Many minority language communities lack amenities and know-how that are essential to good health and stable economic structures that will benefit them in the long run. A holistic, people-centered approach in community development will build trust and pave the way for Bible translation projects to start. A community development specialist facilitates workshops and cultivates development partnerships that lead to lasting positive change in these communities.

Responsibilities:

• Focus the process of holistic transformational development in a community in the context of a language development programme.

• Facilitate the training of local leaders of the local ethnic community to identify their own goals, needs and/or the resources for meeting those needs.

• Lead community development workshops and training courses to meet local community interests, goals, and/or needs.

• Assist the language development team in engaging with the local community in healthy, sustainable ways.

• Network to find technical and organisational assistance and/or other agencies with whom the community may wish to partner.

• Work with various aspects of language development (such as literacy, translation, ethno-arts, etc.) to facilitate a sustainable language programme and holistic transformational development.

• An experienced CD Specialist may be assigned to a comprehensive project or several language development programmes (in a service cluster) to complement language development work.

Qualifications:

• Able to relate well to community members, leaders, and local officials by listening well and asking questions in culturally appropriate ways.

• Able to see local capacities and their relevance to their language and community development goals.

• Committed to community empowerment through community participation and ownership.

• Able to apply adult learning principles for training trainers of adults, i.e., train local leaders to train community members.

• Able to assess resources, monitor and evaluate projects and to train community leaders to do this independently on their own well-developed skills in designing training experiences using adult education and experiential learning principles.

• Desire and ability to work as part of a language development team includes learning to speak the local language well.

• Knowledge of basic community development philosophy (especially of holistic transformational development, community based development and participatory development), methods, and practices.

• Undergraduate degree in a related field will be helpful.

• Satisfactory performance in courses substantially similar to the following SIL standard courses: Cultural Anthropology, Language and Culture Learning, Language and Society, Introduction to Language Structure, Language Project Planning and Management, Training Across Cultures.

If you would like to indicate your interest for this role, please click on the button below to contact our Personnel team. You will be contacted when opportunities arise.