Reblocking Guidebook Discussion

Backstory

Once we arrived on Langrug, we quickly realized that the reblocking process was far from where we expected it to be. Within this hectic time of learning as much as we could of the present situation as soon as possible, we found that the reblocking process has no general procedure for it. CORC acknowledges that its staff is spread thin, so the support staff that have personally experienced reblocking are trying to reach as many communities as possible, which leaves an information gap. The Municipality is not experienced in this community-driven process, as only traditional settlement upgrading methods have been utilized thus far. The Langrug community seems to  understand the end product of reblocking, but not so much the process to get there. In this way we must discover the reblocking process right along all the other stakeholders. We do not fully understand all the steps behind this process, the costs it entails or the commitments required by the community.

Cast Of Characters

The Reblocking working team (Amanda, Victoria, Brittany, Tim and Juan).

Setting

Wendy house for an hour or so in the morning.

Scene & Reflection

One of the solutions we have devised to forward the reblocking process is to develop a general workbook to guide the community and the stakeholders during the reblocking.  By starting from scratch and checking off the things needed to achieve we hope to achieve two things: consolidate all information of the process so far and understand what are the next steps are. To start this process, we brainstormed some important topics we felt we needed to understand more in depth for the process.

The next day we presented these topics to Amanda and Victoria, who work closely with us on the reblocking planning. As is usual in our work, we tried to facilitate discussion by asking them about their thought on the topics we presented. As we did this, we wrote their thoughts in a different color in our topics list. As more ideas were drawn up, the two of them became more vocal in their descriptions and reasoning behind proposing topics to consider. Many of these we would have never considered on our own. This really showed us that the working group has a very good understanding of what reblocking entails, but they just have a hard time putting that into words.

One particularly illustrative moment was when we asked why they had chosen F-Section as a starting point for reblocking. Amanda immediately answered that F-Section’s central location made it an ideal spot for the rest of the community to see just what reblocking consists of. This way, momentum could be built throughout the settlement. Both of them seemed really proud when we asked them about certain topics and they replied with a “Yes! We have done that!” The guidebook work really showed them what they had achieved, and we feel this is important to boost the low morale found in the working group right now.

Even more importantly, seeing this list really showed Amanda what was left to do in the reblocking process. The first couple of days of work showed us that the working group thought the reblocking planning was basically complete. With a rough cost analysis, we would be all set. Upon further analysis however, it became clear this was not close to the truth. The reblocking maps were off scale, the homes to be reblocked were inaccurately measured, and the shack design did not exist. Even after informing the team of these issues they still felt that the only thing needed was a cost estimate. However as we worked on the guidebook it became clear to the working team members that there was definitely a lot of work to be done before physical reblocking could occur. This event really helped change the working team memberw’ views on the planning we are focusing on. Additionally, it enlightened the team on all the things that need to be addressed for reblocking to occur. Hopefully this will motivate everyone to work as hard as possible to push this planning forward.