Category: Reflections & Practice
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Why I Keep Coming Back to Working with Young People
From accidental to intentional youth worker: a reflection on young people’s strengths, community contribution and staying connected to the heart of youth work.
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From Black Opals to Quirky Castles: Creativity, Humour and Community in Lightning Ridge
Black opals, handmade castles and a giant emu: what Lightning Ridge can teach us about local gifts, creative identity and strengths-based community development.
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The Forgotten Art of Community Development
I notice the person standing at the edge of the room. I get curious about the locked garden, the underused hall, the young person quietly shuffling a deck of cards while everyone else talks. I want to know what people care about, what they’re good at, and what might become possible if the right people,…
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How to Facilitate an Appreciative Inquiry Workshop
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) isn’t something we teach – it’s something we experience.When people discover how different it feels to talk about what gives life, rather than what’s wrong, they start to see change begin immediately. Whether you’re working with young people, community leaders, or organisational teams, here’s a simple guide to help you facilitate your…
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Longing to Belong: An Experiential Approach to Belonging
Everyone seems to be talking about loneliness and belonging these days.Maybe we are reaching some kind of collective realisation about how disconnected we have become – and how deeply many of us are searching for belonging.Perhaps. But I don’t want to jump onto a trend. I arrived at these questions through my own life, work…
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What Kind of Facilitator Are You – Really
The more I do this work, the more I have come to see myself as a facilitator. A facilitator of people, teams, and communities through participatory, strengths-based, and relational processes. This week, as I train another group of Camp Venture facilitators – and as I prepare to head to Geelong for the Australasian Institute of…
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Building Social Cohesion the ABCD Way: Reflections from Culture Waves
At first glance, some people may not immediately connect social cohesion programs like Culture Waves with ABCD (Asset-Based Community Development). But for me, the links are very real. Perhaps because I have never experienced ABCD simply as a framework to preach or a workshop to deliver – but something to live and breathe through practice.…
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Third Spaces: The Missing Infrastructure of Belonging
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…
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Beyond Titles: Leadership as Belonging, Stewardship and Self-Regulation
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…
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The Art of Acolhimento – A Story of Radical Inclusion
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…