scholarly journals What small NGOs can deliver: A case study of a Canadian community-based project making fabric scrub caps for healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 851-856
Author(s):  
Qiuyu Jiang

This essay examines how a small-scale non-governmental organization mobilizes community members in Montreal, Canada, to respond to the city’s shortage of personal protective equipment during COVID-19 by making more than 1600 scrub caps for local healthcare workers. As the CAP-MTL project has progressed, organizers have constantly adjusted how they run the project in order to meet evolving needs through three major phases: (1) centralizing resource allocation, (2) building a self-sufficient production team and (3) pairing volunteers with healthcare workers. This case study highlights how in crisis response projects, organizers must be flexible and adapt to fluid and dynamic situations.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1862
Author(s):  
Alexandros-Georgios Chronis ◽  
Foivos Palaiogiannis ◽  
Iasonas Kouveliotis-Lysikatos ◽  
Panos Kotsampopoulos ◽  
Nikos Hatziargyriou

In this paper, we investigate the economic benefits of an energy community investing in small-scale photovoltaics (PVs) when local energy trading is operated amongst the community members. The motivation stems from the open research question on whether a community-operated local energy market can enhance the investment feasibility of behind-the-meter small-scale PVs installed by energy community members. Firstly, a review of the models, mechanisms and concepts required for framing the relevant concepts is conducted, while a clarification of nuances at important terms is attempted. Next, a tool for the investigation of the economic benefits of operating a local energy market in the context of an energy community is developed. We design the local energy market using state-of-the-art formulations, modified according to the requirements of the case study. The model is applied to an energy community that is currently under formation in a Greek municipality. From the various simulations that were conducted, a series of generalizable conclusions are extracted.


Author(s):  
Tish Scott

This qualitative case study focuses on community members’ observations and perceptions of student multimedia technology projects produced in a grade 6/7 class, particularly in relation to what they affirm is important for their children’s education. The projects are community-based and rooted in the First Nations culture of a remote village in northern British Columbia (Canada).


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Millar ◽  
Artur Steiner ◽  
Francesca Caló ◽  
Simon Teasdale

AbstractCommunity Orientated and Opportunity Learning (COOL) Music was a 12-month collaborative project between researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University and practitioners at the Edinburgh-based social enterprise Heavy Sound. The project began in October 2017 and involved 16 sessions of participatory music making with 32 ‘hard-to-reach’ young people (aged 12–17) aimed at increasing confidence and self-esteem and improving social skills. Using COOL Music as a case study, this article explores some of the challenges faced by community-based arts organisations tasked with delivering such interventions, contrasting COOL Music’s small-scale, targeted, community-based approach with prevailing top-down music interventions in Scotland. We argue that such programmes are particularly suitable in engaging those at the margins of society, reaching them on their own terms through music that resonates with their own lived experience. However, we acknowledge the short-term and transitory nature of such projects may prove problematic for some hard-to-reach groups who require more stability in their lives and may also lead to staff fatigue and burnout. We call for further research in these areas, and greater policy attention to be paid to the sustainability of such projects.


Author(s):  
Cala Coats

This chapter is a case study that traces the life of a young artist farmer who developed a community-based educational farm. The case study illuminates networked connections between small-scale farming, a revitalized interest in handmade production, and a burgeoning desire for a living ethics rooted in direct engagements. This chapter reveals the breadth of the handmade revolution, tracing a singular example to investigate the desire to become a small-scale farmer; the network of apprenticing makers, farmers, and artists; the necessary participatory aestheticization of the farm as a marketing strategy and mode of cultural consumption; and the ethical complexity of sustaining the life of a young farmer in the current organic and locally-grown marketplace.


