About the Community Development Education Program
Communities do not just happen – they are developed over time. SPARC BC understands community development as both an ongoing process and a product of planned interaction between people and their environment. It involves learning, organizing and acting in focused ways that improve community life.
Why bring SPARC BC Community Development Education to your community?
- As a community you know intuitively what you want, and where you need to go, but maybe you also sense there are gaps in skills and knowledge or clarity in how to get there.SPARC BC will deliver place-based workshops (non-formal education) where your community needs are at the centre of curriculum design.
- We have ten workshop frameworks from which to choose, but you are involved from the start in working with our expert facilitator in crafting and shaping the workshop exactly to your community needs.
- The workshops are free or low-cost and available to rural and Northern BC Communities (under 25,000 population).
- The CDE program was born from SPARC BC's mission and core values. Our main interest is building your capacity so that individuals, groups and organizations are confident in planning and taking action on local issues.
How do we define community? However you do.
The term community means different things to different people. For some, community refers to the resources, infrastructure, spaces and living creatures within a defined geographic location (geographic community). Others think of community as a type of human organization, such as social justice communities or the business community (community of interest). No matter the definition, people and communities are of special interest to SPARC BC and we want to be part of your process of learning, developing and changing.