Soulgen

Author: dsoulgen

  • Holding the Whole

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    Ripples from Bondi: What social cohesion is, what it isn’t – and what it will take now I’m finding it hard to find the right words for what has unfolded over recent days. Across Bondi, Sydney, and beyond, it has felt like a dark cloud has descended at the very end of the year –…

  • 🔥 Why I Don’t Run “Traditional Workshops

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    And How Experiential, Participatory Approaches Help Learning Come Alive People often notice that my workshops feel different.Less lecture. More connection. More movement. More conversation.More… life in the room. There’s a reason for that. Slides and handouts absolutely have their place – I still use them as visual anchors, springboards, and prompts – but they don’t…

  • 🌿 Beyond Empowerment: How ABCD Activates Youth & Community Potential

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    Across councils, youth services, libraries, neighbourhood centres and community organisations, one aspiration is repeated again and again: “We want meaningful youth participation. We want community engagement, we want empowerment. We want youth-led practice.” But in the rush to “empower” young people, our sector often relies on approaches that are important yet incomplete: Rights-Based, Participation-Based, and…

  • 🌿 The Heart of a Community Builder

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    People often ask me what it takes to be a good community builder.I usually answer: a lot of heart. 😄Community builders (yes, youth workers too – though this piece is speaking mainly to the community-development crew… and maybe also to those of us who are both 👋). Whether you do it formally through your organisation,…

  • 🌿 Being With, Not Fixing: A Soulgen Approach to Critical Incident Response

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    How People Reconnect with Themselves Again After Rupture 🌱 A Note Before You Read Most people know my work through Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), co-design, youth participation, social cohesion, and strengths-based practice. But alongside this proactive, community-building work, I also walk with schools, councils, workplaces, and community organisations in the days and weeks after a…

  • 🌿 From Data to Dialogue to Concert: How Lithgow’s Young People Reimagined Their Town

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    When we talk about regional youth development, it’s easy to get stuck on the familiar list of challenges – boredom, long distances, substance use, limited activities, employment scarcity, family pressures, and service gaps. It’s a story many regional towns know by heart. But what if the real opportunity lies not in what’s wrong, but in…

  • 🌿 Cultural Humility: When Cultural Competence Isn’t Enough

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    Whether we’re working with multicultural communities, First Nations peoples, newly arrived families, interfaith groups, or long-established neighbourhoods across Australia, we often hear the same phrases: “cultural competence,” “cross-cultural skills,” “culturally appropriate practice.” These terms suggest that culture is something we can master – a body of knowledge we can study until we “know enough.” But…

  • Lean In or Hold Back: The Unconscious Group Dynamics Behind Authentic Engagement

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    and Why It Matters for Strength-Based Practice In my last reflection, Here We Are: When Relationships Became the Practice, I named a realisation that’s been brewing for years – one that many practitioners, leaders and changemakers across our ecosystem are waking up to…The real work isn’t the method.It’s the relational conditions that make the method…

  • 🌟 Youth Workers: The Ones Who Refuse to Grow Old

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    Youth workers are a special kind. They walk beside young people in some of the most tender, messy, and transformative chapters of their lives – helping them see their own potential when the world can’t always see it for them.They hold hope like a lantern in difficult spaces. They remind us that care, creativity, and…

  • 🌱 The Problem With Empowerment – And What To Do Instead

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    Why “giving people power” often backfires, and what agency-centred practice offers instead The word empowerment is everywhere.We talk about empowering young people, empowering communities, empowering staff, empowering “the vulnerable.” Empower everyone. But if we look closely, empowerment often carries an unintended message:that we hold all the power,and they have none until we decide to hand…