This is the story that involves many people, over many years, and it tells us of their work and the emergence of the language and the principles of Asset-based Community Development (ABCD) in Australia and some of its’ Asian neighbours
Download By Graeme Stuart, Dee Brooks, Cherie Stephens, Caravan Project, Family Action Centre & University of Newcastle. Early Intervention and Prevention An Australasian Focus Caravan parks play an important role in pathways in and out of homelessness; and many marginalised residents are currently, or have been, homeless (Stuart, 2007). Because of their clearly defined boundaries…
Download Using ABCD with transient caravan park communities The Caravan Park Project has been developed to support residents who live in caravan parks, because they have few or no other housing options. Using an asset-based approach, the Caravan Park Project has a Big Ideas Grants (BIG) scheme to help fund initiatives that residents identify…
Blending Person Centred Thinking and Asset-based Community Development has been both a natural progression of two powerful strengths focused approaches yet, has also been a challenge in discovering where the intersections and borders are within the stand-alone frameworks and philosophies. Person Centred Community Driven practice delivers an experience for people that shifts mindsets towards a…
Who cares? A few months ago, I started some conversations (which some people might call ‘work’) with 14 multi-cultural community leaders in Sydney who are seeking ways to collaborate and learn from each other plus, share their strengths with the broader community. For example, one of the Afghan leaders told one of the African leaders…
One Tree at a Time Late one Friday afternoon, I was talking on the phone with the Regional Coordinatorofa Government Department about the upcoming talk and workshop I would be delivering at their Annual Forum. Being very passionate community workers, we very quickly moved onto talking about the importance of listening, the potential dilemmas caused…
Between Chaos and Control “Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos. Before a brilliant person begins something great, they must look foolish in the crowd.” ~ From the I Ching Over the years of working with people; community members, teams, friends, my family, I have observed and reflected on the path between…
Why are the ‘Values of Inclusion’ (developed by Marsha Forest, Jack Pearpoint, John O’Brien and the Scottish Human Services) so important? Start Fragment Everyone is born ‘in’ All means All Everyone needs to be ‘in’ Everyone needs to be ‘with’ Everyone is ready Everyone needs support Everyone can communicate Everyone can learn Everyone can contribute…
I recently attended a one day workshop on Collective Impact in Sydney, facilitated by Paul Born of the Tamarack Institute where he talked about the concept of Third Spaces. The term is not new to me and is what one of my ABCD colleagues, Jim Diers, calls Bumping Places but, it got me thinking about…
When traveling around the country, delivering ABCD workshops, I often hear people say, “I’ve heard great ABCD stories but it all seems too big for my little community” or, “People aren’t interested, where do I start?” I was reminded of this yesterday when wrapping up a 3 day Person-Centred, Community-Driven training for Early Linkers,…