A Global Strategy for Human Development: The Work of ICA

Stuart Umpleby and Alisa Oyler

The George Washington University

The Institute of Cultural Affairs

Outline

• The Fifties – origins and purposes

• The Sixties – methods and organization

• The Seventies – global activities

• The Eighties – documentation and reorganization

• The Nineties – autonomous regions

• Research – influences and impacts

Trends established in the fifties

• Technical advances in communication and transportation

• Global movement of people during WW II

• End of colonialism

• United Nations established

• In churches, a wave of writings, study and discussion

Illinois and Texas

• 1954 meeting of World Council of Churches in Evanston, IL

• An Ecumenical Institute similar to the one in Bossey, Switzerland

• At the University of Texas, research on faith and contemporary life

• In 1962 Joe Mathews and seven families moved to Evanston, IL

The Sixties

• Developing curricula for church renewal

• Relocation to the West Side of Chicago

• Door-to-door interviews and neighborhood meetings

• First summer research assembly in 1965

• Derek Bok on 15% and 85% as the moral issue of our time

A self-supporting financial structure

• A full-time volunteer, residential staff called the Order: Ecumenical

• A self-supporting family order committed to a mission of service in church renewal and later community development

• Some people had professional jobs, others were full-time volunteers

• Income was pooled

Levels of involvement

• Full-time staff, members of the Order: Ecumenical

• People who worked part-time on projects and/or gave money

• People in churches or communities who participated in events

ICA established

• Increasing work with secular organizations such as corporations

• The Institute of Cultural Affairs was established as a sister organization to the Ecumenical Institute in 1973

• The focus was always on mental images and culture – language, symbols, rituals, norms, patterns, mindsets, etc.

Growth due to community development projects

• In 1968 a staff of 100 people, all in Chicago• In 1974 a staff of 1400 (including 600 children) of

23 nationalities• In the 1970s 50 locations around the world• Coordinating centers in Bombay, Caracas, Hong

Kong, Chicago, Brussels, and Kuala Lumpur• Courses for teachers, social workers,

professionals, business people

Kinds of programs

• Town meetings – one day events• Human Development Projects -- a one

week initiating event with staff remaining for two years

• Human Development Training Schools – spreading knowledge of community development to surrounding villages

• Global Women’s Forum

Methods

• Social process triangle

• Focused conversation

• Consensus workshop

• Action planning

A focused conversation

• Objective – getting the facts, sensory information

• Reflective – feelings, emotions, memories, associations, images

• Interpretive – meaning, values, significance, implications

• Decisional – resolution, action, future direction, next steps

A consensus workshop

• Context – set the stage, state the purpose, describe the process

• Brainstorm – generate new ideas• Cluster – group the ideas, look for

relationships• Name – give each cluster a name• Resolve – confirm the decisions, discuss the

significance of the consensus, next steps

Action planning

• Context – review the background• Victory – imagine the day after completion• Current reality – strengths, weaknesses• Commitment – clear, compelling statement • Key actions – tasks and committees• Calendar – schedule for each group• Coordination – adjust the calendar• Affirm and celebrate – title, slogan, image

Why replication?

Chief Minister Chavan, Indian State of Maharastra, “One renewed village is but a curiosity. However, I have 60,000 villages.”

Number of communities affected

• Initially 24 Human Development Projects, one in each time zone

• From Maliwada to 232 villages in the State of Maharashtra

• From Kawangware, a ‘slum’ near Nairobi, to 1000 villages in Kenya

• 5400 Town Meetings in North America, one in each county

Other programs

• Global Women’s Forum – international-izing the women’s liberation movement

• Community Youth Forum – for disadvantaged young people

• Training, Inc. – for people who had high school diplomas but were unable to find jobs

Sharing approaches that work

• The International Exposition of Rural Development began in 1982

• Sponsored by several UN agencies• Selected the best projects from around the

world• 500 representatives met in New Delhi in

1984• A series of books on lessons learned

A new financial model for ICA

• People were working for corporations, in education, on women’s issues, with youth

• People from many different religions were involved

• Children were going to college, parents were retiring, health costs soared

• From groups of families to a conventional non-profit organization

• International decentralization

The nineties

• International Association of Facilitators founded in 1994

• ICA organizations in 34 countries• ICA international in Brussels• www.icaworld.org, www.ica-usa.org,

www.icacan.ca/institute, www.icajapan.org• From summer research assemblies to

international conferences every 4 years

Research

• ICA was influenced by many authors, both secular and religious

• They studied the literature on personal development, community development, and economic development

• Others were influenced by the work of ICA

Conclusions

• ICA has changed its name, organizational structure, methods, and sources of funding

• It has worked with churches, universities, corporations, NGOs, and government agencies

• It has created several well-tested methods for promoting human development