Step 7. Developing the FO's Management through Education and Action Learning
An essential part of community empowerment is to help educate the leaders and members in management principles covering planning, implementing, and monitoring their projects and programmes. The following empowerment methods may be useful:
• Educating. Organize formal and informal learning activities.
• Leading. Help the leaders to lead and to learn from their actions by reflection as a team.
• Mentoring and supporting. Help the members initially by mentoring or supporting them in their planning and implementation stages.
• Providing. Obtain the services of other stake holders, FOs, and VEWs in providing various services to nurture the FO in the early stages of development.
• Structuring. Help the FO to structure its meetings and various participative planning activities and to learn from their experience through reflection.
• Actualizing. Help them to reflect on the process of managing their FO. Learning by doing can help them in self-actualization.(For more details on empowerment, see Vogt and Murrell (1990).