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PARTICIPATORY DECISION MAKING The brilliant President of a high-tech, start-up company had come to the point at which he could no longer effectively manage as he had previously. Very bright engineers had their own ideas and resented his seeming domination. The President was reluctant to trust the judgment to others, a situation aggravated by the need for confidentiality because some products have a short advantage before competitors copy. In the planning program, members of the management and scientific group became increasingly open to each others' ideas, were more willing to share their own thoughts and feelings without making demands or offering ultimatums. Currently the group is adapting the planning process to making R&D decisions. ICA will continue with the leadership team, holding follow-up review exercises, teaching participation skills and mentoring individuals as needed for increased responsibility. The company, which has been doubling its revenue annually, has great product potential limited only by its human capacities. ICA Taiwan

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The 100 VALLEYS Project is designed to facilitate the self-development of all the communities of the valleys of Peru. Today we have hundreds of organizations working with the rural communities in the valleys of the Coast and Sierra creating an urgent necessity to integrate the resources of these many entities to secure greater results. There is a great opportunity now to create agreement between organizations in order to deliver superior services to the communities at no additional cost. The principal actions of the 100 VALLEYS Project are: Facilitate the collaboration of the agencies that are serving the rural communities in order to permit the self-development approach to development Initiate demonstration projects that highlight best practices of sustainable production Implement self-development Demonstration Communities in the Sierra Regions, followed by others in the climate zones of each valley Initiate Voluntary Leaders Associations in each climate zone to guide the process of self-development for the long term Promote long-term large scale development projects that are beyond the vision of the government The role of ICA-Peru as the coordinator of this Project is to: Facilitate the coordination of the collaborating agencies Guide the demonstrations to assure that they are replicable. Share effective methods to support self-development and avoid dependency Promote practices that assure a substantial participation of the local people in all of the communities of the valleys Monitor and document the coverage and consistency of the services delivered Constantly facilitate a new consensus when new challenges arise. location -

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Northwest Together We Can (NWTWC) invested on an engagement project where young people from five areas across Greater Manchester would assess community needs through peer research. ICA:UK trained and supported the groups of young people to undertake this research. Our aim was to work with the young people, helping them to identify an area of need to focus on and to select a medium of research which would encourage and engage their peers. There is a desire for change in Partington and a high number of young people who are willing to give up time to help improve Partington life. They often feel let down by authorities and need more support from the police in particular. They need community centres to stay open and offer a safe space at all times, and for more positive activities to be set up for and with young people. The research carried out in Oldham for the Breeze Hill High School and Count Hill High School Merger highlighted a fear and concern around racism, as the two schools represent very different communities (mostly white in one school and mostly Asian in another). The study in Brinnington focussed on alcohol use amongst under 18. Alco-pops and clear/white spirits were the most popular choice of alcohol. In Leigh the findings highlighted the desire for change in Leigh. There were a high number of young people who felt that there was a limited amount of options of places to go, and that more activities and places to go should be created in the community. In Leigh the findings highlighted the desire for change in Leigh. There were a high number of young people who felt that there was a limited amount of options of places to go, and that more activities and places to go should be created in the community. A desire for a community centre appears an important part of bringing the residents of Leigh together. Many people felt unsafe in Leigh with a perception of a low police presence in the area. Lots of young people were unhappy with the untidy and vandalized appearance of Leigh in some areas. They felt the local government should provide more reason to come to and stay in Leigh and be proud of the area. ICA:UK, registered charity no. 1090745 - company limited by guarantee no. 3970365, registered in England & Wales registered address: 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester M15 5RF - tel/fax: 0845 450 0305 or 0161 232 8444 In Ashton a research theme of racism and stereotypes was chosen. Although the findings were useful, during the process we discovered a need for anti-discriminatory practice training.

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Connect in the North (CITN citn.org.uk) brings together people with learning difficulties and not-for-profit organisations to improve services and opportunities for people with learning difficulties. CITN Director Cathy Wintersgill has attended a number of ICA:UKs public Technology of Participation (ToP) facilitation training courses since 2003, and has used elements of the approach in her work within CITN and with client organisations as well. After attending our ToP Participatory Strategic Planning course in May, Cathy expressed an interest in contracting me to apply elements of this method to CITNs upcoming Big Meeting, an annual event for the organisation to listen to the views of people with learning difficulties and update its business plan. She had not before attempted to facilitate a full ToP Consensus Workshop1 with a group of people with learning difficulties, however, and was concerned that some of those attending the Big Meeting might find the clustering of ideas and naming of clusters difficult and boring, and so disengage. Although I did not have prior experience of facilitating groups of people with learning difficulties, my experience generally has been that the methodology is sufficiently robust but flexible to be applied successfully with virtually any group. So, to help to assess what sort of approach would be appropriate, I offered to do a little research to explore the experience of other facilitators who have facilitated such groups, using both ToP methods and other approaches. I emailed a brief query to four online facilitation discussion groups, and within 10 days had received 22 responses totalling 17 pages and a wealth of experience and insight (full document available on request). The four groups were ICA:UK, ToP Associates network, the global ICA ToP trainers network, the Group Facilitation discussion group of the International Association of Facilitators (iaf-world.org) and the UK Community Participation Network2. My request was for respondents to share any experience of facilitating groups with people with learning difficulties that might point to any potential issues, and to share any particular hints & tips for success. The six key insights that I was able to discern from the responses received follow here, each illustrated by a few extracts edited from the words of some of the respondents themselves: 1. 2. 3. 4. collaborate with members of the group (and others with experience of working with them) to design & facilitate a process that will work for them _ Jim Wiegel - ask some of the participants what will make it go well - I bet they know a lot about how they participate most effectively. Hildy Gottlieb3 - I'm glad you mentioned this, Jim. We were recently working with a group for whom we were going to be doing a 3-day planning session - very intense. My contact in the group told me relatively early in the process that he has Attention Deficit Disorder and to please factor that into the facilitation plans. My response to him was that he and I would design the process together, that he should tell me what worked for him, what didn't. I told him that even during the actual facilitation, if I was losing him, to let me know and we would make it work, because his input was invaluable in getting the work done. The result was nothing I could codify and say, Heres the answer for when you are designing around someone with Attention Deficit Disorder . but I do know he had 3 of the best days of his life - the work was energizing he was participating and attentive. and truly it was 3 very inspired days. adapt/slow the pace _ Loretta Donovan - keep in mind that the attention span of a fully-abled adult is about 20 minutes. If you pace the various activities into 15 minute chunks and allow for frequent short breaks. it will help you as facilitator to know that your meeting is moving forward and help the participants to maintain their energy and attention. Marion Conway4 - The discussion may be more round about and sometimes seem off topic. Don't be too anxious to get to the point

