Community Animators (102)
Development professionals often find it difficult to adequately assess the broad spectrum of problems a community faces, as well as grasp and utilize the various assets the community has to work with. The lack of grassroots knowledge has proven problematic in that development schemes are often mismatched in scale and relevance to the community's needs, abilities and liabilities. Thus the conceived solutions for encouraging community capacities and livelihoods fall short of their objectives. The community animator can act as a critical link between the community and any non-governmental organization collaborator. It should be noted that by those in the field for social change that local citizens and activists can often better activate a community's sentiments and bring about awareness for the possibility to realize change than an outsider who may be perceived to have little understanding of the real issues at stake. Text & Image: Justin Smith Online Anti-Poverty Community (103) Anti-poverty advocates and activists are isolated in their own communities. Because they often do not have the communications and education and training resources they need to do their work, their opportunities for building communities are severely limited. Poor and otherwise marginalized people do not have the information they need to exercise control over their lives and get the resources to which they are entitled or to advocate effectively for themselves. The antipoverty community need communications networks to further their involvement in organizing for social change locally, nationally and internationally. The most effective online anti-poverty communities are constructed from the bottom up rather than the top down. Their resources are defined and created by advocates and poor people to address the need for online activism as it arises. Electronic resources can provide additional tools, but they are activated and made useful by the underlying human and locallybased networks where the advocacy work is actually being done. Text: Penny
