The Challenge of Development Organizations
We invite organizations and participants to work together to identify and address multiple barriers to holistic development. The concept is that development organizations can focus on their primary development interventions while empowering clients to address more holistic development issues. The ability of the Pathways to Wellbeing training to be integrated into any organization’s regular program operations is enhanced in the following ways:
- The training curriculum (topics, session components, and delivery options) has all been designed with this use in mind.
- The supporting materials (the Program Manual and supporting materials, and the Facilitators Guide and supporting materials) enable flexible implementation.
- The Training of Facilitators (TOF) process offered by Opportunity International, and its partners enables organizations and facilitators for effective delivery.
The Challenge of Adult Behavior Change
Adults learn differently from children. Unless attention is paid to the adaptations that enable adult learning, it is generally accepted that education strategies used for children are not effective for adults. Common adaptations include enabling adult learners to:
- Learn by doing
- Leverage, build on, and be respected for, their experience
- Build on their independent, critical thinking, observation skills
- Engage their internal motivations (will, enthusiasm, curiosity, reflection, conceptualization)
- Respond to felt needs
The Pathways to Wellbeing Methodology
The Pathways program uses participatory and adult education techniques to spark behavior change in which participants drive their own development process. Adults, particularly those with low literacy, learn best through engaging training that is relevant and immediately applicable to their lives.
For example, the training sessions focus on a story in a setting familiar to participants, about a protagonist they can relate to. The subsequent discussion invites input from participants, asking them to describe what happened, to analyze the experience, to relate the story to their own situation, and then to invite participants to consider how their own thinking and behavior might change based on the lessons of the story.
In this manner, the training sessions invite participants on a journey from emotional engagement to changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices.
The Structure of Conversations
Storytelling and discussion are the central activities in all Pathway sessions. The sessions can be delivered in 30-minute, 60-minute, or 90-minute timeframes.
As depicted in the chart below, a full 90-minute session includes review of home practice work from the previous session, a warm-up exercise, the story presentation followed by discussion, a presentation of key ideas, group practice, reflection using a selected phrase of verse, and explanation of the home practice. The shortened sessions spend less time on some elements and cut other elements altogether, but all contain the core elements of storytelling.
The Structure of Modules
The modules in the Pathways to Wellbeing training proceed from an internal to external and ever wider focus, as structured below:
Module 1: Foundations, focus on the sense of self
Module 2: Financial wellbeing, address personal and business finances
Module 3: Physical, mental, and spiritual self-care
Module 4: Family
Module 5: Community
Module 6: Environment
These modules have been depicted visually in a poster that is part of the training materials and which can be presented or provided to client groups.
Accessing & Leveraging Values
The Pathways training system nurtures and leverages values and attitudes that motivate positive behavior and life changes. Initially, the training engages surface values emphasizing, for example, that discipline is needed to save regularly, or to pay for children’s education.
Then, the training seeks to uncover hidden values that may hinder positive behavior and engages enabling values to counter those undermining obstacles. For example, a client may not save because he or she values taking care of people, and so will forgo saving to give a relative money for an emergency. In this manner, the training seeks to help clients not only engage surface values, but also counter resistant behavior by engaging hidden values.
What You Get
This training focuses on helping clients begin their journey. The training is a holistic intervention, but it does not claim to be an in-depth multi-dimensional poverty program. Rather, it offers organizations a way to stimulate clients to focus on key challenges and to identify potential solutions that participants can drive. This could be through clients’ own attitude or behavior change, or by linking with others in the community and/or other support organizations. This program starts people on their journeys and provides the basis for discussion on a wide range of topics that extend far beyond those covered by the training curricula.
Materials Available
The resources for the Pathways to Wellbeing Training consists of two sets of materials:
- The Program Manual: This manual is intended to help organizations prepare to implement the Pathways to Wellbeing Training. It is accompanied by additional supporting documents:
- Session outlines that can be printed out on large note cards or regular paper
- Session materials list for session preparation
- M&E Summary and sample M&E templates
- The Facilitators’ Guide: The Guide presents the curricular content of the different conversation session across 6 modules. It is accompanied by additional supporting documents
- Video and flashcard stories
- Worksheets for in-class and home practice
- Training progress poster
Opportunity’s Knowledge Management team is here to help, offering tailored solutions to your organization’s holistic training needs, training of master trainers, and support during the training process. Consult with our team to begin your journey to delivering the Pathways to Wellbeing training.
For further information, contact [email protected].