Participatory Project Planning and Management
May 19 – June 27, 2025
Facilitators: Sarika Sinha, and Adam Baden-Clay
This course will examine the key concepts of designing a project or program of action that cultivates positive social change. Emphasis will be placed on the values, principles, and critical thinking skills involved in strategic planning, along with participatory project management processes and tools to achieve outcomes for the well-being of all, particularly the most marginalized. It will give participants an opportunity to reflect on their own experience and to learn from examples of participatory social change. Participants will be challenged to shift their mindset and to select and adapt tools to fit their situation and development context, creating spaces to allow community-led development to flourish.
Who can register?
This course is for change-makers of any age or sector questioning the relevance of projects and programs driven by external organizations rather than people in the community. This includes community builders, government agencies, NGOs, universities, and grant-making organizations. It will be tailored particularly to mid-level managers from formal NGOs who have in mind a project they are doing or are planning to implement in community.
Personal benefits
As a result of this course, participants will deepen their understanding of the social change process. This includes the ability to:
- Identify practical strategies for creating inclusive, participatory spaces in development practice;
- Analyze complex situations and identify potential pathways of change;
- Develop knowledge and skills to facilitate processes to explore and plan development initiatives;
- Explore methods and skills to act on implementation;
- Reflect and assess progress to sustain development impacts;
- Gain new insights by exchanging practical skills and ideas for managing social change initiatives with colleagues; and
- Select and integrate monitoring, evaluation and learning methods into your work.
Time requirement
Fees
Coady Institute is committed to ensuring that practitioners and community members dedicated to community-led development worldwide have access to its courses. Thanks to the generous support of individual, institutional, and corporate donors, the tuition fee of $1,500 CAD has been reduced to $400 CAD plus HST. Full bursaries are available for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit community members residing in Canada, as well as members of African Nova Scotian communities and Nova Scotians of African descent. To request a full bursary, please contact us at coadyadmit@stfx.ca.
If paying by credit card is not an option, please get in touch with our finance officer to arrange an alternative payment method
This course is online. You will need a computer, reliable internet access (high speed is recommended), speakers and microphone.