Interested in feedback from my peers around the world.

Sarah Hexamer
Sarah Hexamer
@sarah-hexamer
10 years ago
1 posts

Hiya, i am a community development worker in New Zealand, having worked in a CD capacity for over 10 years in both UK and here. Ihavejust started on a new 2 year project in a small (2,000household) low socio economic, very diverse urban community and would welcome some input on my questions that i have commonly faced in my time and are challenging me atthemo in my current organisation

  • Do lifestyle, interest, skill/gift related surveys conducted door to door work as a method of initial engagement in truly diverse communities or is just generic organic discussion with no structure better?
  • How do you avoid the 'dedicated community leader / volunteer' who often has their own agendas?
  • How do you manage to change organisational attitudes and culture when working within a agency that is very much 'well this is how you should approach this community' 'as we have read x,y and z written by Q and we know it works!!!!'
  • Other CD workers, do you use Access or Excel as your databases, if so does anyone have some templates to share for free as i am only able to use these (and not other ones i have used in the past which are exactly what i want to use but cant due to IT policy and i don't really want to reinvent the wheel. (My discussions in the community are very much in line with gift sharing/neighbourhood friendships as the interconnecting threads of the community and just wanting an easy way to document and access these links for ease to allow these connections between people happen etc.)

Looking forward to hearing from you, thanks Sarah


updated by @sarah-hexamer: 10/24/16 04:45:35PM
loyce smallwood
loyce smallwood
@loyce-smallwood
10 years ago
7 posts

Sarah: A lovely and popular name as we have three in our rural neighborhood. I, however, would telephone or email individuals as I would not knock on a neighbor's door as I would prefer to receive communication face-to-face. I guard my privacy but am usu approachable on the roads where I walk and talk to those approachable neighbors. I totally AVOID those volunteers who have agendas and thus find myself disengaged from volunteering in groups and have a book exchange in front of my house and make it a point to engage with my neighbors during my walks. How do you like living in New Zealand?

user image

@dee-brooks
10 years ago
0 posts

Hi Sarah,

I'm an ABCD trainer and facilitator in Australia and the Facilitator of theABCD Asia Pacific Network - I have run many community forums in Australia, in both urban and rural settings...

We usually start with a group of stakeholders coming together to discuss the format and who else needs to be around the table, which we loosely base on Paul Born's Top 100 Partners exercise, then issue an open invitation to the community... using the Art of Hosting processes, we introduce ABCD and participants build on their gifts/skills, hopes/dreams and passions during the day with like-minded people...

One of my favourite processes for supporting communities in conflict, or dealing with the dominant voices and encouraging others to step up is Open Space Technology - I have not seen it fail yet and I have used this process in groups ranging in size from 6 to 600 people!

I hope this gives you some food for thought and feel free to message me if you want more info!

Good luck!

Regards,

Dee...

loyce smallwood
loyce smallwood
@loyce-smallwood
10 years ago
7 posts

Dee: Making connections with peeps and their agendas big challenge so congrats. I put a book exchange in front of my house and had same written up in the local newspaper; walk my dog daily and know many neighbors and names of their pets and still am challenged by the unaware/stagnant/disconnected/uncaring/entitled/attitudinal so continue with my determination to meet/greet those who wish to connect one on one, looking forward to spring/summer and more activity

Tags