The People Powered Change event this week was a significant moment in British social policy, says Kevin Harris.

Among the exhibits at yesterday's People Powered Change meeting was a picture of Jim Diers and Cormac Russell at the door of No 10 Downing Street. Does this mean community development has come of age? Here are two respected representatives of community development practice, poised at the threshold to influence British government at its heart. Has community development finally made it to respectability, ready to play a consistent role in social policy?

See the rest of this exciting article here

EXCERPT:

Mosgiel's climate and library are good, but its traffic and swimming pool are bad, residents say.

East Taieri Church community facilitator Joy Davis has spent the past 18 months talking with Mosgiel groups and organisations, such as Plunket and Age Concern, and conducting a public survey on the area.

Click on the link for a look at the full article Taking a Look at the Negatives & Positives

Hi All,

I was reminded today that I have not put up the link for the ABCD Stories - collected by the fabulous & inspiring Coady Institute...

There is a great collection of stories to read through - enjoy!

Regards,

Dee...

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

However much you can, that is...

For those who dont know the movie Jerry Maguire, Jerry is a sports agent who has a client who is considering jumping ship and who has coerced him to participate in a business conversation about pay rates by shouting, show me the money to prove his loyalty & as Jerry gets more excited, he is swept along with the wave of enthusiasm and excitement and rightly so, he scores a coup; he makes history, retains his client and boosts his business!

Whether this is a healthy relationship or not is not the point of this message, the point is; this scenario is an example of how business often works whether you are in the corporate or community services world. Its healthy competition, right?

In comparison, there are people on the fringes of community engagement, development and capacity building work who are doing things differently; no day rate, no donor expectations, no organisational hierarchy, no formal reports and, the best part is; its working (without shouting)!

The Sharing Economy is one part of this shift and at the Jeder Institute were seeing the benefits! We ask people UPON REGISTRATION to show us the money we ask them to give what they can and ask for what they need; no fixed fee, no pretention just simply; what can you afford? how can we support you to be part of this? if you are called to be part of this training/facilitation/event, we want you there how can we best help you? In addition, our budgets are always open to anyone and our communication to those who register reflects this.

This has not always been an easy road! We have had events we have had to cancel, venues who have not understood our intention, gatherings that have gone ahead with no profit to our organisation and people who have registered who have asked for more than what was offered but, there is a turning point and its based on transparency, relationships, trust and faith!

So we pursue! We do this because of our belief in the work of building capacity to build capacity and because we have a firm belief in sharing collective knowledge and empowering others to be a part of the benefits of this approach!

As community service workers and professionals, arent we all trying to help communities thrive? Isnt the purpose to inspire community members to be a part of the whole?

At our gatherings, we build an intentional village; we believe that everyone has something to offer and no one should miss out on attending something they are passionate about! So, we ask people what they can offer to the event; can they monitor the registration desk? can they offer an activity? will they help in the kitchen or clean up the room after each day is finished?

We started attempting to apply these concepts at our first Unconference in 2013. For that particular gathering, we had a regular registration fee but, we added one simple line to the form that read, The Unconference is completely funded through the registration fee. Every effort is made to ensure the registration fee is modest, covers expenses and offers a fair remuneration to the key-agitators team. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you wish to discuss your financial position further and we had 60 people turn up to a non-traditional conference!

Fast forward to this year and we are extremely pleased to be working with Purpose Partners in Queensland, who are also on their own similar journey, and we are co-hosting 2 Art of Hosting events in Brisbane and Sydney where the participation fee details read as follows;

PARTICIPATION FEES A SLIDING SCALE

$A500A$900 (excluding GST)

An important learning we have been working with is how to appreciate and honour the diversity of economic factors that would encourage people to join us in participatory leadership work.

We invite you to be in this learning with us as we look to cover all costs, contribute to the economy of the international community and pay a reasonable fee to the hosts of the training.

We offer a sliding scale of $A500A$900 (excluding GST) that will include participation in the 3 day training, food and resources and encourage you to consider how you can be part of this amazing experience.

You get to decide what you consider to be a fair price, or within your training budget, and then we request that you consider offering a little more which could support others to attend.

If this is still beyond your capacity, please talk to us, or indicate this on your registration form. Help us walk our talk to assist as many willing people as possible to attend.

This might seem like a gamble to some people and I guess it is, of sorts, but we have witnessed the giving nature of people who are more than willing to reciprocate when they understand that we are not in it to make a buck or two (or 800) from them.

