CLEA 2020:
Peer-to-peer learning in the community environment sector
CLEA is collaborating with NRCL as it develops landscape-scale community partnerships in the North-East region of Victoria. CLEA’s job is to build peer-to-peer networks between those most active in influencing local and regional agendas on climate change.
Changes in climate, farming systems, and demographics are changing the way regional and rural communities think about land management. While physical landscapes vary, environment groups face similar social challenges in their communities and in the wider system.
CLEA (Community Learning for Environmental Action) is a project activating peer-to-peer learning in the community environment sector. Funded by the Natural Resources Conservation League (NRCL) and auspiced by Landcare Victoria Inc (LVI), CLEA’s focus is on building community capacity for making and sharing knowledge about organising community action, collaborating with partners, and influencing decision makers. Since 2015, CLEA has developed tools for peer-to-peer learning within committees of management, within knowledge networks, and in knowledge-sharing forums at State level (see https://www.lviclea.org/).
In 2020, CLEA takes on a fundamental problem in local environmental action: when there’s so much to do, right in front of you, how do you make time for the deep conversations that grow your practice? How do you work locally, but as part of a wider network of practice?
We’re going to focus on local leaders—the handful in a group or network who do most of the organising, collaborating and influencing. What are the hot issues on their minds? Who do they talk to, to think aloud, test out new ideas, get feedback?
Like the networks of microbial life in soil, the network of conversations between local leaders supports the life that springs up in communities. We’re looking to make the conversations and the networks more visible and more accessible.
Contact Dr Ross Colliver, CLEA Organiser, ross.colliver@bigpond.com, 04411 226 519.