The first Community Work skills manual was published in 1979 as a way for community workers to share their work and ideas with other community workers; since then there have been another 3 community work skills manuals produced, each one bigger than the last as people were very willing to share their practice and learning and so assist with the development of the skills and knowledge of community work. The 2009 Skills Manual can be found in sections here on this website.
ESB recognises the phenomenal amount of energy and work that has been undertaken at grass roots / community level during the Covid-19 crisis and we have tried to create a new version of the Skills Manual of many of the ideas and actions that sprung up and to learn from the many different initiatives that were set up. We hope that it has given us an opportunity to celebrate all the usually invisible activities that happen at grass roots that are rarely recognised or acknowledged.
If you are or were involved in any community initiative(s) during the pandemic months and would be willing to share what happened and what was learned we would love to hear your stories. It seems unlikely that this will be the last pandemic or substantial crisis that affects all communities and hearing about what ideas were tried this time can help us prepare for the next crisis. Contact us to let us know you would like to contribute.
The manual will be published on line and will grow as more examples are contributed. You can see what we have collected already here.
We hope that the skill manual will lead to:
- A sharing of good ideas, of learning from each other’s practice, of knowing more about what works and what doesn’t in different communities, all adding to the rich repertoire of all good community development
- Organisations that can support through funding or other resources having a better idea of how they can support communities a times of crisis, to build on what strengths exist and to add to them, rather than always wanting new/ innovative ideas which may not be what communities need
- A greater awareness of what goes on under the radar, at a grassroots level, as community seek to tackle huge and pressing problems they face
- Making the invisible much more visible, with community work being recognised for what it does all the time and not just in times of crisis to tackle inequalities and injustice
Contact us to let us know you would like to contribute.