SOAR Process
Steps to community development
Stages and Steps
SOAR has four stages. The community moves through the stages roughly in order but it may well find itself operating in two or more stages at the same time. Each stage involves a series of steps; each step involves a number of tasks.
The accelerated version of SOAR (SOAR First Light) takes about four to six months to complete (four to six weeks per stage). The comprehensive version of SOAR (SOAR Advantage or SOAR TotalPro) takes sixteen to twenty-four months. Timelines for SOAR vary considerably according to the complexity of the resources being developed, labour available and so on.
Development, of course, is never-ending. To continue growing the Life-Centred Learning Community and maintain crucial change momentum, communities are urged to repeat the cycle indefinitely.
Stage One: Getting started
This is where the focus of the change effort is decided, where teams and resources are organized, and where the community is invited to participate:
- Learn about SOAR
- Set the focus and scope
- Organize and train teams
- Inform and engage community
Stage Two: Creating the Vision
Teams plan and carry out a whole-community vision-making exercise called SOAR Summit. The process generates a high level of excitement and engagement and the resulting vision guides development actions:
- Plan SOAR Summit
- Develop interview guide
- Train the teams
- Interview community members
- Inform and engage community
- Carry out SOAR Summit
Stage Three: Making change
Next, Action Teams are formed to translate the vision into 'on-the-ground' resources. Action Teams then manage the resources and make changes on the fly as experience suggests:
- Self-organize into Action Teams
- Train Action Teams
- Plan priority resources
- Inform and engage community
- Implement and manage resources
- Review, revise, rejoice
Stage Four: Entrenching and enriching change
A second SOAR Summit is held to review progress on the vision and to develop strategies to entrench change (prevent old dysfunctional ways from creeping back in) and to enrich change (strengthen and expand partnerships, develop additional new resources):
- Revisit the vision (SOAR Summit 2)
- Train the teams
- Expand and deepen partnerships
- Plan and implement entrenchment strategies
- Plan and implement additional new resources
- Fan what works
- Inform and engage community
- Review, revise, rejoice
