Who is this training for?

Sustainability is not an end point in a journey. It is a community centred processes of learning how to live sustainably and regeneratively in a particular locality with its ecological and cultural uniqueness.  Everyone in that place can take the leadership to start or participate in culturally creative conversations about how to collaboratively create specific projects aimed at implementing  priority SDGs in their community. If you want to take part in or facilitate such conversations where you live, this course is for you.

This training is an opportunity to become and active participant in your community’s future, whether you work in the private or public sector or for a civil society organisation, as a community organiser, teacher, social entrepreneur, concerned parent, pensioner, recent school leaver or university graduate.  You can simply take part to engage with others in your community to explore the best opportunities to make a positive difference in collaboration with others. Or, you can take part with the intention of becoming a multiplier of such conversations and learn how to use the ‘SDG Community Implementation Flash Cards’  and the detailed workshop script to facilitate such conversations and initiate such projects around your community. If you are a teacher, academic, civil servant, or consultant - for example -  taking part in the training might contribute positively to your professional practise.

What is the dual purpose of this training of multipliers?

The day-long  ‘Achieving the Global Goals - One Community at a Time’ training for multipliers serves a dual purpose:

1) Initiating community focused conversations about local SDG implementation

The highly interactive process invites participants to engage in constructive  conversations  about the local relevance of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)  - based on a set of flashcards designed to help structure small group dialogues. Through these conversations participants will:

• prioritise a number of goals that are particularly important for their community
• begin to define how multi-stakeholder partnerships might be established in their community to support project-centred implementation of specific SDGs
• ensure that SDGs are implemented in ways that are sensitive to the bio-cultural uniqueness of place
• work in various small groups to identify policies, projects and rresources that could support this implementation and categorise them into those already existing and those to be created 
• sketch out strategies of how to mobilise local stakeholders around a feasible project to demonstrate implementation of those goals in their locality, and 
• identify effective ways to spread successful projects throughout their community and beyond.

2) Training people to become multipliers of such conversations

Achieving the Global Goals by 2030 requires initiating these kinds of processes in communities everywhere, and we are all called to become multipliers of SDG-focused conversations about the sustainable future of our community.

The ‘SDG Community Implementation Flash Cards’ in combination with the workshop script and the experience of having taken part in the day-long training, will turn most participants into potential multipliers of such community conversations.  Participants will be given a brief introduction on how to use the script and the flash cards to replicate the training with their team at work, with local community groups and civil servants, and for students and staff at their local university or schools.  Participants will leave the training equipped with the tools and the experience to help others to reflect on why and how the global goals are relevant to their community or business, and what first steps can be taken locally to contribute to achieving humanity’s global goals by 2030.

What are the main outcomes of participating in the training?

After completing the day-long training of multipliers on you will:

• be able to take a multi-dimensional perspective on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and be aware of the the 169 targets for implementation
• have identified with other members of you community which goals could be considered priorities in your community
• have participated in a series of small group conversations to brainstorm and prioritise possible multi-stakeholder community projects aimed at implementation of  priority SDGs in your local community
• have identified already existing - and needed - policies, projects and resources that might be drawn on, or required, for effective implementation
• have explored with others how the different SDGs interrelate and how systemic projects can be created that aim to implement progress on various SDGs at the same time
• have reviewed the wider context of the United Nation’s sustainable development process and its history leading up to the creation of the SDGs
• have experienced an effective structure for a daylong training of multipliers so you could potentially use the workshop script along with the ‘SDG Community Implementation Flash Cards’ to replicate such culturally creative conversations where and when needed
• have had an opportunity to work with like-minded people in your community who are also willing to collaborate on local SDG implementation projects and have identified projects that might be considered ‘low hanging fruits’
• have brainstormed ideas and strategies for how to mobilise support, how to demonstrate feasibility by implementing successful projects, and how to best spread initiatives that work throughout your community and beyond; and
• have taken the first step to becoming an active multiplier of conversations that matter to your community and to humanity by helping others to ask important questions about how to implement the Sustainable Development Goals in locally meaningful and relevant ways.