There's a couple of great stories happening on the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/429625007423984/

On the suggestion and request of John McKnight, Judi and Dee pulled together some of the highlights, influences and challenges around ABCD in Australia! We had a lot of fun writing this and apologise for any omissions of people, places or practices! We know there's much more going on than this! The following is the intro and you can find the full paper here

"The following paper has been written from the perspective of two former staff members from the Family Action Centre (FAC), University of Newcastle; a strengths-based centre that was an early adopter and pioneer of ABCD work in Australia. The authors have both since left the employment of the FAC, yet, continue to support the work of ABCD in their current roles. They would also like to note the influential work undertaken by other Australian ABCD practitioners and supporters, particularly Ric Thompson, Chris Dureau, Peter Kenyon, Amanda Howard and Ted Smeaton (vale), who have all been major influencers in the development and application of ABCD in Australia."

I wrote a blog some months ago titled “Through the Looking Glass; a Blended Herstory” which was an attempt to synthesise almost 2 decades of work. This cathartic experience compelled me to create something flexible and adaptable to support community members in decision-making and to design something simple and easy to apply that could be sustained by the community itself.

I started experimenting with the ideas in Indonesia with great success and after sharing my initial learnings with Michelle, a Jeder Collective member, and she helped me tweak it further. What we have ended up with is a participatory, community-led, collective impact, leadership social lab on steroids, which we have named the Co-Lab initiative.

You can find out more about the ABCD Co-Labs and read the full blog here - we would love your feedback, thoughts or reflections!

Time to Serve: Hope freshmen give back to Holland by Peg McNichol

Excerpt:

On a day they might have otherwise whiled away with friends or perhaps even studying, nearly 350 Hope College freshmen donated Saturday morning and the early afternoon to helping others.

After a brief meeting on campus, the students went out in teams of six to 10 people to more than 35 work sites.

"Our work is about asset-based community development. We work with the city they are great, because the city cares about enhancing homes, not fining homeowners," said Myers, a Western Seminary graduate and construction coordinator for 3sixty, a faith-based community group that works to stabilize neighborhoods by helping residents with everything from minor to major projects.

For more, see Holland Sentinel