Community Walks Curriculum
Community Walks are successful and popular tours – a great mix of learning, creativity, fun and interactivity. This program encourages participants to take a more active role in shaping the places and cities where they live. The importance of engaging local residents in these sorts of conversations, a type of ‘active citizenship’ is vital for the health and sustainability of our communities and city. Everyone has a right to take part in that conversation.
The Community Walks can unfold over as long as a five week period, or come together in as few as two sessions. The tools we provide to help develop a walking tour for community groups are basically simple exercises and discussion points to help organize people’s thoughts and inspirations.
The net effect of using our Community Walk Curriculum is that it helps draw out the observations you already have about your neighbourhood and the people who live there. By taking a closer look at how things are, and discussing it with others, it encourages fresh thinking about civic engagement, urban planning, local history and community-building.
Social Mapping Exercises
Photocopy maps of your neighbourhood and get people to plot out where they hang out, work, shop, live and play – places that have a story to tell. People might also want to think about the strengths and weaknesses are of the ‘walking environment’ of their neighbourhood.
Telling Your Story on a Walking Tour
Tour guides have to think through effective and creative ways of telling their stories, sharing their observations, and encouraging others to take part in the conversation. The group decides together what stops on the tour will be included, sharing the research and ‘animating’ the site.
Practice Run
Visits to the tour sites and a doing a dry-run of the walk is essential. This gives people a chance to ‘rehearse’ their talks, scout out the locationm refine observations and get a sense of timing. Past tours have included included historical skits, puppet shows, poetry readings and in-person interviews with firemen, business owners and politicians
Jane’s Walk Volunteers
Volunteers can help make all this happen, but they are not essential to the process. Tours can be as idiosyncratic, personal and offbeat as you like. This Community Walks curriculum is intended only as a helpful resource for prospective tour guides, it is not a strict set of rules and guidelines.