available outside resources, warning of the
negative effects of becoming too dependent upon outside resources
  To encourage and stimulate full participation by all community members with special
attention to those who are usually forgotten, marginalized and overlooked in
community decision making
 To assist the community in obtaining information and knowledge that may be
available through governmental and non governmental agencies, through extension
and outreach programmes
 To assist the community members in developing their own capacity and strength to
the point where they no longer need the services of you the mobilizer.
 To call community meetings so as to:
o brief all members on correct information related to community self reliance
and
o organize and arrange the provision of all resources (human and materiel)
needed for community actions
 To stimulate community members to participate in their own community's desired
development actions
 To engage in activities that will promote increased community effectiveness,
capacity, self reliance, and empowerment
 To ensure that all information is accurate and correctly interpreted
 To actively counteract incorrect information, especially that which causes unrealistic
expectations, and later disappointment and discouragement
 To encourage and praise community members, confirming that they have the ability
to develop themselves
 To ensure that every decision about what activities the community will undertake, is
the choice of the whole community, not just a few (powerful) community leaders
 To ensure that the vulnerable are heard in community decisions: including women,
youth, disabled, ethnic minorities, the weak and disenfranchised
 To promote and encourage unity in the community, unity of purpose, of goal and of
action; actively counteracting forces of community disunity prejudice, bigotry,
racism, sexism, clanism, patronage, caste, class
 To come together frequently with other mobilizers to share experiences, mutually
solve common problems, and to improve skills of social animation and community
management
 To assist in the learning of community management skills and techniques by
community leaders and members.

Role Play
1. A community Mobilizer visits the village chief. What and How should be the
approach?
2. A community mobilizer visits a family in the community. He meets at least three
generations of the family: a man, his wife, his mother and his son. How would be
the approach?
 Session-4 : Communication and Community Mobilization

1.0 Introduction
Communication is a key component of sustainable development. Mobilizing
community members for community development is important but members of communities
can only be mobilized when communication is effective. Adequate community
communication leads to effective collaborative efforts in issue of development.
Communication will help engage citizens in development. To bring about social change
among the marginalized and vulnerable population groups, participation must be fostered
through communication; as such will lead to the transformation of the community.This is to
say that communication is a central or the mediating factor facilitating and contributing to
collective change.
The aim of effective rural communication is to put rural people in a position to have the
necessary information for decision making and the relevant skills to improve their livelihood.
In communication for development, rural people are at the centre of any given development
initiative and so communication is used in this sense for people’s participation and
community mobilization, decision making and action, confidence building for raising
awareness, sharing knowledge and changing attitudes, behaviour and lifestyles.
Communication for development is defined as the planned and systematic use of
communication through inter-personal channels, ICTs, audio-visuals and mass media.

2.0 Media (IEC) for Community Mobilization

 Song, Poem, Story
 Poster, Leaflet, Banner, Signboard, Billboard
 Loudspeaker
 Rally
 Radio, Television, Cinema, Newspaper
 Popular drama

3.0 Steps in designing IEC Activities

The information gathered through the needs assessment provides the framework for
the development of suitable IEC activities. Any activities and materials must always be
culturally sensitive and appropriate. These are the major steps you should follow when
designing an IEC activity:
 Conduct a needs assessment.
 Set the goal. This is a broad statement ofwhat you would like to see
accomplishedwith the target audience in the end.
 Establish behavioural objectives that will contribute to achieving the goal.
 Develop the IEC activities and involve asmany other partners as possible. Aftertheir
successful implementation, youshould be able to have a significant impacton
achieving the behavioural objectives.
 Identify potential barriers and ways ofovercoming them.
 Identify potential partners, resources, andother forms of support for your
activitiesand gain their sustained commitment.
 Establish an evaluation plan.
4.0 How to develop IEC Messages
o A good message is short, accurate and relevant.
o It should be disseminated in the language of the target audience and should use
vocabulary appropriate for that audience.
o The message tone may be humorous, moralistic, authoritative, rational or emotionally
appealing.
o It may be intended as a one-time appeal or as repetitive reinforcement. It is often
necessary to develop several versions of a message depending on the audience to
whom it is directed.
o Pre-testing, by trying out the materials with small groups from your larger target
audience, is an essential part of developing messages and educational materials.
o Pre-testing may need to berepeated frequently until you are sure yourinformation is
being conveyed as desired.
o Determine suitable methods and channelsof action and communication. Once the
targetaudience is identified and researchedand the key messages have been chosen,it
is time to decide which media and combinationsof information channels will reachthe
target group.
o Both formal and informalgroups can be targeted. Different channels do different jobs.
Each has its ownstrengths and weaknesses, depending therole it will take in the
communication programme.
o The choice of messages and mediawill be influenced by many factors: cost, literacy
levels, artistic style within the community, familiarity with, and extent of
penetrationof a particular medium for both service providers and users, and
availabilityof the medium in the target population’scommunity.
o The development and refinement of messagesand the choice of the communication
channelor medium are inseparable. Very differentmessages will be developed for
different media,for example radio, stories, poems, songs,posters or flip charts, for the
nature of themedium affects what messages can be successfullyused.
o The skills of those using thematerials must also be considered. It may benecessary to
provide training to those staffexpected to use the materials. For example, itis
important to recognise that placing a pictureor poster on a community wall at which
people mayor may not look is quite different from using aseries of pictures in the
form of a flip chart asan educational tool in a group setting.

5.0 Group Activity

1. Participants to be divided into two teams.
2. Team 1 to be assigned with the job to identify a burning issue of their
locality. Make out justified communication medium to mobilize the
community. Develop the contentof communication for disseminating the
information.
3. Team 2 to list out and present the positive aspects of different communication
media and its need in context to their locality.
 Participant’s Feedback

1) How far has this training fulfilled your demand?

Completely Partly None

2) Give your opinions on the contents discussed in the course:

Sl. Content I have achieved a clear
No. concept
Fully Partly None
1 Composition of a community
2 Principles of Community
Mobilization
3 Community Mobilisation Cycle
4 Key issues in Community
Mobilisation
5 Roles and responsibilities of a
community Mobilizer
6 Media for Communication in
community mobilisation

3) Give √ mark in appropriate box:

Aspects very good good moderate not
satisfactory
Training room
facilities
Quality of food

Recreation

4) Mention three things during the course you liked and did not like
I Liked I did not like
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

5) Of all contents discussed in the course.

You liked most
You disliked most
6) Give your overall impression about the training with √ mark.
Very Good Not bad Not
good satisfactory

7) If you have any additional comments, write here.

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