1.3 Select Community Change Agents

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1.3.1 Determine best candidates to be Community Change Agents
1.3.2 Develop training plan and begin building capacity of change agents
Tools and resources relevant to CCA’s community engagement

1.3.1 Determine best candidates to be Community Change Agents

Meet one to one with individuals recommended as potential animal welfare champions by their peers, organizations (whether INGOs, NGOs or CBOs) you have met with, and/or whom you observed to be highly motivated and potentially good community change agent candidates during previous discussions. In addition, consider utilizing existing respected animal welfare champions from established community-based organizations as change agents if you are undertaking this community engagement approach in the same areas as the Community Development Approach.

Assess these potential candidates’ level of interest in being change agents, as well as the existing condition of their animals and related animal care and management practices. Explain to any high potential candidates what their role as change agent would involve, the level of time commitment and general activities they would engage in, as well as the type of support the project is willing to provide them in their role. In addition, assess their existing understanding of animal welfare issues and stage of behaviour change, the number of peers and general sphere of influence they believe they could reach, and whether they have key characteristics helpful to inspiring others to adopt changes along with them (e.g. good listener, empathy). It is also important to get an idea of their skills and any trainings they may have already had, to identify potential training needs. Furthermore, ask for feedback about what you have proposed in terms of the role, and use their input to help you adapt the collaborative working arrangement and project plan as needed to address their concerns and ensure expectations for the role are reasonable and feasible within the local context.

Select desired candidates based on your predetermined change agent selection criteria, using quotas as needed to promote representativeness of different groups to ensure the project is not gender blind and further promoting existing systems of discrimination. Ensuring proper policies and standard operating procedures are in place for safeguarding, as well as sufficient capability within the implementing team to uphold them is recommended to protect and create an enabling environment for potentially discriminated and vulnerable groups to take on leadership roles within their communities (e.g. women as change agents).

If the number of candidates meeting criteria is more than needed to support the project, consider asking members of the animal owning community to come together to vote on their preferred candidates based on your shortlisted selection of candidates. Once selected, convene a community meeting, or organize communications to announce the appointment of the newly selected/elected change agents throughout the community.

Once change agents are selected, organize meetings in the communities where they will be working, inviting animal owners and carers, local leaders, local service providers, and selected change agents to help develop the selection criteria for selecting households to work with change agents to improve their household’s animal welfare. At this stage it is important to be clear about the process of engagement, and potential benefits and commitments/investments expected of target peer groups.

Once criteria are agreed by community, select no more than 10-20 households for each CCAs to support, depending on the time availability of change agents, geographic proximity of households, and scale of the project, to prevent overburdening them.

The resource Guidance on Listening for Change Talk may be helpful to support your assessment and selection of change agents and their target peer groups.

1.3.2 Develop training plan and begin building capacity of change agents

If the project is working with CCAs to undertake community engagement activities rather than your project’s staffs, remember that supporting them to take on the role of leaders of change within their community is an important means through which the project can empower CCAs and their communities beyond the animal welfare objectives of the project. The knowledge, skills, and experience they gain working with you and their peers to plan, implement, monitor, report, reflect and learn throughout the project has the potential provide benefits to their communities long after the project ends. It is therefore important to consider how you can create value for CCAs and their communities by involving with the project through the sharing of transferable knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Identify potential training needs of change agents based on your assessment of change agents existing knowledge, skills and capacity derived during previous interactions with them. Refer to the Recommended Core Competencies for Community Engagement Approach for potential training module topics. In addition to building their foundational understanding in animal welfare, it is recommended CCAs develop skills in how to listen for change talk, have conversations for change, and know how to properly respond in ways that motivate their peers continued progress throughout the stages of change. Furthermore, it is important that CCA’s understand how to support their peers and implement community engagement activities in ways that it upholds safeguarding protections and are non-discriminatory nor gender blind/gender exploitative. It is recommended to include training on how to promote gender equality/intersectionality through the support they provide their peer groups, as well as consider gender or other status’s (e.g. migratory status) needs when planning and implementing community engagement activities.

Draft a training plan and taking into consideration the following elements when planning and developing training modules:

• Identify the learning objectives of each training in terms of what learners are expected to do, accomplish, or retain because of training
• Identify indicators for assessing whether learning objectives have been met.
• Identify how to evaluate the extent to which learning objectives have been met and are being sustained over time. This requires assessments be ongoing rather than one-time events.
• Identify effective training strategies to promote learning of the given topic to the targeted CCA learners as well as strategies for supporting sustained learning and application of lessons learned in accordance with learning objectives e.g. scheduling time to follow up and observe applying lessons learned to others and providing feedback and reflection and learning opportunities, creating peer support networks between change agents to learn from and support one another in applying lessons learned.
• Identify a training delivery schedule that is considerate of change agents unpaid and paid care work responsibilities/burdens and time and availability. Consider adopting measures that reduce barriers to participation, especially for groups who may be disproportionately burdened by unpaid care work responsibilities that affect their attendance i.e. adopting safeguarding measures for the participation of any vulnerable groups (e.g. safe transit options), childcare provisions for mothers, mitigating any costs/losses that result from participating in the training.

Once developed, discuss, and seek feedback from change agents on the training plan, adapting as needed to ensure it meets the projects and change agents’ needs. Once agreed with change agents, initiate trainings to begin building their capacity to effectively undertake their roles and responsibilities.

Link to References Cited