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George House Trust (GHT) is the HIV voluntary organisation for the North West of England. It supports people living with and affected by HIV, and campaigns for the best quality of life for all people with HIV. ICA:UK was approached in July 2007 to design and facilitate a staff Away Day later that month. w GHT had undergone substantial change in the last couple of years - including significant expansion of the staff team and its service delivery, turnover of some senior staff, and subsequent restructuring of management posts. Aneed had been felt for an externally facilitated process to allow staff to unpack and reflect together on this recent past, at what was felt to be a turning point before looking ahead by means of a fresh strategic planning process later in the year. Around a dozen of the full staff team of 14 were to attend - including one very new, a few new within the past few years, and others with a long history of service. As an organisation involved in hard campaigning on controversial issues in a sometimes highly politicised environment, the staff team comprised strong advocates and activists. AIMS. The day was designed and facilitated to provide a safe and supportive space to reflect together on the staff teams shared recent past, and how it had affected them as individuals and the organisation as a whole. The aims of the day were articulated as follows: to allow stresses, frustrations and challenges to be aired, balanced by successes and achievements as well; to draw a line under the past, and lay a firm foundation for forward strategic planning later in the year; to have some fun, and rebuild stronger bonds and a sense of team spirit. The documentation of the day included the aims and outline of the process, participants hopes & fears and ground rules, a full verbatim record of the Wall of Wonder and World Cafe__ sessions with photos of the sticky wall and decorated table cloths, and detailed feedback from participants evaluation forms. Participants feedback included: the timeline really enabled us to address many key issues for ourselves lots of issues bubbling beneath the surface got a good airing I feel a line has very, very clearly been drawn under some past events - I feel there will be more team cohesiveness and we will move on in strength I feel we have a better understanding of each other & better ways of working Impact Michelle Reid, GHT Chief Executive, wrote in November 2008 of the impact of the day: An effective team will always need to invest in time out in order to continue functioning well. The organisation had gone through significant change, and inevitably we needed to re-group and re-establish the frameworks that make the organisation such a formidable force to be reckoned with. ICA facilitated an excellent day which helped to enable us to go from strength to strength.

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In 2003, 45 men and women in Nabuganyi Parish in Kayuga District were trained as peer educators and a community plan was created. Good cooperation was developed with the district health office, but very few services were available to the district and almost none outside the district town. Despite very little staff support, the 2005 project evaluation revealed continued enthusiasm and involvement of the 2003 participants. Concern was expressed that youth understand the full threat of HIV. Stigma was very high and youth often continued unhealthy sexual habits because to change behavior might mark them as being HIV positive. In 2008, a project to train youth leaders was funded by Rotary Club of Boulder, Colorado in cooperation with the Kyambogo Rotary in Kampala. Bob and Sandra True went to Kayunga District to assist in a five-day Youth Awareness and Mobilization Training. Thirty male and female out of school youth ages 18 – 25 from each of eight villages in Busana District participated, a total of 240 youth. The youth are primarily ages 18 – 25, and both men and women. During the lesson on VCT, more than 90% were tested and received their results immediately. As part of training, participants formed campaign teams to go door to door to urge people to be tested. This complemented the Ministry of Health initiative to promote voluntary door to door testing. In addition, a Living Well group was formed and began training. The program was not refunded by Boulder Rotary, although Kyambogo Rotary in Kampala was enthusiastic   Zambia The current work of OPAD on HIV focuses on the intersection of poverty and HIV infection in areas where prevalence rates are higher than the rest of the country: Central province, 17.5%,; Lusaka Province, 20.8%; and Southern Province 14.5%. Work has shifted from HIV/AIDS prevention awareness and care in 2003 in Mwanamainda area to VCT awareness because most Zambians are aware of HIV/AIDS and how to prevent it 
Strengthening community based structures and response groups in order to effectively meet the development needs of HIV/AIDS affected families and PLWHA
Increasing food diversity and security for :PLWHA and HIV/AIDS affected families 
Reducing socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS among women and their families through income earning initiatives