Global Engagement Training Series: Pre-Trip Preparation

Knowledge Development: We hope that Bonners explore the deeper issues connected with their service. As you start to reflect on the root causes, what works and doesn’t, and what’s needed for long-term solutions, you may find yourself engaged in learning about the issues. This might be through research at the site or even in a course. 

Have you questioned your strategies of development?

International perspective and issues: 

• Development theories
• Worldwide distribution of wealth 
• Global distribution of food 
• Health care
• Environmental concerns 
• Click here for more resources on international perspective 

Are you addressing Community Driven Needs?

Issue-based knowledge: 

• Connected to direct service areas, such as of homelessness or hunger
• Check out how to organize issue-based coalitions for action in your Bonner program 

Do you know the history/culture of where you are serving?

Place-based knowledge:

• Connected to the place where the student is serving, such as knowledge of local context, history, economics, politics, and issues 
• See how to do this through site-based action teams by clicking Community Asset Mapping: A critical Strategy for Service:

https://files.pbworks.com/download/uk74BgJxo1/bonnernetwork/13113662/BonCurCommAssetMap.pdf

Understand the Issue Area – Public Policy and Poverty

     Policy

• Structure and roles of government
• Ways to be involved in shaping public policy
• Analyzing the implications of governmental policies

Poverty

• Roots and conditions of poverty
• Implications
• Possible solutions

This one-hour workshop explores the causes, dynamics, and current status of global poverty. Through role-playing, simulation, and discussion activities, participants will be able to examine poverty through actually playing out the parts of the impoverished. The group will be challenged to undertake a system of natural-born privilege and recreate a system of wealth distribution. These activities are supported by a list of provocative discussion questions, a handout that presents the present statistics of global poverty, and a list of resources for joining in on the campaign to end poverty. Global Issues: Poverty

Set Goals and Expectations

Creating Goals and Objectives for Service Model:

http://www.bonner.org/pdffiles/modeules/BonCurSettingsgoalsobj.pdf

Setting Service Goals & Objectives 

Setting goals and objectives is an important part of framing one's service. It is one of the key steps in strategic project planning and assessment. Goals and objectives provide a foundation to assess one's work and the impact of one's work in an ongoing way. Whether the work is community service, civic activism, or other projects, a good set of objectives can be tracked and measured, providing information to consistently learn from and improve one's efforts. This training is focused on teaching participants how to formulate and write clear goals/objectives. It presents and guides participants through several straightforward steps of objective writing.

Focusing on an Issue

Strategy to developing an Issue-Based Team:

Do you feel passionate about an issue facing your community? Join up with other people on campus and in your community who feel the same way! First, identify other Bonners who may be working at service sites that either address or encounter the problem and ask them to join an issues-based team. Here’s how to go from there: 

1. Identify the challenge, problem, or issue that needs to be addressed.
2. Determine the cause(s) of the challenge, problem, or issue from the general to local level.
3. Identify the offices, groups, and campus departments that may have information and/or experience in addressing the problem.
4. Find out what has been done in the past and what is being done currently to address the problem.
5. Brainstorm ways to more effectively address the challenge, problem, or issue.
6. Determine which campus groups and international partners can help address the challenge, problem, or issue.
7. Create a short introductory email that introduces your team, the problem or issue, your team’s proposed solutions, and the idea of joining a coalition with other organizations t address the problem. 
8. Call the first meeting (in a neutral location, acting as a facilitator, have groups introduce themselves and their purpose, elect a facilitator, and develop an action plan).
9. Build the coalition (encourage members to invite other key individuals and groups).
10. Introduce a plan of action to all departments, offices, and groups, which are responsible for addressing the problem.

Workshop on UN Millennium Development Goals:

MDG Workshop.pdf

Developing a Plan Workshop:

https://files.pbworks.come/download/Zx9IZPSuJL/bonnernetwork/13113652/BonCurActionPlanning.pdf

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