SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT DIPLOMA 140: Blended Online—Live Training Program
Sustainable Project Design Aligned To The UN SDGs | Fund Development Projects
Advance your Career, Raise Funds and Solve Challenges
This course is for NGO and donor staff—and job-seekers wanting to successfully solve community challenges. Participants work on international projects as diverse as food security, water, health, income generation, adaptation to climate change, gender, education—or with connecting farmers to a market—and decided to enroll in the program because they were:
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What Participants Say:
“I just want to take this opportunity to complement you on the practical ideas, knowledge and vast experience that you continue to share with us on each assignment. Many times your examples are the solution of choice for our community. I have been provided with constant support, practical solutions suitable for my project, feedback specific to our project submissions and unwavering encouragement.” Gillian Primus
“Thank you for all your effort in putting together a great program and all of the program resources. Thank you for everything – for making this possible, for your guidance, and for your continuous optimism and encouragement. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you again in the next session.” Wye Yee Yong.
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Sustainable Project Design + Extra Funding = Increased Services
The course will lead you in developing a winning, impact oriented project to help you:
Design your own Solution-Oriented Project & Attract Donors
The course provides cutting-edge information, tools, time-saving templates, training and expert consultancy—and leads you in developing a real project for your organization. You will:
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- Locally Collected Data: 3 weeks pre-workshop online training component. Guided Field Data Collection: Community Needs Assessments. Conduct a needs assessment with a target population in preparation for use in the workshop—guided through distance learning by CSDi staff. We will provide all of the tools and information you need to conduct the needs assessments.
- 2 field days. Don’t have community access? Join us for 2 field days the Saturday and Sunday prior to the workshop conducting a participatory needs assessment with our local partner at the workshop location.
- 5 days. A Face-to-Face Workshop. Full Sustainable Project Design and Development. Working with the CSDi workshop leader, you will use your needs assessment to begin the development of a complete, fundable, launchable project.
- Completion Certificate. Receive a workshop completion certificate from the Center for Sustainable Development.
PHASE II: 12 weeks.
- assess and organize information about vulnerabilities that communities face
- work side-by-side with communities to develop long-term, sustainable programs
- empower communities to take full charge of programs once up and running
- fund projects
- clearly assess a community’s development need in a target community
- develop a project outline with a problem statement, underlying causes, and solution oriented activities
- research scientific evidence that your activities have worked to solve the project challenge
- develop project management documents: a log frame, a project budget and a detailed schedule
- develop a Letter of Inquiry for a donor presentation
- develop field guides and lesson plans for beginning a series of capacity building community workshops
- develop a participatory monitoring and evaluation plan
- develop a long-term project management plan for community use
Methodology. | |
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This is a blended learning workshop. During the month prior to the five day workshop, guided by CSDi staff, you will conduct needs assessments with a local community—in the country where you work—in preparation for the workshop. These will become the basis of your project. Arriving at the 5 day workshop, you will spend five days developing and fine-tuning a project that will address the specific context that your community faces.
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Facilitation | |
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The workshop will be led by Tim Magee, CSDi’s Executive Director, who has over 30 years experience in both working with nonprofits and leading training workshops. Mr. Magee is the author of A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation published by Routledge, Oxford, England.
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Resources | |
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• We will provide a library of links to resources for the different challenges that you’re likely to encounter: scientific studies, manuals, field guides, and community capacity building resources. • You will be able to download a full range of document templates for you to customize to best address your project. • Course facilitators will work individually with you as consultants throughout the week in developing your specific project. |
Course participants’ sustainable projects have included 270 different kinds of solution oriented activities impacting over 400,000 people. To learn more about the breadth of participant’s projects, investigate course participant countries (153), organizations (500), and project themes.
Pre-workshop |
Participatory Field Assessment of Community Need
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The goal of the workshop is to guide you in developing a real project for your target community. As this is community-based development, we need to identify your community’s perception of their need. In the 3 weeks before the live workshop the workshop facilitator will guide you in leading a participatory needs assessment with your community. We will provide handbooks and workshop lesson plans for leading the assessment.
