RURAL FACILITATOR
Developing the skills to be a successful facilitator for social, economic and environmental action
Practical, enjoyable training for professional and volunteer facilitators
Developed in collaboration with the GREAT Project, this course is delivered over three incremental modules to give delegates the Individual, Team and Project level inter-personal skills and knowledge needed to work effectively as a facilitator on rural community projects.
The final exercise is based on a bottom-up community climate-change initiative called “Integrated Local Delivery” (ILD) with the keynote delivered by its author and leading practitioner, Jenny Phelps MBE.
Suitable for:
Professional farm advisors
Volunteer community coordinators
Team leaders
Small project facilitators
Delivered 100% in-person.
Actively seeking host sites nationwide for future presentations.
Gloucestershire-based delegates can apply to the GREAT Project for a discounted rate. (Follow link embedded in GREAT logo.)
Ex-military also tend to have the latent skills to be excellent facilitators; this course will hone these existing skills and provide a civilian framework for those transitioning to follow-on careers. Standard Learning Credits (SLC) may be applied against this course.
Module A - Individual Skills
Module A lays the foundations for the course. Delegates learn about their own strengths upon which they can build their own practice as a facilitator.
Delivered over two days, the course is characterised by practical group activities interspersed with some underpinning theory. Delegates have the opportunity to embed their learning through supported peer reflection and discussion. Real world examples are used to explore and develop facilitator best practice.
Individuals are also supported to develop a course Action Plan which will be developed through the whole course and beyond.
Module B - Team Skills
In Module B, you will develop your practical ability to understand and influence groups of people. What makes a group into a team? How can you ensure all members work together towards a common goal?
Using highly interactive group activities, including outdoors as well as in the classroom, you will develop your active listening, questioning and influencing skills.
Groups will examine real world rural examples to consider alternative approaches to managing conflict, optimising team performance and ways of leading effectively in a range of challenging team situations.
You will reflect on your Action Plan and continue to develop it.
We recommend attending Module B, at least one month after Module A, in order that each delegate has had the opportunity to put into practice their Individual skills and Action Plan. We also recommend trying to stay on one course throughout, where possible, to benefit from working with increasingly familiar colleagues.
Module C - Project Leadership Skills
Module C is the final module of the Rural Facilitator course. It builds on the Individual and Team skills of previous modules to enable the facilitation of more ambitious professional or volunteer projects in the food, farming and sustainability sectors.
Delegates will gain an understanding of a project life-cycle, focusing on how the facilitator can enable timely, successful completion including getting the best possible involvement from all stakeholders. You will examine a familiar past or current project to identify its phases and linked actions. Projects involve a lot of time spent in meetings; you will develop your personal skills so that, as a facilitator, you can get the best out of every meeting by understanding pre, during and post meeting activities.
You will further develop your Action Plan, reflecting on your progress in a supportive partnership and putting in place goals for the future.
Finally, you hear from a leading facilitator about one of their projects and then implement everything learned throughout the course by developing a project plan, within a team, using the presented framework.
(Centrally presented programmes will be based on the Integrated Local Delivery (ILD) framework. We may suggest other speakers and case studies for partnered and hosted presentations.)
In-house Rural Facilitator Courses
Demand from previous delegates has prompted us to offer a bespoke course for your trust, company or charity (staff and volunteers). Please get in touch with Fiona directly to discuss how we can help you unlock your in-house "People Potential".