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“Community development is about ‘getting things done’…but it is also about the creative development of people – people working together to support each other, involving and giving power and responsibility to disadvantaged people, growing in confidence and competence through active participation…”
Francis D & Henderson P (1992: 2), ‘Working with Rural Communities’, Macmillan, London

The paper presents the findings of consultancy undertaken for the Carnegie UK Trust on 'Skills for Rural Community Development'in 2006. This action research has been undertaken in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland & N Ireland. It investigates the skills needed by rural community development workers, managers, related professionals & activists in order to work towards sustainable communities. This paper reports on practical possibilities. Research in 2005 (page 2) by Craig, Derounian & Garbutt for the UK Carnegie Commission for Rural Community Development, for example, argued that there is “a place for both combined training” of rural & urban community developers “& also specifically rural training”.

What is particularly striking in the list of skills set down by rural developers in 2006 focus groups, is that the community development skills themselves tend to be an effective/preferred means of teaching & learning (networking, live project work, team working) as well. In other words the medium is the message or, put another way the “process is the product”. So there should be mutual reinforcement through teaching in a style that mirrors the skills being imparted or pursued.

The paper will include a 'skills matrix' for sustainable rural community development (established with practitioner inputs); this will provide a good basis for participant discussion.

Stream: Economic Sustainability

Paper: Skills for Rural Community Developers

James's current research interests lie in the fields of rural regeneration, community development, local governance, the pedagogy of higher education and use of new technologies to deliver training for rural communities. James has engaged in work for the UK Countryside Agency on techniques for engaging rural communities, and was a moderator for the Agency's web-based Equipping Rural Communities Learning Network.

He has completed four years as senior external examiner to the University of the Highlands and Islands' (Millennium Institute in Scotland) pioneering degree in Rural Development Studies (using Internet delivery). His books include 'Another Country' (1993), 'Effective Working with Rural Communities' (1998), and 2001 (contributor to) 'Community Development and Rural Issues', for the Community Development Foundation.

James has worked with local people, in pursuit of community development, in thew SW of England (for a charity) and via a North of England Rural Development Programme (as England's first RDP officer). Current work for the UK Carnegie Rural Development Commission; and recent input to the 'Goodman' 2006 UK affordable rural housing inquiry. He has also worked in a range of European countries including Romania, Sweden & Greece.