GRASP (Grass Roots Action for Social Participation) is a Civil Society Organisation involved in Natural Resource Management through people’s participation. GRASP envisions empowering communities to manage their resources in a professional and environmentally sound manner towards strengthening of their livelihood support systems. It is striving to accomplish its vision by working for socio economic development of the poor through community action, capacity building of grassroots level organisations, institution building, networking, policy advocacy and action oriented research.

Our twin pronged strategy towards our objectives ensures a cohesive and inclusive process, which can be replicated. On the one hand we are involved in Community Action Projects while simultaneously building the capacities of other Civil Society Organisations and Community Based Organisations, thus paving way for sustainability and replication of projects. GRASP believes that holistic development of people living in the degraded area is the sole way to a healthy society and nation. Hence, GRASP has included women empowerment, youth empowerment, child health and education, Agricultural development and livelihoods as part of its agenda. Networking and policy advocacy are intrinsic to our plan of operation.

Our Vision

“Empowerment of men and women to manage their resources in a scientific and environmentally sound manner.”

Our Mission

“To work for holistic development of the men and women through community action, capacity building of grassroots level organisations, institution building, networking, policy advocacy and action oriented research.” 

Our Guiding Philosophy

• GRASP believes in the holistic development of degraded areas with simultaneous focus on Education, Child Health, Youth and Women’s Empowerment an appropriate mix of technological and social interventions.
• We emphasise on the sustainability and replication of NRM programmes, which are an imperative for any form of development process. Community Based Organisations have to be strengthened and other CSOs involved and a network of CSOs established for cross learning and collective action.
• GRASP employs Institutional Development as a key strategy for mobilising community participation, building leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
• We practice positive discrimination in favour of disadvantaged sections of the society especially women. In all our projects special attention is paid towards empowering women.
• We insist that part of project investment should come from community in every feasible form

Our Objectives

• To develop strategic focus in identifying the technical and management needs of grassroots level organisations.
• To strengthen the management and utilisation of the natural resources and to regenerate the degraded lands to fulfil the needs of the local community
• To build capacities of the grassroots level organisations and promote new grass roots organisations to work for environmental resources management, as a strategy to implement and replicate environmental programmes.
• To develop the strategies for research, network building and advocating the policy for broad basing the concept of community empowerment using ERM as a tool

Our Programmes

• Community Action Programmes (CAP) as basis of community empowerment with an integrated watershed framework for holistic development of the area and the community aiming at improving the quality of life. Our methods of project implementation are inherently equipped with the focus on community involvement in the management of local resources.  This begins with identification of the long-term development needs of the people, and goes beyond to address the livelihood security issues.
• Development Initiative Support Programme (DISP) houses a team of professionals to provides expertise in the fields of planning, designing, and monitoring community project as well as in documenting, analysis and evaluation. Rooted in the belief that enabling a CSO leads to enabling a community, GRASP has always emphasised and encouraged techno-managerial support to CSOs and other implementing agencies, build their skills and capabilities to handle the intricacies of the development processes, besides making available basic administrative infrastructure.
• Resource Support for Institutional Development at grassroots. Our Local Initiative Support Team (LIST) provides leadership development and related support to local youth from various voluntary organisations. We have been active in capacity building of partner organisations in process skills like moderation and gender, and also in institutional development.
• Action oriented research. Our Team for Research, Evaluation and Development (TREAD) comprises a group of professionals working towards enhancement of communication and networking with the purpose of providing a stronger scientific base to the efforts of community empowerment and to develop a knowledge network. It fosters institutional linkages through networking, develops research strategies and advocates policy level improvements.
• Networking. We have promoted a network of voluntary organisations - Guild of Regional Associates for Community Empowerment (GRACE) working on NRM. The primary motive of coming together to share experiences, capacity building and to further broad base the concept of community empowerment. Apart from providing institutional and technical support it also helps in mobilisation of funds and scaling up micro-interventions.