We have return customers (or friends, as we like to call them) who get excited when we announce a training, workshop or gathering and many of those friends turn up early to help set up the space, they donate their gifts and time and they stay afterwards to help us pack everything away.

We believe it takes a village to change humanity and with openness and trust, were witnessing the start of something quite phenomenal! With the overwhelming generosity of our friends (new and old) and the grateful relief of non-financial people who register, the hugs are a bonus!

ABCD & The Art of Hosting

It has been said that facilitation is an art. Theres a poignant quote, which states; if you think its expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur!

Hosting conversations that matter and creating intentional, purposeful dialogue can be daunting! As community facilitators, we are embarking on a journey of multiple ideas, opinions and attitudes that can potentially swing from interactive, participant-led beauty to frustrated, daunting chaos!

And, I like that!

Many years ago, when I was working in hospitality, paying my way through study, I was working at a family-run hotel and entertainment venue in the Hunter Valley vineyards of NSW, Australia who hosted an annual Christmas in July event where busloads of tourists would turn up for the weekend, expect a grand time and leave with personal stories of good wine, roaring fireside discussions and great company.

Quite often, there would be someone who seemed determined to NOT have a good time; the wine wasnt what they expected, the fire was too hot, the dessert too cold; you know the story a glass half-empty type of person

And, I liked them, too!

Inevitably, one of the waitresses would come into the kitchen, often in tears, saying they just couldnt take the angriness (or abuse) any more and every time, my boss would look at me, almost pleadingly, and I would say, Ive got this! and Id be off, out the door to the restaurant!

Why? Because I knew the fun was out there, the people were good and sometimes, all this person needed was help to see life through a new lens and to discover that they could be a glass half-full type of person, even if only for one night! I was determined that they would leave saying that they had a good time and I was often thanked, on the side, by their partners or friends, for their turn-around in attitude; it was a great learning ground!

One thing that has always helped me do this is to see the bigger picture by having an eagle-eye view and checking where the dynamics and the flow of the group started, observing where they shifted to and pay attention to where they are heading.

And, it always starts with a conversation and building a relationship!

Over the years, I have built on those lessons when working in communities by being aware of which underpinning framework, (which are documentedhere), would be most relevant to any given situation. Sometimes, I do this transparently and offer a range of frameworks to choose from. For example, I recently facilitated a workshop for Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) where the participants were all community facilitators who had a good understanding of the process so I offered three (3) underpinning frameworks to choose from.

During the explanation of the frameworks, the participants had open discussions about the challenges, issues, successes and needed resources so, following these open discussions, and based on my suggestion, it was decided to go with a blend of the 3, as shown below:

http://jeder.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/img1-226x300.jpg 226w" />

The blended, participant-driven agenda: 1. Concerns what I dont want to happen? 2. Dreams what is my preferred future vision? 3. Discover what possibilities are emerging? 4. Skills and abilities what do we have to share? 5. Decision-making prioritising and making recommendations 6. Rear-view summary

Other times, I hold a framework lightly, in the forefront of my mind, as we journey through an open discussion, together. For example, I facilitated a community-led, economic forum in Sydney where the organisers contacted me before the gathering and warned me about 2 particularly grumpy locals who would be attending and suggested that I not let them talk, at all!

In response, I invited the organisersto; trust the process, try to shift their thinking of the grumblings from something negative to seeing the positivity of the locals passion and I held thedivergent/emergent/convergent thinkingframework lightly as we proceeded throughout the day. The 2 community members in question made themselves known very early on in the day and I held the space open and available for all types of discussions to emerge and waited for the groan zone, which arrived during Open Space sessions.

Aside: for those of you who knowOpen Space, you will know that was the perfect place for their passion to emerge and when not one of the 150 people present joined their group, they had a very constructive, reflective conversation about how to engage others better around the topic they were so very passionate about! Magic!

http://jeder.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Community-Conversation-300x225.jpeg 300w" />

In community building, we can utilise these patterns and practices to sense the energy and flow of the community members and/or participants and hostthe space for others to feel confident enough to step up and engage deeply. While it does take skill, its not insurmountable when you approach each community conversation openly and flexibly. By remembering that silence is part of the conversation and loud (angry) voices translates to passion, we can successfully host others by firstly hosting ourselves and being prepared to allow anything to happen, no matter how daunting!