Agency Building Tools for Young Rural Women

By

Sajhe Sapne

Knowledge Sharing and Ecosystem Building Series

Townhall #6

 Practical Tools to Build and Sustain a Collective

(April 2024)

About Town Halls at Sajhe Sapne

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Video link to the Town Hall here

Created by Sajhe Sapne 

Shared credits

This document was prepared with inputs from ReapBenefit, Teach For India Alumni, Swacardz, Youth Alliance, Bihar Development Collective, Commutiny and Bachpan Manao, Badhte Jao with their expertise in running a collective of various forms and intent.

About Sajhe Sapne

Sajhe Sapne is a non-profit that collectivizes and trains young rural women in STEM and Management courses to launch their careers in domains where their entry is not imagined yet.

Purpose of Document

As a part of the ‘Knowledge-Sharing and Ecosystem-Building Series’, this document is made publicly available by Sajhe Sapne in an effort to share knowledge about practical tools that help build and sustain a collective.

Without a collective, no real work and impact is made. Fostering and sustaining a collective is a relatable experience for anyone who leads a collective. At Sajhe Sapne, we want to open the floor for these and similar questions.

Useful for

This document can be used by individuals and non-profits, for profits, any community that is looking to create a purposeful gathering of like-minded people.

For more queries and collaboration contact : sapnewaalis@gmail.com 

Index

Collectives in Discussion: An Overview        6

Practical Tools Overview        8

Teach For India (TFI) Alumni        9

Collective and its Overview        9

About TFI        9

Practical tools for collective building        9

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Work        9

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Have Not Worked        10

Additional insights        10

Swacardz        11

Collective and its Overview        11

About Swacardz        11

Practical tools for collective building        11

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Work        11

Practical Tools That Have Not Worked        11

Additional Insights        12

Bachpan Manao, Badhte Jao        12

Collective and its Overview        12

About        12

Practical tools for Collective Building        12

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Work        12

Practical Tools That Have Not Worked        13

Additional insights        13

Reap Benefit        13

Collective Overview        13

About ReapBenefit        13

Practical tools for Collective Building        13

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Work        13

Practical Tools That Have Not Worked        14

Additional insights        14

Commutiny        15

Collective Overview        15

About Commutiny        15

Practical tools that have worked        15

Practical Tools that Have Not Worked        15

Youth Alliance        16

Collective Overview        16

About Youth Alliance        16

Practical tools for collective building        16

Practical tools that have worked        16

Practical tools that have not worked        16

Additional Insights        16

Bihar Development Collective (BDC)        17

Collective Overview        17

About Bihar Development Collective        17

Practical tools for collective building        17

Practical tools that have worked        17

Practical tools that did not work        17

Sajhe Sapne        18

Collective Overview        18

About Sajhe Sapne        18

Practical tools for collective building        18

Practical tools that have worked        18

Practical tools that have not worked        18

Q and A (post discussion)        19

Credits        22

Collectives Overview

Practical Tools Overview

Teach For India (TFI) Alumni

Collective and its Overview

Purpose: Wants to infuse the education sector with 50,000 leaders in the next 10 years. 50, 000 leaders who act collectively and who are collaborating strategically.

About TFI

Teach For India inspired by Teach For America is a non-profit working towards educational equity in India.

Practical tools for collective building

Purpose: 50,000 leaders in 10 yrs who are working and acting collectively in collaboration and strategically.

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Work

1.Connect initiatives

1. Curate opportunities for participation. (virtually or in person.)

In person opportunities add a level of commitment and excitement hence are preferred.

2. Find the spirit behind what all the platforms can offer and what the Collective needs.  
   For example, a platform that focuses on jobs, resources and opportunities was necessary for the TFI alum. Make sure this curation happens keeping in mind what the collective needs.
   
3. Consistent communication that allows talk beyond the organization’s purpose.

For example, bring visibility to the different alumni - what is happening in the education sector, what are the other orgs up to?