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If you don’t have access to a community for conducting a needs assessment, join us in the optional pre-workshop component and work with a local community on their needs assessment and project outline development. The needs assessment will be conducted with a local partner near the workshop location.
• conduct a participatory needs assessment with our local workshop partner
Develop a clear problem definition in preparation for Monday’s workshop
• develop a problem outline including a problem statement, underlying causes—and their negative impacts
Community: Local Knowledge of development needs and solutions
• reviewing the in-country pre-workshop community needs assessments
Researching Development Solutions
• researching development based solution information
• summarizing development based solution information
Challenge: Local Context
• comparing local knowledge to development knowledge
• completing a revised project outline reflecting local need, local knowledge, and scientific knowledge
Solution: Identifying Sustainable Activities
• researching evidence-based project activities
• verifying activity effectiveness through scientific evidence
• developing the program and activity solution list
• mainstreaming: integrating traditional development activities with adaptation and DRR activities
Project: Management & Project Funding Tools
• developing a logical framework, detailed budget and a project schedule
• participant project presentations
• project summary: writing a compelling two page fact sheet (LOI)
• how will you organize a donor presentation?
• where will you find donors to present your project to?
Launch: Partnering with the Community
• preparing for the formation of a community project management committee
Sustainability: Capacity Building for Community Takeover
• community capacity building
• selecting the first activity for a community capacity building workshop
• two-way knowledge transfer: lesson plans
Impact: Milestones into the Future
• participatory project monitoring and evaluation plans
• finding future expertise and resources to address future challenges
• developing a long-term project management plan for the community
Post-workshop |
The Program will Link Theory and Practice
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3 Simple Steps to Launch Your Project. Upon enrolling in 343 and 344, we will support you in launching the project with your community that you developed in the training program. In the month after the live workshop, after you return home, the workshop facilitator will provide guidance, consultation, and resources—and will guide you in forming a community based project management committee, engaging the committee in project management, and leading your first capacity building workshop with community members.
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Requirements | |
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Participants | |
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- Staff from large INGOs, staff from small in-country NGOs, people considering career changes, and business owners with a social conscience.
Location | Claremont, California |
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Claremont, located at the foot of the beautiful San Gabriel mountains, is 32 miles east of Los Angeles. It became a college town in the late 1880s with the founding of Pomona College; now there are nine colleges and graduate schools. Claremont, with its tree lined streets, is a walking town. Downtown Claremont (“The Village”) boasts sidewalk cafes and a variety of shops and restaurants. Here is Claremont’s Summer 2015 Services and Activities Guide.
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This CSDi training program is offered in 4 venues to best suit your needs:
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Participant Quotes | |
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- You have just made our day. Thank you for your usual prompt and generous reviews of our work. Your system is most effective. Helps us to do well. Thank you once again. We are grateful for your mentorship. Carolyn. US.
- We are thankful for your guidance, for coming up with these courses that are relevant, and for your continuous optimism and encouragement. Wye Yee. Malaysia.
How to Enroll. See how to enroll by clicking on “Enroll Now” at the bottom of the page. to get started, fill out the Participant Application Form.
“Thank you for all your effort in putting together a great program and all of the program resources. Thank you for everything – for making this possible, for your guidance, and for your continuous optimism and encouragement. I look forward to the opportunity to work with you again in the next session.” Wye Yee Yong
“As you know, as a real beginner in designing projects, without your project example templates I could never have written even a single word by myself.” Moise
“I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude for the knowledge addition to our careers and the time you take to correct our assignments. This has opened doors for us to venture into designing our own projects, and I’m very sure we shall never go POOR. You’ve indeed taught us how to FISH—not provided FISH.” Dianah
“This program was absolutely awesome! The course content, instruction, example projects, on-line resources and the most valuable – your timely guidance on the assignments were all perfectly done.” Boris
“I’m so excited with the whole experience this training has provided me. The interaction with the community, sharing their lives, their enthusiasm in participating and opening up to me – and with lots of hope in seeing me engage with them.” George
“This training program is an absolute cracker. After undertaking the course, I was able to relate and transform community need into a project idea that could attract donor funding. The exercise of transforming goals into a simple logical framework was particularly exhilarating and smooth. It was indeed an eye opener for me.” Perry