Jayne Cravens:
Capacity-Building Work with and in Developing Countries
and with Various Constituencies in "the West"

My capacity-building activities are focused on communications, community/volunteer involvement, partner/donor relationships for nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations/civil society, and government-based programs.

My goal in any training, mentoring or other capacity-building activity is to give participants tools that they can use immediately and that give them a base on which to further build and improve long after our interactions are over.

Below is a list of capacity-building activities in which I have engaged, however, please note I am capable of engaging in capacity-building activities regarding any of my core professional competencies:

• Advising federal ministry staff on media and online outreach strategies (Afghanistan)

• Training federal ministry staff on how to gather and present written information for government, donor and UN reports, proposals and presentations (Afghanistan)

• Training federal ministry staff on how to monitor news wires and the web (Afghanistan)

• Training federal ministry staff on how to take photos in a culturally-sensitive manner and to meet various needs, e.g. to show female participation (Afghanistan)

• Training federal ministry staff to maintain offline and online (Flickr) photo archives (Afghanistan)

• Training federal ministry staff in how to be pro-active and reactive in distributing information and photos to various offices (Afghanistan)

• Creating and delivering a presentation for Afghan women on public speaking (Afghanistan)

• Training federal ministry staff in posting information to appropriate online fora, such as developmentgateway.org (Afghanistan)

• Advising on how to prevent folklore, rumors and urban myths from interfering with development and aid/relief efforts

• Advising a volunteer center regarding its online interface for potential volunteers (Cairo, Egypt)

• Training local UN agency staff working in mid-Eastern countries and regions (Lebanon, Jordan, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Egypt) in the basics regarding involving online volunteers (Cairo, Egypt)

• Authoring, frequently updating and distributing "Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs in the Developing World" (online, with requesting NGOs based primarily in Africa and Asia)

• Creating a web page offering advice for hotels, hostels & campgrounds in transitional & developing countries

• Mentoring an Afghan entrepreneur on how to create a small cleaning business, by researching and writing a detailed Afghan-specific guide that walked the entrepreneur through each cleaning business development step (including how to ensure the safety of female employees) and by recruiting the owner and manager of a successful cleaning business in the USA to edit the guide and answer the entrepreneur's specific questions.

• Researching and promoting the elements necessary to ensure success in using "Theater as a Tool for Development", with examples from Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA.

• Advising aspiring women bloggers, as well as female students of a variety of ages, from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and various locations in "the West."

• Creating online materials to build the capacities of organizations working in and for the developing world to involve and support volunteers using the Internet (online, via onlinevolunteering.org

• Training UN staff regarding volunteer management and online communications (Germany)

• Advising international and national organizations based in the USA regarding using their web to better promote their involvement of volunteers, to better support current volunteers, and to better recruit new volunteers (online).

• Advising on volunteer-involvement relating to Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) and online volunteering for the Southern Africa Capacity Initiative (SACI), a UNDP/UNV effort to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS in nine countries

• Advising regarding volunteer management and online community development for various UNV and UNDP-affiliated projects in the developing world, such as development of a volunteer center in Sri Lanka

• Researching and preparing pioneering articles on working with volunteers via Instant Messaging, and volunteers using PDAs and other handheld network technology

• Creating a module regarding effectively involving volunteers for UNESCO's Multimedia Training Kit

• Working directly with organizations throughout the world in setting up and expanding online volunteering programs (onsite in the USA, Germany, Switzerland and Egypt; online throughout the world)

• Training in communications activities, such as how to create a community newsletter, and how to approach local media in-person, by phone and by fax, for the American Indian community of the Southern San Francisco Bay Area

• Training nonprofits regarding web site accessibility, through Knowbility

• Advising a Youth Resource Center of Guria, Georgia (formerly part of the Soviet Union) regarding promoting volunteerism to youth

Read more about Jayne's credentials and expertise

Read more about Jayne's core professional competencies

Read more about Jayne's workshops & presentations

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