Embedded Files
Module 3: Where do we want to be?
Constellation Tool: Building the Dream
1. . Learning from the experience of Rituu:
When we are dreaming alone, it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.
A tiny, dusty village in outskirts of Dimapur in the northeastern part of India...the sun beginning to set...this was the setting for a community visit where our team of facilitators met a bunch of young boys and girls. We were all huddled together in a small community hall, the youth gazing at us wondering why suddenly a group of people who looked different, wore different type of clothes had come to meet them. They were all geared up for a seminar on HIV!
Building the dream is one of the tools of CLCP and I had done this exercise during my first CLCP workshop. But it was the first time that I was to see the community try the dream building exercise and I was waiting with bated breath.
After the usual round of introductions our team eagerly waited for the youth to share their dreams and hopes for themselves and their village. There was total silence. I could see the young people reflecting on our query. No one had ever asked them about their dreams. They seemed surprised and taken aback at our question. When one of us shared our dream, one shy young man did get up to share his dream of having a pucca road for his village. Soon our probing, gentle persuasion and the ACP clap motivated the young lot to come out with their vision for the future. From becoming a doctor to an airhostess and from planting trees to building hospitals, the dreams soon started pouring in.
For the first time in their life, ACP had given these young minds a platform to share their hopes, passion, and purpose in life. Without dreams, we can see the world only as it is and we are blind to how it can be. Dreams give us a vision of a better future and the hope to work for it.
I was about to turn and leave, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was the young woman (if my team mates Gaston and Sanghamitra will recall, the girl who finally shared in the plenary). This is a moment which will always stand out in my memory. She hugged me and thanked me. “For what?” I asked. Our meeting with you cleared the fog. We got an opportunity to share our dreams, to see what we could do. We used to pay attention to what was wrong with us and our lives and and we believed that nothing could change for the better. Now we've discovered what is right about ourselves.
Everyone knows what isn't right...their flaws, their weaknesses, but few people know and focus on their strengths, the talents, their skills, their blessings... what is right. It's true isn't it. When our own mental patterns guide us we feel so empowered, no matter what challenges we have, no matter what mountains we need to climb, we make a plan and go about getting it done. More importantly, when we share our dream with others they feel the need to help us fulfil our dreams. We dream together and each other’s words feed our minds and stimulate thought and action.
You can find Rituu’s posting on her blog http://aidscompetence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/what-can-a-dream-do-for-us
2. The Dream of Guyana Life Competence
In 2010, a group of facilitators from Guyana came together to form a national group of coaches in the Community Life Competence process which they have called 'Guyana Community Life Competence'. As a first step, they came together to define their dream and the practices that they needed for Guyana Community Life Competence to reach their dream.
Our dream
Guyana Community Life Competence is a local dynamic team of facilitators and coaches who are promoting community life competence.
Guyana Community Life Competence aims to effect change by empowering minds, through working to creating competent communities and improved quality of life.
Our focus is identifying and building on strengths promoting community ownership and fostering partnership at local levels to address challenges.
We work with all communities (geographical, social, institutional, and economical) locally, regionally and internationally.
Practices that we need to develop to achieve our dream
- We identify and address strengths
- We care and support
- We show commitment and dedication
- We consistently train and upgrade
- We raise awareness
- We are neutral and impartial
- We monitor document and report
- We constantly modify and respond
- We engage leadership and work in all regions
3. Reflections on SALT and SALT visits by Constellation coaches
There are 2 parts to this step in the CLCP. First of all we build the dream and then we use the dream to surface the practices that arise from the dream.
The Constellation has now facilitated these steps on many occasions and we have organised what we have learned in 2 relatively short documents. The first one is called “triad module 3 what the constellation has learned about building the dream.docx”. The second one is called “triad module 3 what constellation has learned about surfacing the practises.docx”
As you gain more practise in working with this step in the process it will be worthwhile to look at what other facilitators have learned through their experience.
You can download the additional reading for module 3 from the File Storage area of the programme:
"triad module 3 what the constellation has learned about building the dream.pdf"
"triad module 3 what constellation has learned about surfacing the practises.pdf"
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