Author: dsoulgen

Most evaluation frameworks fail to capture what actually matters in youth and community work.They measure outputs – attendance, participation rates, number of activities delivered.But they often miss the deeper shifts that determine whether something truly works: These are not side outcomes.They are the foundation of meaningful, lasting change. The gap in how we measure impactIn…

Third Spaces: The Missing Infrastructure of Belonging

Apr 7, 2026

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There’s something happening beneath the surface of our communities.You can feel it in conversations.You can see it in the way people move through spaces.You can hear it in what’s said – and what’s not being said.People are around each other…but not really with each other.We are more connected than ever digitally – yet increasingly alone.And…

Place-Based Leadership: The Practice That Brings a Place to Life

Apr 2, 2026

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🌱 Introduction There is a lot of strong thinking in the sector right now about place-based approaches, place strategies, social cohesion, participation, community development and systems change. Across policy and practice, the language of “place” is far more common than it was even a few years ago. The term place-based leadership is also already in…

More Than a Building: Reflections from Deniliquin on recovery, participation, and doing things the right way

Mar 14, 2026

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Sometimes, you travel to a town to scope the activation of a youth hub, and instead, you arrive in a community still in shock.When I arrived in Deniliquin for the first visit to explore the activation of a youth hub, the town was responding to the devastating fire that had severely damaged the local high…

Stronger Together Three ABCD lessons on why competing in the public and community sector is a dead end

Mar 2, 2026

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In the public, community, and NGO sector, competition has quietly become normal.Organisations compete for funding, visibility, territory, influence, and expertise. We often accept this as “just the way it is”, even though it feels absurd and misaligned with why many of us entered this work in the first place. From an Asset Based Community Development…

Beyond Titles: Leadership as Belonging, Stewardship and Self-Regulation

Feb 13, 2026

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Why sustainable systems require regulated leaders and participatory cultures. We need to rethink leadership.Not as position.Not as management.Not as corporate authority.But as the capacity to shape human systems in ways that are life-giving.In communities, movements, councils, neighbourhoods, and organisations, leadership is not about control. It is about what we are creating together. It is about…

The Art of Acolhimento – A Story of Radical Inclusion

Feb 5, 2026

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I often think about how much discrimination, rejection, and exclusion hurt.Most of us don’t need convincing. We’ve felt it – not being chosen, not belonging, being judged before being known. Those experiences don’t just sit in the mind. They live in the body. But for a long time, I didn’t have language for the opposite.After…

From Heroes to Hosts – Why Facilitation Is the Work of Our Time

Feb 5, 2026

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I woke up at 3am the other night with a strong feeling that wouldn’t let me go.Facilitation matters. Not as a technique. Not as a role or job title. But as something essential for the moment we’re living in.It matters because the world is facing problems that can’t be solved by experts alone. Climate and…

Moving at the Speed of Trust

Feb 1, 2026

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