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Action Research on "SCOPE"

As part of the SCOPE action research, the first six monthly review was conducted with Seba Jagat (Orissa), SAMIDA (Vishakhapatnam) and Gram Chethana Kendra (Jaipur).

The Objectives of the review were as follows


  • Systematisation of the research process
  • Understand and guide the process of implementation of the SCOPE approach, in terms of utility, its pros and cons, perception, involvement and acceptance of the people.
  • Ensuring the systematisation of the process in the community.

II SCOPE REVIEW PHOOLEEN, JHARKHAND -2019

On 13th and 14th of November 2019, FVTRS team visited Phooleen for the 2nd time review of the SCOPE approach that’s being implemented. The team visited the villages Bhagmara and Sughapahadi Panchayats. Met the SDT members, trainees and interacted with them regarding the involvement and implementation of SCOPE approach. FVTRS team appreciated both Phooleen and the SDTs for all the efforts they have taken. Evaluated the progress, by discussing, verifying documents and understanding the process of implementation. Phooleen is supporting the skill development team to implement the approach effectively. There is still room for improvement and FVTRS team has suggested the improvements that they need to follow up.

SCOPE Review Visit to Rajasthan -2019

The second half-yearly review visit to the focus area of Gram Chetana Kendra(GCK) was conducted on 26th and 27th June,2019. The team members were Mr P M Philip, Mr Felix D’Souza, Mr C P Nicholas from FVTRS and Mr Amit Kumar Sharma and Mr Baram Prakash from GCK. Visits were made to Dodwariyo Ka Bas, Karwasa,Sursinghpura, Ransinsghpura and the office of the organisation.The team have interacted with the trained youth, trainees of ongoing batches to understand the present status of training, employment and their perspectives.

The team also interacted with the Skill Development Team members, members of their federation and the key staff of the organisation to understand their status and their contribution and perspectives to take forward the skill development interventions. There is progressive changes in implementation of SCOPE model of skill development. The participation of the focus community in skill development has increased and they are part of identification of trades, training venue, selection of trainees etc. The Skill development Teams are meeting regularly and are in functional. The trained youth are facilitated to form Skill Net groups and have started joint livelihood ventures at different villages. The ventures are registered with Food and Safety Standard Authority of India. The clarity on SCOPE model of skill development has increased at all level of stakeholders.

(SKILLING- COMMUNITY OWNED PROMOTION AND ENHANCEMENT)

It is widely accepted that in human development work and working with the marginalised communities, community mobilization and their participation is a pre requisite. This will bring community ownership of the process that one has initiated and they will carry it forward. So also in developing the appropriate skills within the community the participation of the community is very important for the success of the programme. The focus is on community settings facilities rather than institution-based centres. In this model Community identifies the skill need, trainees and organise the skill training. they will also monitor the training and trainees, facilitate employment. Thus the training becomes demand oriented and a good platform is created for the community to follow-up trainees during the training as well as after the training programme.

We have seen good examples of community participation in skill development, quality skill training, mainstreaming EDP, life skills during and after skill training, improvement of educational status, gainful employment and enhancement of skills as well as livelihood. Now, it is time for us to consolidate these success and learnings and put them into a perspective so that the process initiated by FVTRS shall be sustained and progressed systematically.

This is the context in which we have evolved the SCOPE model. Now we are trying out this model using the action research method. We are doing it with the technical support of Social Work Department of Kristu Jayanthi College, Bangalore.

Existing Partners' Concept of SCOPE

Preparatory workshop

FVTRS conducted a four days’ workshop on SCOPE from 22-25 May 2016. This workshop was attended by the entire FVTRS programme team and three external experts. This is the first action research which is undertaken directly by FVTRS. The purpose of the meeting was to provide orientation on action research and finalize the proposal design.

Orientation to associating partners

Further an orientation to the selected partners was organized at Bangalore from 2– 4 August 2016 in association with Kristu Jayanthi College, Bangalore. The purpose of the workshop was to understand the processes of action research while implementing SCOPE model. 40 persons representing six partners including the staff of FVTRS were attended the training.

Dr. Jonas Richard facilitated the four-day session and he introduced the methods and process of action research. He also introduced the tools for data collection and emphasized the need for engaging communities in analysing, planning, executing and assessing the entire process during the action research.

Workshop on Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

Another workshop on resource mapping was organized on 26 to 28 September 2016 at Bhawani Patna, Orissa. The purpose of the workshop was to train the action research partners on use of PRA tools in building the base line of the villages where the action research will be implemented. This training was facilitated by Mr. Niladri B. Sahoo from CYSD (Centre for Youth and Social Development), Orissa. As an introduction, there was an input on scope followed by various PRA tools which can be used for creating base line on the profile of the community, skill mapping and assessing the CBOs. The participants were provided an opportunity to administer these tools and preparing reports based on field study.

At the end of the session a time line for implementation of various action research steps were also finalized together.

Accordingly, tools for baseline survey has been finalised. This has been field tested with one of the partners and based on the experience they have been finalised.

At the end of the orientation workshop the partners selected the target areas for their intervention and presented a brief profile of the community with whom they are going to engage.

Accordingly it was decided that the programme will be implemented in a geographical area which has 1000 households under each partner. Further the PRA exercise has been completed with all the partners using the tools that has been developed

Preparation of baseline report

The process of developing the base line report is completed basically with three documents. The first one is the PRA report, the second one is the House Hold survey report of the youth between the age group of 18-35 from the target area and third one is CBO assessment report. The individual draft base line report has been presented to the partners in the presence of all the partners on 22-23 of June 2017. Further all the individual baseline reports were compiled together as one report.

Staff Capacity Building Programme

FVTRS has organised 2-day staff capacity building programmes from 16th to 17th August 2017 at Bangalore. This was intended to developing and enhancing FVTRS staff capacity on Research. Dr Jonas Richard, Associate Professor & Head PG & Research Department of Social Work, Kristu Jayanti College, Bangalore conducted session.

Skill development plan preparation

All the partners completed Skill development planning under this model involving the community, NGOs staff and FVTRS team. They started implementing skill training under this model.

  • From the learnings gained from the above exercise, two knowledge products will be created. One on community mobilisation and other one on participatory need assessment and planning.
  • Six monthly reviews will be carried out regularly.

Training on community mobilisation

During the analysis of various reports for the preparation of the baseline report it has been observed that the level of the CBOs need to be upgraded in all the cases. Hence, we have developed a module on community mobilisation and given a training to the partners and their staff who are involved in the action research. This was conducted on 19-21 of June 2017. This is completely facilitated by FVTRS team.

Collective review of the progress.

We have conducted the first review of the progress of the action research during May 30th and 31st together with all the partners. Prior to the review meeting FVTRS team visited two partners and assessed the progress. The findings were reported in the review meeting so that others will become familiar to do periodic similar assessments of the process that is taking place in their respective locations. This occasion also has been used to develop a reporting format to be used by the partners. These reports are to be send to FVTRS on a quarterly basis.

This opportunity was also used to improve the knowledge and skill of the partners on action research.