Guidebooks


A glimpse of…Guidebook 2 Community Economic Development Philosophy and Theory

 

EDOs say the 16 competencies are the ones they believe to be the most common and important to their work. They are the primary areas of knowledge and skills that are needed to do the job well. Although the majority of EDOs involved with developing this process feel capable of doing their jobs, almost all said that there are areas that they need to improve their competence in some areas. They felt that having a more detailed description of the competencies was a big help in thinking about their professional development as well as their job requirements.

To learn more about CED in more detail about CED philosophy and theory, to see the CED community checklists, models of CED, CED tools and processes and other tools and processes a copy of this Guidebook can be purchased and CANDO can provide training for this guidebook or on any of the 16 guidebooks for more information contact CANDO at 1-800-463-9300 or email Anita Boyle at anita.boyle@edo.ca or Delilah Mah at delilah.mah@edo.ca to download the Guidebooks Order.

“Every individual has their own understanding of Community Economic Development. Everyone understands each word separately, but together, there’s more to think about”.

Communities are often at different stages of development. Some are able to strategically plan. Others find it difficult to organize a small community project. In others, it is difficult to get key players in the room without a major conflict occurring. The Communities Matrix was developed to quickly asses what levels communities where at as a means of determining what tools or actions were appropriate. Many communities start out stuck at level ten. Some communities have built up small victories and now function at a higher level. Where does your community fit into the following Communities Matrix? (Please note the following chart can be found within Guidebook 2)

CED can be sometimes a slow and complex process. This is because they involve people, community, allocation of resources (time, energy and money), and changing people’s behavior. Like building a house, it is important to plan and build a strong foundation. CED is like a house. The foundation is the skills of the people and the supportive organizations in your community. While there are short cuts to providing temporary shelter, there is no substitute for a well-built house. While it may seem to take a lot of energy and time to get the solid house started, in the end it take less energy and resources than trying to rebuild every year after your house had fallen down.