Learning Communities: A collaborative experience

Community Action Agencies (CAAs) around Ohio, as well as around the country, are always looking for ways to improve services and strategies that ultimately impact poverty in their communities. Peer-to-peer facilitated learning is an ideal way to identify effective practices that address the causes and conditions of poverty. The Community Action Partnership has taken the lead on developing new ways to facilitate learning across geographical boundaries. Once such platform, Learning Community Groups (LCGs), has been updated and will be re-launched in 2018. The LCGs and Communities of Practice (COP) focus on poverty-related topics.  Each group receives T/TA from peer experts as well as subject matter experts who facilitate the learning process.

A competitive application process is required to participate in the new project. The Partnership will select 10-15 agencies for each of the LCG topics. There are two types of LCGs, Open and Intensive, which focus on different topics and vary in the length of the engagement.

To learn more about the LCGs and COPs visit the Learning Communities Resource Center website. Interested agencies should apply through the online Community Action Academy no later than January 12, 2018.

Josh has over a decade of experience in organizational development and planning. He is a Certified ROMA trainer, Technology of Participation (ToP) certified strategic planner and facilitates board training and poverty simulations. Josh has presented organizational sustainability at local, regional, and national conferences. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison’s School of Human Ecology where focused his studies on financial literacy and consumer education. As the Development Director, Josh is responsible for creating new partnerships with community organizations, other social services providers, government entities, corporation and potential funders. He is also responsible for funding research, grant writing, and program design and evaluation.