What is the ICS?
The Institute for Capacity Strengthening (ICS) is a one-stop shop for partnership and capacity strengthening a robust resource library and dynamic learning space that seeks to help CRS and partner staff improve the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for partnership and capacity strengthening at multiple levels, and access the resources and tools to do their work well. To take a tour of the site and see how it can be used, please click here.
Haga clic aquí para recorrer y aprender a utilizar el sitio virtual.
Veuillez cliquer ici afin de parcourir le site web de l’ICS et d’apprendre à l’utiliser.
للقيام بجولة في الموقع ومعرفة كيف يمكن استخدامه، يرجى النقر هنا
What kind of courses are here?
To ensure that the Institute for Capacity Strengthening (ICS) is rooted in a solid, evidence-based framework, CRS embarked on a process to define the areas of knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) underlying and necessary for successful partnership and capacity strengthening (P/CS).
To begin the team identified and interviewed experts in the fields of organizational development, capacity strengthening, and partnership, both internal to CRS and external; surveyed organizational development academic programs and literature, as well as peer agency approaches; and, identified common themes around KSAs and their impact on capacity strengthening outcomes. With these results, the Partnership and Capacity Strengthening team developed a framework with KSA areas, as well as detailed behavior indicators across increasing levels of mastery.
At the KSA level, the framework defines the following areas as critical for effective P/CS work. Together they build to a PCS competency.
Doing Partnership and Capacity Strengthening Well Requires:
Knowledge: Something that is learned or discovered
- Partnership and Capacity Strengthening Approaches
- Organizational Development
- Adult Learning
Skills: the ability to use and apply specific knowledge
- Interpersonal and Communication Skills
- Organizational Capacity Assessment
- Organizational Analysis and Action Planning
- Facilitation and Group Dynamics
- Mentoring, Coaching and Accompanying
- Institution Strengthening
Attitudes: a settled way of thinking or feeling, informed by knowledge and skills, typically reflected in a person’s behavior
- Humility and Mutuality
- Patience and Flexibility
- Trust-building
- Appropriateness
- Empowering and Optimistic
The team believes that developing this learning framework will help CRS, and partner and peer agencies to articulate what pcs competency looks like;
identify and define learning outcomes across levels and KSAs;
identify learning content gaps and needs and support performance support and learning
What are the different “Levels” of courses?
The ICS website is designed for four levels of training courses for each skill area which follow the graduated learning model. Level 1 consists of six courses, which are available as face-to-face curriculum and e-learning modules. The model consists of the following steps:
LEVEL 1: MEET IT - Learners demonstrate a basic understanding of key P/CS concepts
LEVEL 2: LEARN IT - Learners demonstrate a sufficient understanding of key P/CS concepts, approaches and tools, but guidance is needed to consistently apply them effectively in the workplace.
LEVEL 3: TRY IT - Learners demonstrate a sound understanding of key P/CS concepts, approaches and tools to adequately perform related tasks. Staff may require guidance when operating in an unfamiliar environment or new topic. Proficiency is advanced through supervised application and reflection on performance.
LEVEL 4: TEACH IT - Learners demonstrate a high level of understanding of the key P/CS concepts, tools and methods to perform fully and independently related tasks. Staff can teach and document P/CS expertise as a contribution to CRS and [email protected] and we can provide you an offline version.
What kind of resources are in the library?
The Institute for Capacity Strengthening (ICS) Resource Library houses partnership and capacity strengthening materials both from CRS as well as other sources, and include tools, guidance, technical briefs, case studies, as well as links to external resource lists.
Do you have languages other than English?
Yes. Currently the six Partnership and Capacity Strengthening Level 1 introductory courses are also available in French, Spanish and Arabic. There are also a range of resources available in these languages as well as Portuguese. The language dropdown box menu search box at the top of the Home page allows you to search select for courses and resources by the selected language.
How can I find a resource quickly?
To find a course, you can search by title, topic, level, language and/or key word. You can also browse for available courses from the Resource Library page, or from the topic icons or the browse by topic dropdown menu on the home page.
How can I find a course quickly?
To find a course, you can search by title, topic, level, language and/or key word. You can also browse for available courses from the Courses page.
How can I take a course if I have limited internet?
For CRS Staff: Please contact us at [email protected] and we can provide you an offline version
For Partners and Other Valued Institutions: Please click here to register.
Can anyone take a course?
Yes, anyone can take a course on the Institute of Capacity Strengthening (ICS). To request access to the ICS our courses go to the page on which the course of interest is found and click the Register button, or , please click here (link to sumtotal registration page). The ICS provided username and password are valid for all courses on the ICS.
Do I need to pay to take a course?
At this time, we are happy to offer all of the our courses on the Institute for Capacity Strengthening free of charge to individual users. If your organization would like request access to our courses for a large group of users, please contact us at [email protected]
Will my username and password for taking courses expire?
If you are a CRS Staff member, your login credentials will remain active as long as you remain a CRS employee. For our partners and other users, your credentials MAY expire after 30 days of inactivity. In this case, you will be notified prior to the deactivation of your access.
For CRS staff, what’s the difference between taking a course on the ICS compared to CRSLearns?
There is no difference. The Institute for Capacity Strengthening (ICS) website is simply a user-friendly, resource-rich portal by which you can gain access to courses that are housed on CRSLlearns. The benefit to accessing courses through the ICS is that you are quickly able to access related content and resources. What’s even better is that you still received credit for taking the course on your transcript!
Can I post events?
If you have partnership and/or capacity strengthening events that you think would be of interest to a wider audience please email [email protected]