4. WhatsApp is a good tool to keep the community connected.
   
5. Organic conversations and discussions help build a sense of belonging and community.  
   A good marker is when the Alumni take ownership for the community groups.

2.Participate and Create

1. Create spaces where people come, meet, network with no agenda and also spaces where they can come together for very focused discussions.
   
2. Building multipliers i.e. enabling leadership within the collective. The challenges of the same can be addressed with what resources the organization (in this case, TFI) can offer.

For example, alumni itself has started communities of practice, alumni chapters in different cities, groups coming together to support early stage entrepreneurs, supporting funding requests from one another et al.

3. Shared ownership within the collective is key.
4. Fuel the possibilities of creation within the collective.

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Have Not Worked

1. Curation and nudges from the organization can ever be one size fits all.
   
2. Everyone being an ally is difficult when you’re sector agnostic. Participation and interest change sector to sector. For members who are from the corporate sector, this engagement has to be figured out.
   
3. Sustainability is tough to design and requires continuous tinkering.

Presentation deck here.

Additional insights

• A very strong sense of belonging should exist so that even when the organization's support does not exist, the collective continues to thrive.
  
• In a diverse group, curation is tricky but it’s a ‘learn on the go’ process that enables curation to be the best fit.
  

Swacardz

Collective and its Overview

Purpose: To make games that bind people together. Is associated with alt education collectives like Indian Multiversity Alliance, Coversity Alliance and Keede Makode Collective, a micro solidarity collective.

About Swacardz

Swacardz designs card games, board games, manuals, toolkits, and journals for meaningful and impactful stakeholder communication.

Practical tools for collective building

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Work

1. Bring Dance and Play to the collective. It brings people together.

Examples of tools : Play for peace, Youth Jam tools, Interplay, Serious games, Circular Dances, Dance Movements, Theatre of the Oppressed.

2. Art of Hosting

Example of tools : Hold spaces for conflict, make collectives participative, assemble check-in, check-out, talking piece, flow game like mechanisms.

3. Games for social transformation
   Enable conversations that matter. Awareness building games and habit changing games are useful. For example, A civic education game by Swacardz
   
4. Practical tools for connecting online

Miro Board, Mural Board, discord,  Linkedin - FB page, Google Groups and Whatsapp groups, Loomio.

5. Food is a great icebreaker

Food brings people together and it creates a space to share space in a collective.

6. Open your home to host in order to spend time with someone on a one-on-one basis to build a stronger connection.
   
7. Consistent communication and showing up for each other.

Practical Tools That Have Not Worked

1. If one person runs the collective, then it might not move without them. That means the collective will not truly flourish.
2. Do not have a top-down approach in a collective where
3. Absence of nurturance does not work. Superficial messages and connections do not work.

Additional Insights

• There should be a flow of energy between all the members of the collectives. Towards each other and towards the collective.  
  
• Deep nurturance, deep involvement and stable anchors go a long way to keep the collective flourishing. .

Bachpan Manao, Badhte Jao

Collective and its Overview

Purpose: A free-flowing concept that allows people to co-create and execute ideas.

About

Bachpan Manao Badhte Jao is fostering a wholesome childhood through play. The mission is  incubated by EkStep Foundation

Practical tools for Collective Building

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Work

1. Members of a collective work as collaboration actors.
   
2. Social media is a good tool and way to spread the work.
   
3. Ritual setting can be easily done with the help of celebratory days

For example, environment day, women's day, children’s day.  These occasions become a way of beginning a dialogue about collective action.

4. Paying attention to what happens in different places, and amongst  different people and different projects together, helped in curating creations and engagement activities.

5. The goal of a collective should be to foster a space for doing, seeing and offering.
   
6. Have one theme and format exploration in the collective’s being.

For example, ‘Masterclasses’ as a format have become very popular. People should have the space to say, 'I want to ‘teach about something’ or ‘I want to know more about this.’

7. Newsletters as a tool and handing them over to the members of the collective on a rolling basis helps everyone find a voice and space to discuss on a personal level.

