Community Resilience Program
The Challenge: The impact of climate change is far-reaching: disruptions in regional weather patterns can cause water scarcity, food insecurity, health issues, and exacerbate gender inequality. We are seeing the interconnected impacts in every corner of the planet, but leaders in the communities that are most impacted need more opportunities to connect the issues and build community resilience.
Our Model: In the Community Resilience Program, grassroots leaders have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and ability to foster community-level resilience to climate change. Based on input from grassroots leaders in Latin America and West Africa this program explores the following topics in the context of climate change:
Food Security &
Food Sovereignty
Gender & Climate Change
Water, Sanitation
& Hygiene
One Health
Specifically, we are:
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Working with cohorts of grassroots environmental leaders to deepen knowledge through a series of 4 trainings that build on existing knowledge and draw from best practices and expertise within the cohort.
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Offering our Creative Advocacy Practicums (CAPs), a blend of one to one guidance, small grants and artist accompaniment provide opportunities for leaders to work with their communities to develop and test locally relevant solutions.
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Creating space for peer exchange around the CAPs.
Impact: In our inaugural course in Latin America and West Africa, all participants reported increased knowledge and understanding of the subjects and had concrete ideas for applying knowledge within their work and communities.
Hear from Participants:
“Part of my work is advising communities to create backyard gardens and strengthen their food system...I would like to train and transmit the knowledge acquired in this course in my organization in the same flexible way that Creative Action Institute has; I want to change many of its forms of thinking that have been established for a long time by more sustainable ones.”
-Cesar Coadro, Guatemala
“The training helped me improve my activities with rural communities. In particular to promote communication creatively. The pandemic forced us to rethink how we obtain information and share knowledge. Using the techniques I learned has helped me build more trust in the people we work with and understand the needs of those around me. I have understood that you have to learn to listen and communicate clearly and assertively."
-Marco Acevedo, Oaxaca, Mexico
“(This program) has allowed organizations from several Latin-American countries to create stronger conservation networks, presenting an opportunity for attendees to develop meaningful connections with other members of their field from different cultures.”
-Mario Ardany de León, Guatemala
Where We Work: Belize ᛫ Cameroon ᛫ Ghana ᛫ Guatemala ᛫ Honduras ᛫ Mexico ᛫ Nicaragua ᛫ Peru
