CSDi Training for Individuals, Communities & Nonprofits
CSDi Training for Individuals, Communities & Nonprofits
Tim gives a summary of facilitating a needs assessment. Meet with a group of community members to get their perspective on climate challenges that they are facing.
Write down their concerns, and then help the group prioritize them to determine which is the most important one for them to start on first.
Mr. Magee is CSDi’s Executive Director, and the author of A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation, Routledge, Oxford, England.
Good morning and welcome to How to Write a Climate Action Plan! Let’s get started.
The first step is for you to facilitate a community climate change needs assessment. This means you will meet with a group of community members to get their perspective on climate challenges that they are facing.
If you are doing a community-wide climate action plan, hold a meeting with 10 or 12 community members that represent different facets of the community: men and women, young and old, and people from different cultures.
As facilitator, your job is to inspire members of the group to express their concerns about the challenges that a changing climate is creating in their rural area. You will write down their ideas, and towards the end, help the group prioritize them.
You will need a newsprint flip chart and an easel to hold it. As they speak, try to capture each of their ideas in just a few words.
When they are done, review the list with them to make sure they’re in agreement with what you wrote down.
Have them take a 15-minute break while you organize the list.
If you find that some of the ideas are closely related, combine them into one. The list may have started out with 10 or 12 challenges, but after you’ve combined similar ideas, you might find that you only have 5 or 6 total.
Now, transfer the challenges onto a clean sheet of newsprint.
Reassemble the group and read out one challenge at a time and encourage discussion. You want to make sure that you captured the essence of what they had suggested and that all the members of the group understand each idea.
Then, lay the sheet down on a table and give everyone ten beans or pennies that they can use as tokens for voting.
Let each person go up one at a time and vote on the challenges that they feel are the most important. They can put all 10 of their tokens on one challenge, or they can spread them out between multiple challenges.
When everyone is done voting, write down the number of votes next to each challenge. Open the results up for a concluding discussion.
By working with community members and expressing the importance of the list they developed, you will begin the process of their developing a sense of ownership for the climate plan. That ownership will lead to long-term sustainability and continuation of the plan.
And the fact that they prioritized their challenges gives you permission and a goal-oriented direction for moving forward with their Climate Action Plan.
Please download the homework instructions for Assignment One. You have three weeks to organize and hold your meeting, and send me your results. I look forward to seeing them!
The first step in creating a climate change needs assessment, is for you to facilitate a community climate change needs assessment. This means you will meet with a group of community members to get their perspective on climate challenges that they are facing.
If you are doing a community-wide climate action plan, hold a meeting with 10 or 12 community members that represent different facets of the community: men and women, young and old, and people from different cultures.
As facilitator, your job is to inspire members of the group to express their concerns about the challenges that a changing climate is creating in their rural area. You will write down their ideas, and towards the end, help the group prioritize them.
You will need a newsprint flip chart and an easel to hold it. As they speak, try to capture each of their ideas in just a few words.
When they are done, review the list with them to make sure they’re in agreement with what you wrote down.
Have them take a 15-minute break while you organize the list.
If you find that some of the ideas are closely related, combine them into one. The list may have started out with 10 or 12 challenges, but after you’ve combined similar ideas, you might find that you only have 5 or 6 total.
Now, transfer the challenges onto a clean sheet of newsprint.
Reassemble the group, read out one challenge at a time, and encourage discussion. You want to make sure that you captured the essence of what they had suggested and that all the members of the group understand each idea.
Then, lay the sheet down on a table and give everyone ten beans or pennies that they can use as tokens for voting.
Let each person go up one at a time and vote on the challenges that they feel are the most important. They can put all 10 of their tokens on one challenge, or they can spread them out between multiple challenges.
When everyone is done voting, write down the number of votes next to each challenge. Open the results up for a concluding discussion.
By working with community members and expressing the importance of the list they developed, you will begin the process of their developing a sense of ownership for the climate plan. That ownership will lead to long-term sustainability and continuation of the plan.
And the fact that they prioritized their challenges gives you permission and a goal-oriented direction for moving forward with their Climate Action Plan.
Please download the homework instructions for Assignment One. You have three weeks to organize and hold your meeting, and send me your results. I look forward to seeing them!
To learn more about needs assessments and about the Climate Action Plan Workshop click the button.
Are you worried about the impact of climate change on your community but unsure how to take action? Is your North American small town grappling with increasing climate challenges such as drought, wildfires, flooding, or heat waves?
Would your community find it difficult to hire an expensive climate consultant to develop a plan?
We are here to help you create your own climate action plan with an assisted, do-it-yourself, step-by-step process. Join our training program designed to empower you with the knowledge and tools to:
Your community deserves access to evidence-based solutions for climate change that have been road-tested by other communities similar to yours. We emphasize affordable, do-it-yourself, common-sense solutions that leverage country wisdom and know-how.
Learn more about the workshop here.
This workshop is open to all, regardless of your community’s size or budget constraints. We especially encourage participation from:
By the end of this workshop, you will have developed a concrete product: a climate action plan designed specifically for your community.
Workshop Details:
Start Date: Begins the first Monday of each month.
To learn more about what you will gain from the workshop, click here for in-depth information.
Tim Magee and the Center for Sustainable Development bring over 15 years of experience in helping communities develop climate action plans into this training program. Mr. Magee is the author of A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation, Routledge, Oxford, England.
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