Practical Tools That Have Not Worked

1. Trying too hard. Wanting a specific outcome because you’re anxious about driving the goal of the collective won’t work.

Additional insights

Ultimately, agency and choice helps. Everytime you take the pressure off and celebrate something, it works.

Reap Benefit

Collective Overview

Purpose: Building agency amongst youth. Taking action on ground to solve civic and climate issues.

About ReapBenefit

ReapBenefit is igniting a movement of Young Changemakers to redefine civic and climate leadership.

Practical tools for Collective Building

Practical Tools for Collective Building that Work

1. WhatsApp based tech bot has been a key supporter in keeping in touch with the collective. Any nudge on WhatsApp is a combination of thick and thin engagement styles based on the incentives that drive youth action on the ground

2. Thick and thin engagement styles are as follows:

Thick engagement

• Intensive, informed and deliberative.
• Action happens in small-group discussions.
• Participants get a change to share their experiences
• Encourages change and action at multiple levels.
• Empowers a group

Thin Engagement  

• Faster, easier and more convenient.
• Activities that allow people to express their opinions, make choices.

3. Having a local mentorship network such as local groups, physical spaces and an interactive chat bot, has been instrumental in keeping the collective active.
   
4. Providing tools such as knowledge toolkits and repositories of access to local data and solutions leads to more action and initiative taking.
   
5. Consistent Nudges are a good way to inspire action.
   
6. Paying attention to the idea that it is not a program, it is a collective will take you a long way.

Practical Tools That Have Not Worked

1. Not knowing what really gets the youth together will make things haphazard.
2. Waxing and waning interests of the collective are okay. One has to find out the makers for the same. Figure out ways of how to navigate this interest.

Additional insights

For Solve Ninjas, the youth connected to ReapBenefit, here are some insights on why they want to become a part of a collective.

• Emotional connectedness, belongingness. The need to have a group of people who are like them and to be connected to them.
• Financial growth. Can this unlock employability? Especially seen in tier2, tier 3 cities.
• Learning and personal growth.
• Altruism. Passionate about the area that they’re in and the want to do something for it.

Commutiny

Collective Overview

Purpose : A cross sectional collective that offers spaces to cater to possibilities coming to fruition.

About Commutiny 

Commutiny is building vibrant ecosystems and empowering spaces to nurture the leadership potential of young people towards transforming self and society. 

VartaLap is a cross-sectional collective that is facilitated by Commutiny.

Practical tools for collective building

Practical tools that have worked

1. Collective organizing is Seeing, Doing and Being. This combination is key. Being able to offer spaces that cater to all these three needs is a big learning.

1. Seeing - Duties/ rights, vision.

For example, the coalition has a segment on ‘Youth duties around the world’ that sets a framework of possibilities.

2. Doing - collective action that results in learning, mission, impact, change on the ground.
   Everyone has enough to do. Volunteering habits don’t always work.
3. Being - Just showing up, as and when.

2. Key driver of any collective is relationships and processes.
   
3. Have deep relationships. People need and crave that. This can be done by staying connected organically and also being connected via processes.
   
4. Having formal processes anchors a collective.
   
5. Formal processes are required so is organic interaction and nurturing that.

Practical Tools that Have Not Worked

• Do not overburden. Knowing and acknowledging at all times that there is ‘Enough’ to do in terms of collective action.
  
• Usually collectives are secondary memberships. Primary action is to your org. Hence, do not force action until we find that collaborative action that is exciting and can bring a large number of members together, not all, but many, then the collective thrives.  

Youth Alliance

Collective Overview

Purpose:  imagines creating a community that can thrive within the systems of our functioning and move beyond generalized expectations.

About Youth Alliance

Youth Alliance collective transforms youths' relationship with the world, self and nature.

Effective practical tools for collective building

Practical tools that have worked

1. Create trust, intimacy and co-operation. This can be introduced and practiced in the group via honesty, core belief, legitimacy, collaboration and cooperation.
   