10.1068/c8p ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
T R Hill ◽  
E L Nel ◽  
P Illgner

Africa has a disproportionate share of the world's poorest countries and within this context economically weak states generally lack the ability to provide the ideal level of support and opportunities for their citizens. This paper examines how, in Malawi, a community-based economic development initiative, with the aid of a supportive NGO, has significantly improved rural livelihoods and facilitated market access in the formal market economy. Active government and NGO support for small scale irrigation farming coupled with their encouragement of community development led to the emergence of the Ngolowindo agricultural cooperative which serves as a useful model and example of locality-based development in Africa. After providing a context for the study in terms of both contextual literature and details specific to the Malawian context, the paper examines how the cooperative emerged, how it operates, what role the supporting NGO plays, and how products are sold. The study concludes with an overview of key findings and an examination of the lessons for local development in Africa.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (27) ◽  
pp. 33-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debajit Datta ◽  
Suranjana Banerji

Abstract Many famous tourism destinations of the eastern Himalayas have become severely polluted and environmentally vulnerable due to decades of unsustainable mass tourism practices. The recent popularization of the so called 'ecotourism destinations' as alternatives to these degraded sites have raised considerable debate among academia, planners and decision makers regarding community based development and environmental conservation. In this study, the newly initiated tourism ventures of a mountainous village named Silerigaon located in this region were evaluated as a case study through participatory appraisals among tourists and local residents to comprehend whether these ventures could truly be termed as ecotourism initiatives. Results derived from the analyses of the primary data collected through these appraisals showed that although the area possessed pristine natural environment and excellent scenic beauty, lack of proper civic amenities and physical infrastructure was hindering the development of sustainable tourism. Here, tourism activities had notably contributed to the increase in annual savings of community members but these financial gains had not equally transcended to all spheres of sustainable community based development. Till now, the activities have lacked the systematic long-term planning required for sustainable ecotourism and nature conservation. Accordingly, these could not be designated as ecotourism activities in their present orientation and capacity. In this regard, several necessary corrective measures to transform these activities into proper ecotourism ones have been suggested.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Illana C. Livstrom ◽  
Amy Smith ◽  
Mary Rogers ◽  
Karl Hackansan

“Grounding Roots” is a community-based collaborative educational program that aims to build food, environmental, and cognitive justice through sustainable urban agriculture and horticulture via intergenerational communities of practice. Drawing upon Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s framework of decolonizing methodologies, this qualitative case study examined the ways in which a Community-University partnership engaged in decolonizing work through research and practice, as well as the ways in which the partnership served to preserve colonizing practices. Data analyses was guided by deductive coding strategies grounded in theory on decolonizing practices. Identified decolonizing practices included implementing a program of worth to the community and youth; building from community-led agendas; and prioritizing community healing and transformation over academic research agendas. Identified colonizing practices included inequitable power hierarchies in the leadership team and in garden groups, deficit-oriented talk about minoritized youth, and the devalorization of youth voice. Implications from this work call for researchers to do their own research about the white supremacist roots embedded in their practices, and to embrace decolonizing and humanizing practices to guide their work. This ongoing work highlights the need for researchers doing community-based work to engage in community-driven agendas that prioritize processes over products; to facilitate distributed leadership in collaboration with community members; and to produce worthwhile work and products with the community.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emmanuel Ndlovu

The purpose of this study was to investigate stakeholders’ perceptions of environmental injustices and of community-based environmental education at Stortplaats, in order to address the injustices through community-based environmental education. Environmental injustice is a phenomenon that entails the unfair distribution of environmental burdens, disproportionately exposing human life to environmental hazards. Communities in poor socio-economic circumstances are excessively exposed to negative environmental burdens such as sewage oxidation ponds, pollution, unprecedented land degradation due to sand poaching and inadequate infrastructure. Stortplaats faces such an oppressive environment. It was historically created by apartheid, but the current system seems to be paying minimum attention to corrective services. The stakeholder theory, environmental perception framework, place attachment theory and community-based environmental education model were used as frames of reference for this study. This study was informed by the interpretivist paradigm and the case study research design was adopted. A qualitative research approach was used. Convenience and purposive sampling were used to sample 25 participants who included five learners above 18 years, five educators, 10 community members, the chief, the community head, the councillor, a business person and the environmental health officer. Semi-structured individual interview schedules were utilised to gather data. These were complemented by photovoice narrations and indirect observation. A thematic data-analysis approach was used to analyse generated data. The key findings of the study indicate that apartheid contours are still visible at Stortplaats and postapartheid promises have not been kept. The findings also show that some community members lack knowledge about environmental policies and this results in irresponsible environmental behaviour. There is also lack of effective communication between leaders and community members, leading to struggles for power and recognition and causing poor service delivery. Finally, the findings show a need for community-based environmental education to address environmental injustices in Stortplaats.


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