The Community Life Competence Process (CLCP) and SALT

"As the community moves through the process, each step documents progress, but the real measure of ownership lies in the depth of discussion, the consistency of engagement, and the joy of achievement that accompanies those steps."
The Community Life Competence Process (CLCP) is a community-based behaviour change approach designed to encourage communities to take ownership of their development challenges. The idea is that, when people take ownership of those challenges, they can then take action to overcome them. Ownership, on this definition:

• goes beyond consultation, engagement, and empowerment;
• drives action that will not be dependent on external stimulus;
• entails people asking for the resources and expertise they need to execute their own plans;
• involves a community appreciating the strengths it already has, as the basis of further actions; and
• is based on the notion that a community can take sustainable action only when its members recognise that they have a shared interest in a better future. This recognition comes through dialogue.

Ownership and action happen when community members participate in a modified learning cycle, which is the Community Life Competence Process (CLCP). The below figure shows the steps of the CLCP learning cycle, which is preceded by a Step 0 in which the community must come together to establish a common identity grounded in mutual humanity.
Next:

• In Step 1 of CLCP, the community defines a "shared dream": the common objective for which the community will work.
• In Step 2, the community defines its current position through a self-assessment, which is designed to stimulate productive dialogue within the community as members discuss their current position.
• In Step 3, the community creates an action plan to move from its current situation to its desired situation.
• In Step 4, the community carries out its action plan.
• In Step 5, the community reflects on the progress that it has made to prepare for the next cycle. The community explores the lessons it has learned and the material that it can share with its peers to help them to progress. At each step, there are various tools to be used by the community.

When a community begins to use this form of learning cycle, it needs the support of a facilitator experienced in this approach. SALT is an acronym that describes the mental model that facilitators use when they accompany communities through CLCP. SALT stands for:

• "Stimulate and Support"
• "Appreciate, Authenticity"
• "Listen, Learn, Link"
• "Transfer, Team, Trust, and Transform".

In addition to helping the community apply the steps of the learning cycle, the facilitator asks questions that encourage the community to appreciate its own strengths and to use them to take further action. The facilitator also makes the community aware that it is not alone in working in this way on similar challenges and that the facilitator can make the links between communities (in neighbouring villages or, with the help of technology, across the world) so they can share their experiences, their hopes, and their concerns, with each other and learn from each other. As time goes by, the skills exercised through CLCP develop within the community, and the need for an external facilitator dissipates.
One challenge for the facilitator is to bring together a broad crosssection of voices from within the community, many of which are rarely heard or listened to. The idea is that the discussion that arises within the structure of CLCP can offer new perspectives, opening the door - through dialogue - to an agreed set of actions. Online SALT training is available to help the facilitator deal with this and other challenges.
CLCP and SALT are mutually reinforcing: When we appreciate the strengths of the community, the community recognises its strengths and can base its action on those strengths. When the community takes action and reflects on that action, it recognises those strengths.
Constellation an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Belgium that has used this approach in more than 70 countries. The NGO has found this approach to be helpful across multiple issues including child health, maternal health, immunisation, nutrition, cholera, diabetes, Ebola, AIDS, malaria, poliomyelitis, water, sanitation and hygiene, palliative care, sexual and reproductive health, drugs, suicide prevention, and aging with dignity.

Learn more:

• Constellation website
• CLCP online community
• Constellation on Twitter
• Constellation on Facebook
• Instagram: constellationclcp
• Youtube channel: The Constellation SALT-CLCP