2. Primary membership when joining a collective builds safety and belonging.
   
3. A collective needs the ability to uplift each other is key. Tools for the same can be figured out together.
   
4. Growing together is fundamental, not just for business or other connection-meeting needs. Creating joint action spaces and tools or opportunities can make these ends meet.

Practical tools that have not worked

• When words like family are used, it becomes a trap. To project the needs of the family and the unresolved needs onto a community while they are overlapped is a trap. How do you move beyond that?
  
• Any relationship has a baggage and unsaid conversation that gathers, similarly in a community there are unsaid things. Difficult conversations are rarely had. How do you create spaces for disagreements and a practice of constantly clearing up space, clearing up the air in relationships and community spaces?

Additional Insights

• How do we create a space that enables people to move to the next threshold? Interestingly, it is not individual work. It is a community where the individual gets nourished. It is in the collective that a community also thrives.

  ---

Bihar Development Collective (BDC)

Collective Overview

Purpose: Platform that connects funders + orgs to build the trust in development sector work  happening in the state of Bihar.

About Bihar Development Collective

Bihar Development Collective is a joint initiative working towards strengthening the current development ecosystem of Bihar.

Practical tools for collective building

Practical tools that have worked

1. There are levels on which the collective influences you

• On a thought level
• Embodiment level
• Action level
  

2. Pick a governing body within the collective and make a ritual that brings everyone together.  For example - BDC visits an org once in 3 months. They put in our own money and speak to orgs, stay with them, brainstorm on what works need to be done and that is a beautiful tradition that has started.
   
3. By making the right matches, a collective is able to make immediate reform.

Practical tools that did not work

• Sometimes you do not know what a collective can do but it comes back and reminds you of its possibilities.

Sajhe Sapne

Collective Overview

Purpose: To build a thriving support system for Young Rural Women

About Sajhe Sapne

Sajhe Sapne trains and collectivizes young rural women in STEM and management skills to launch their careers in places where their entry is not imagined yet.

Practical tools for collective building

Practical tools that have worked

1. The WhatsApp Group, which is the basis of the collective at present, sees lots of celebrations of ‘first’ some things such as jobs, purchases, flights, laptops etc.

2. Discussion related to gender issues as that is a common theme amongst all Sapnewaalis. Whenever gender related topics are brought up in a group discussion online, it inspires strong relatability and a response from the group members. So, identifying a common interest can go a long way in a sustained engagement.
   
3. Reunions amongst Sapnewaalis in the same region or in the same city, random calls on WhatsApp have worked.
   
4. The collective is trying to organize its activities under a big mantra : Invest, initiate, inspire. Invest includes celebration of all the activities in which one or more members have “invested” in other members’ growth by giving their time or money. For example, a lot of our alumni who are working full time now give donations to Sajhe to support someone else’s education. This is an “inspire” celebration. Within “initiate”, any activities that were initiated by a collective member for the betterment of others is celebrated. This could include as simple an activity as initiating conversations in the online group to keep the group active and alive to actually starting an initiative in your own village for social causes. Lastly, “inspire” includes all the activities where a collective member inspires others to grow by their actions. This could be an example where a member gets to speak on a stage about their story, their work and philosophy or it could mean mentoring a young woman who wants to study but has a lot of hurdles.
   
5. Prompts to begin discussion by tagging people on the WhatsApp group (funny tags have worked the most) have worked. On an average twice a week, these prompts spark conversations.

Practical tools that have not worked

Monthly meetings (educational or otherwise) did not work. Since the group is just on WhatsApp, either the timings don’t match or the network isn’t okay in rural spaces, or they’re at work, or the sincerity towards collectivizing is not a priority at the moment.

• Leadership selection without any structure does not work since the roles and outcomes are not clear. What is the intent and reward of being a leader.
• Sajhe’s language has too many collective words. It then becomes a problem of plenty. There’s difficulty in creating one particular structure. So you end up doing too much, too less, nothing at all and expectations from the group thus oscillate.

