Dates: 1 March – 30 November 2002, 12-14 April, 10-12 May, 3-7 June, 13-15 September,
11-13 October, 15-17 November (we had to postpone two times because of the heavy winter, so the final meeting is going to take place on February 21-23 2003)
Practice has been organized along theoretical training, individually and in-groups

Closing act: Exam for professional degree

Planned date: April or May 2003

Examiner institution: Regional Human Resource Development and Training Center in the City of Kecskemét

Name of the qualification: - teacher and researcher of community development,
- basic computer user

Out of 24 the following 18 teachers will pass the state exam:
Almássy Tamás, Balla Zoltán, Farkas Éva, Giczey Péter, Harkai Nóra, Kas Éva, Kovács Edit, Mészáros Zsuzsa, Peták Péter, Péterfi Ferenc, Pocsajiné Fábián Magda, Pósfay Péter, Schmidt Melinda, Szolnoki Ildikó, Varga Matild, Varsányi Erika, Vercseg Ilona, Volf Mária.

Also, we are going to invite some - up to 7 – colleagues to the professional exam who have already passed a Training the Trainers course organized by the HACD, but at that time it was not possible to take the exam.

This will be a “virtual” department of community development with the first registered community development professionals in Hungary.

The subjects of the Training the Trainers program:
Theoretical Framework of Community Development
1) The Theory of Community
2) The Theory of Locality
3) The Orientation of Community Work and Legitimacy Theories
4) Modernization and Democracy
5) Civil Society as Moral Purpose
6) Civil Society in the New Europe
7) Civil Society in the World of Globalization

Social Phenomena of the Modern Community
8) Modernization, revolutions, democratic traditions in Hungary
9) The 3rd Sector and its social characteristics

Community Intervention
10) The History of Community Work
11) Formulating Community Work in Hungary, recent trends
12) Models of Community Intervention
13) The Roles of Helpers in Community Work
14) Personality, Skills, Values and Ethics of the Helpers

Some Special Fields in Community Work
15) Community Work with Target Groups
16) Community Economic Development
17) Community Media
18) Regional Development

Methodology
19) Methods, Tools and Techniques in Community Work

20) Management in Community Work

Practice

21) Case Studies

22) The Practice of Community Work

Other

23) Computer Skills

The way we worked

The Trainer Training program was a kind of directed learning, where the main stress was on self-education, reading, project analysis, writing case-studies, evaluations, etc.
The basis of the program was developed by the professionals of the Hungarian Association for Community Development. The curricula contained 23 different subjects out of which 22 were professional subjects and the 23rd was computer skills. The subjects have their own thematic and suggested readings. Each subject has been introduced in the Training the Trainers program by the “owner” of the subject and it was complemented by the group. We had registered contributions in advance. A contribution could be a talk, a bibliography, a film which is good for teaching, a homepage, etc. After such circles the next step was the identification of the given subject in the training process:
- its role,
- it suggested proportion,
- on what level is it recommended and on what level can it be neglected,
- what kind of methods are the best to approach the given theme,
- other sources of information, etc.

After the professional dialogues and discussions we watched films and we introduced some apparatus we have worked out so far (cases, games, exercises, etc.)

For the exam participants must introduce a case study and a subject curriculum of his/her own preference.

We have made significant progress in having good training materials and readings available in Hungarian, such as:

Community Work Manual, published by the ACW, U.K. details
CD around the World – by Humbert Campfens, Canada, details
Community Work in the U.K. – Alison Gilchrist
David N. Thomas: The Making of the Community Work, U.K.
Informal Adult Education in Sweden, 1994. CESAM, Sweden
Paul Henderson: Measuring Community Development - talk
John Bell: Community Development Team-work, Measuring CD. U.K.
Building Civil Society Manual – a curriculum Guide by Elizabeth Brewer, Anton Repon, Matthew Brennan, U.S.A.
Fundraising Manual for Community Activities – Eizabeth Brewer, U.S.A.

To summarize our experiences:
- it has not altered the project plan.
- It has succeeded to increase the number of CD teachers with new, knowledgeable, enthusiastic teachers,
- It has succeeded to manage the exam facility, which was rather complicated and difficult.

Ilona Vercseg
Project manager