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– Two-Thirds World and U.S./Canada Training Tracks –
CONDUCTED BY
The Chalmers Center for Economic and Community Development
Covenant College
14049 Scenic Highway
Lookout Mountain, GA 30750 USA
706-419-1805
chalmers@covenant.edu
www.chalmers.org
COURSE PURPOSE
This course is designed to look at issues surrounding the execution of very short-term (less than 1 month) missions’ teams in the context of the socio-economic poor. This includes teams done in the US as well as throughout the world. Short-term missions done to “help” the poor have the opportunity to produce important benefits as well as do significant harm, particularly to the poor. The course seeks to provide some frameworks for thinking about these issues in order to help participants consider how they can strengthen short-term team missions they are or might be engaged with. The ultimate goal is that the benefits that can come through short-term team missions are maximized and the harm that can come through them is minimized.
AUDIENCE
The course is designed for those engaged in or contemplating engagement in doing very short-term missions (less than 1 month) amongst the socio-economic poor both in the US and anywhere in the world. This includes church leaders, missions committees, staff of mission sending agencies, receiving ministry staff or missionaries, team leaders and team members – In short, anyone who may be involved in designing, sending, receiving, funding, leading and/or going.
PREREQUISITE
None
OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Describe some of the key aspects of poverty, relief and development.
- Describe the issues that can cause short-term teams to increase the
poverty of the poor and reinforce some myths associated with short-term
teams.
- Describe steps that can be taken to help short-term teams minimize
increasing poverty while maximizing positive impact on all involved.
- Identify a variety of learning tools available for further exploration.
FORMAT AND LEARNING PROCESS
You will learn through weekly readings and written assignments, email dialogue with other students, and weekly summaries from the facilitators. Every week you will submit a short written assignment of 1-2 pages that asks you to interact with the readings and to apply the readings to your context. You will share your assignment with other students. The feedback from the facilitator will come in the form of a weekly “summary” that highlights key points/issues.
FACILITATOR
Lead Facilitator: Steve Corbett, Programs Director, Chalmers Center for Community and Economic Development
TECHNOLOGY AND COURSE LEARNING
Chalmers Center distance courses use email as the delivery mode for assignments and dialogue. This accommodates students from around the world who, for time zone differences and slow connection speed, could not participate if the course were offered at a set-time in a real-time, web-base audio and video format.
TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS
The following software may be needed to read course documents:
- Microsoft Word (version 6.0/95 or later). WordPad may work if necessary.
- Adobe Acrobat Reader (to read files in pdf format). Adobe (www.adobe.com) provides a free Acrobat Reader download if your
computer does not already have it.
- A web browser/html reader such as Netscape Navigator 4.03 or higher, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher (to read files in html format).
- Microsoft PowerPoint is helpful.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Each week learners are asked to do the following:
- Reading Assignment: Complete the list of required readings and read the optional readings if interest and time allow.
- Writing Assignment: Complete a writing assignment of 1-2 pages. Assignments consist of responses to questions that reflect on the week’s readings as they apply to your community/ministry context.
- Individual Interaction: Read the writing assignment from at least 10 other participants in your group. (At the start of the course, you will be placed in a group with other students.) Respond to fellow participant’s assignments.
- Written Assignments – The written assignments are vital to maximizing your learning in this course. They enable you to interact with the readings and apply them to your ministry/community contexts. They also enable you to dialogue and interact with other students so that you can benefit from their insight, knowledge, and experience. Correspondingly, this provides an opportunity for you to share with other students and, by this, be a benefit to them. The facilitator will also provide a weekly “summary” that highlights key points, issues, or comments from participant postings from the various groups.
- We want this course to be more than an academic exercise. As you do the assignments, it will be helpful to have a target group of people in mind. This should be a group of people in a community (or communities) you serve or want to serve. Having people and faces in mind will help the learning become more alive, relevant, and beneficial.
TIME REQUIREMENT
On average, you will spend 7-10 hours per week on the course. This average is for an individual for whom English is the primary language. If English is not your primary language, the time spent may be longer.
OTHER CHALMERS CENTER TRAINING
For information on other training courses available from the Chalmers Center, go to www.chalmers.org. |