Q and A (post discussion)

What are some of the markers that are telling you things are working?

Shravan BDC : 80% of life is just showing up. If people are coming together, taking initiatives or even speaking to each other, that is a working collective.

Shashank Youth Alliance : The collective is healthy when it has a dissent language and space and has hospitality for strangers.

Kanika Commutiny : Collective that is learning or reflecting. If people are not showing up, will a collective shut down or reflect, why aren’t people showing up? What is being done to inspire people to show up, is important and making it consistent.

Maitreyi Bahcpan Manao, Badhte Jao : Everyone in the collective really believes in the vision and the culture of the collective.

Surabhi Sajhe Sapne : Have a vision for a collective and bring it out clearly with the group. When you give purpose, they hold it strong as youthful spirits.

Pooja Reap Benefit : A good marker is when people who are a part of the collective themselves bring people to the collective. When it thrives on its own, its doing well.  

Deepika Bachpan Manao : When people value something in a connection, there will be certain behaviours with which they will show up. One is showing up of course, the second is the offering they make or the connection they ask to be made. This value that is seen by being is a marker for knowing things are working.

How to incorporate the need of finding a collective and being in it?

Deepika Bachpan Manao : You can’t force a lot of cultural things to happen in a timeline. Let things emerge from the group. We need to let the collective have a little bit of freedom to hold the space. Trying too hard breaks things. Biggest thing is listening and holding space.

Rahul Swacardz : By building spaces and meeting people whom one connects with and relates to. Friendships and identity making comes in a collective and that’s the fundamental interest. As young adults, we do not necessarily have the drive to belong within the familial bonds or social-political setup. Unpredictability, openness, all should be welcome. And as for culture setting, remember, the things that we say no to, makes us more powerful.

Kanika Commutiny: There is a burden that we carry, of being emergent and accommodating everyone’s needs and bringing everyone together. That collapses our own well-being and all of this by one person is not possible.

It is beautiful that people respect collectives, but people who are seeding collectives - it should be okay for them to say why they are a collective and what agenda they’ve brought in.

Everyone feels that they have laid a brick but it is okay to say, this is why we should come together and this is what we should do for sometime and take people along.

In your journey of being part of the collective, did you feel that you have failed and if yes, why and what did you do about it?

Shashank : Your own well-being is affected by the collective then it is a failure. You should not feel exhausted by being in it. The collective is not nurturing me, and maybe i’m locating myself outside of it.

Rahul Swacardz: Absence of direction.

Deepika Bachpan Manao : The burden of coming up with new ideas and new things.

Pooja Reap Benefit : Suspend your idea of what the collective needs and to see what is the need emerging within the collective and truly looking at how your agenda and the needs can be aligned.

Surabhi Sajhe Sapne : Recalibration of expectations. Allow myself and membership to grow.

Kanika Commutiny : People showing up is also just a habit sometimes and nothing else.

Khyati : Impact of the collective is long-term, it is a slow journey.

Questions for the group

1. What is your drive to be a part of a collective or even create one?
   
2.  What incentives have worked for assigned community leaders? Give examples

3. What truly works to create a sense of belongingness in online spaces?
   
4. Could you please cite some resources on collective building that you follow/have read/ have tried?

5. What are some of the moments that make the collective overwhelming for you? What helps during this time?

Credits

We deeply appreciate the time and insights that each organization’s representative shared to make our social sector ecosystem richer.

Participants

Pooja Pawar, Reap Benefit

Kanika, Commutiny 

Annuj and Shravan, Bihar Development Collective

Khyati Dutt, Teach For India

Maitreyi and Deepika, Bachpan Manao, Badhte Jao

Rahul Hasija, Swacardz

Shashank Kalra, Youth Alliance

Zoom premium for video recording Commutiny

Documentation Aparna Varma

Video Edit by Anjani Sanga

Town hall Moderator Surabhi Yadav

Created and host Sajhe Sapne