PARTICIPATORY AND ARTS METHODS

About us

CTDU's work is about making available to local activists and volunteers the skills, knowledge and confidence to manage local projects and participate in local decision making.

CTDU's main achievements are:

• Extensive and in-depth training and development work with a large and wide range of community and voluntary groups on their own agenda and in their own area.
  

• The development of community alliance between groups working in the priority areas.
  

• The use of participatory and arts methods to develop and increase the voice, confidence and sense of community of the members of the organisations we work with.

As well as leading training events for projects in their own premises, CTDU organises regular gatherings where projects get together to develop understanding of poverty related issues.

CTDU special events aim to offer groups inspiration and stimulation, the chance to make new friends and contacts and to inspire one another.

Key elements of these events are:

• A cultural focus eg. A film, an exhibition, language.
  

• Participatory study and debate.
  

• A social atmosphere, with food and entertainment supplied by ourselves.

Through their involvement in these participatory events people are encouraged by new ways of thinking about themselves and the world in which they live.  These events have also increased access to art and cultural centres and by using creative and popular communication methods like film and exhibition participants develop new knowledge.

CTDU's work focuses on ordinary people developing their voice, and feeling confident about speaking out, being proud of what we sound like as well as what we're saying.