What is
emPOWER*?
There is a lot of work on “empowering” people whose voices haven’t been heard and many interpretations of the term. This page describes our motivations and approach.
We use the term emPOWER* (with a star) to differentiate this evolving package from other good work on empowerment.
emPOWER* integrates…
1. Resource-focused interventions adapted to local context and community choice
2. Empowerment training with an emphasis on personal agency and leadership
3. Energy-services framing that recognizes the interdependence between
equity, sustainability and community resilience
What do we do differently?
- Timing: We insist that empowerment, or one’s recognition and enhancement of one’s own personal agency, be the first step. Empowerment activities occur before any decisions about resource delivery.
- Freedom: Self-determination requires the liberty to choose. When solutions are already determined, the locus of control lies outside the recipients. This lack of choice may emphasize a state of learned helplessness – empowerment doesn’t mean enabling people to do what we want them to! We partner with projects where decisions are not established in advance.
- Guidance: In the search for self-determination, a continual struggle is how to integrate knowledge that is externally valid. Other participants have enjoyed new sources of convenient energy and found that they are healthier when not breathing smoke. We seek ways to provide this information, which may take an individual quite long to discover on their own, without imposing our priorities.
- Self-reflection: We learn about ourselves and gain empathy with participants by asking our team to undertake the same agency-based training that we offer. We often find that we have similar struggles, self-questioning, and time limitations as the participants.