Our Mission
The CFSC Consortium is dedicated to the belief that innovative communication processes are critical to development of poor and historically marginalized communities.
The Consortium seeks to increase the capacity of communication specialists, development workers, aid agencies, nonprofit organizations and communities to use communication for social change concepts in order to improve the lives of those who have been long excluded.
Based on important experiences that are surfacing through participatory research, the Consortium is redefining how communication is practiced and taught to development organizations and practitioners working in excluded communities.
What is the Definition of Communication for Social Change?
CFSC is a process of public and private dialogue through which people themselves define who they are, what they need and how to get what they need in order to improve their own lives. It utilizes dialogue that leads to collective problem identification, decision making and community-based implementation of solutions to development issues.
Reaching concensus on this definition was done through a process of deliberation and consultation with some of the world's leading thinkers and practitioners of communication for development.
What are the Roots of CFSC?
Communication has been an essential tool for development since early in the 20th century. The Rockefeller Foundation, as an early funder of communication projects, helped boost the academic success of the work of pioneers such as Wilbur Schramm at the University of Illinois and Paul Lazersfeld at Columbia University.
In 1997, the Rockefeller Foundation's then communication director and later vice president, Denise Gray-Felder, began an exploration to, in part, answer nagging questions: why is the communication work of many Foundation grantees scatter-shot, unsustainable and heavily message driven?
Following a series of discussions with diverse groups of communicators over a 3-year period, the Foundation's communication staff introduced the concept of communication for social change to the foundation and donor communities.
From these discussions the Foundation was instrumental in forming a network of communication practitioners who debated and revised the working definition of communication for social change. This network is currently made up of scholars, researchers and practitioners living and working in dozens of countries.
http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/mission.php
The CFSC Consortium is dedicated to the belief that innovative communication processes are critical to development of poor and historically marginalized communities.
The Consortium seeks to increase the capacity of communication specialists, development workers, aid agencies, nonprofit organizations and communities to use communication for social change concepts in order to improve the lives of those who have been long excluded.
Based on important experiences that are surfacing through participatory research, the Consortium is redefining how communication is practiced and taught to development organizations and practitioners working in excluded communities.
What is the Definition of Communication for Social Change?
CFSC is a process of public and private dialogue through which people themselves define who they are, what they need and how to get what they need in order to improve their own lives. It utilizes dialogue that leads to collective problem identification, decision making and community-based implementation of solutions to development issues.
Reaching concensus on this definition was done through a process of deliberation and consultation with some of the world's leading thinkers and practitioners of communication for development.
What are the Roots of CFSC?
Communication has been an essential tool for development since early in the 20th century. The Rockefeller Foundation, as an early funder of communication projects, helped boost the academic success of the work of pioneers such as Wilbur Schramm at the University of Illinois and Paul Lazersfeld at Columbia University.
In 1997, the Rockefeller Foundation's then communication director and later vice president, Denise Gray-Felder, began an exploration to, in part, answer nagging questions: why is the communication work of many Foundation grantees scatter-shot, unsustainable and heavily message driven?
Following a series of discussions with diverse groups of communicators over a 3-year period, the Foundation's communication staff introduced the concept of communication for social change to the foundation and donor communities.
From these discussions the Foundation was instrumental in forming a network of communication practitioners who debated and revised the working definition of communication for social change. This network is currently made up of scholars, researchers and practitioners living and working in dozens of countries.
http://www.communicationforsocialchange.org/mission.php
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