Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.....If you wish to SEND a report...send to your ICA contact person OR...go to the members section on the ICA International website

Week ending: Saturday 2010 11 20

AUSTRALIA:

Location:

Three ICA-A members who had visited East Timor previously - David Jago, and John & Elaine Telford, along with Karen Newkirk, made a good team to help PRADET (Psychological Recovery and Development in East Timor) develop their next 4 year plan. The 38 PRADET staff, supported by Donors, work with an increasing number of people in Timor who experience trauma.
 
Timor has a population of 1 million people – of the 200,000 who are under the age of 5 years 50% are 'already affected by malnutrition.' This is the next generation of Timorese! One project we visited which is addressing this crisis is, HIAM – Health, a program to reduce the number of people who are suffering from the effects of poor nutrition using a 3 prong approach: Rehabilitation, Preventative Strategies and Training. This project works through introducing adults and children to permaculture gardening methods and teaching them cooking skills. See HIAM Health at www.hiamhealth.org
 
The ICA-A team made twenty visits to key people working in various local NGOs, Government Agencies and local women's groups which confirmed the need to focus on capacity building to develop a sustainable base of local and regional leadership. A foundation was laid for developing a partnership with the East Timor Development Agency and with FONGTIL for delivery of facilitative leadership training modules in 2011.
 
Some of these visits were to partnership projects supported by two East Timor support groups located in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney where the Telford's live.
 
Elaine Telford


RIchard           richardandmaria@unfoldingfutures.net

BANGLADESH:

Location: Dhaka

While celebrating Eid on Nov. 19th. ICA colleagues in Chandpur visited the Ghoramara Community Project, inspecting the newly constructed school building, taking photographs, and talking to the school teachers and community leaders. They also consulted with the Ghoramara community for their ideas relative to the upcoming Action Planning workshop on Nov. 26th.

Aziz, Zaki, Habib, Mizan, Manik and Naimul had various phone conversations regarding the Community Workshop design, the School Project inauguration, the Street Children Project brochure, fundraising strategies, and faculty training.

Duncan and the ICA team scheduled a discussion meeting for the 1st. week of December, on capacity building and growth strategy.

The Terrorism Study Team did a case study on one of the terrorists. They are going to do another 4 case studies by the end of next week.

Zaki            admin@ica-bangladesh.org

ICA ASSOCIATES INC. (Canada)

Location: Canada

For Jo Nelson, it was - another week, another community. She and the team had a light week. They were able to take time to look at the results of the completed consultations. When shown the results, the team leader, unable to be there, but present at most of the consultations said, 'This is very good. I can hear the voices of the people.'

Associate trainer, Erwin Allerdings taught Group Facilitation and Facilitated Planning to large groups in Regina, Saskatchewan. He also taught Group Facilitation in Vancouver, BC.

John Miller facilitated two workshops with on-going clients.

Duncan Holmes has drawn together the first draft of the results of the first stage of focus groups with U of T Faculty of Education. The focus groups involved all faculty members and posed the questions of guiding values and vision for the future of the department.  The next stage in the process will focus on obstacles and strategies, completing the strategic thinking cycle and resulting in positive developmental initiatives for the department and it's work.

Wayne Nelson, John Miller, Christine Wong and Bill Staples have been working very hard to build models to solve some difficult issues related to our website.

Wayne Nelson           wnelson@ica-associates.ca

UNITED STATES:

ICA-Chicago

Workshop for Belarus Delegation

The Asset-Based Community Development Institute (ABCD) at Northwestern University is at the center of a large and growing movement that considers local assets as the primary building blocks of sustainable community development. Building on the skills of local residents, the power of local associations, and the supportive functions of local institutions, asset-based community development draws upon existing community strengths to build stronger, more sustainable communities for the future.

In partnership with ABCD, the ICA-USA hosted 15 professionals from Belarus. They were regional, district, township and village administrators. The idea of local community people living in one area and enjoying a wide range of authority over the life in that area is completely foreign and not evident in Belarus.  Three generations of citizens learned passive reliance on and compliance with the authoritarian state. In many Belarusian communities NGOs have been working hard to break this stereotype and increase citizen participation. Terry Bergdall, ICA-USA’s CEO, was the facilitator for a two-day workshop on planning and designing community development strategies.

ICA’s Mid-Point in a Century of Care - 50th Celebration

The planning committee (chaired by ICA-USA board member Alan Gammel and virtually facilitated by board member Cheryl Kartes) is committed to leading in the creation of a story and strategic framework to guide the work of the Institute and its local and global collegial networks for the next 50 years, through building connections and generating resources and collective courage. This will happen by:

• Involving at least 1,000 colleagues as equal, active participants.
• Gathering old colleagues, new colleagues, college students, and the ToP Network.
• Developing resources as needed — people and money.
• Using 2011 for preparing, dialoguing and engaging.
• Expanding 2012 for celebrating and engaging.

In 2012 there will be four events: One large celebration at the 4750 N. Sheridan Road building in Chicago, 50 events in 50 states, an OIKOS symposium at Oklahoma City University and the international conference in Nepal.  

Karen Sims        ksims@ica-usa.org