Tag: #ABCD
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Listening to all our voices: young people imagining the future of Lithgow
How creative facilitation and a strengths-based approach helped young people explore their town, share their experiences and put forward ideas for change. What happens when we give young people space to tell us how they really feel about their community, including the things we might find uncomfortable to hear? At the Lithgow Youth Summit in…
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Designing for the Bump
I keep coming back to this idea lately: the power and beauty of the small. Don’t get me wrong. We need the big stuff too. Better systems, better policy, better services, better places, more investment. Absolutely. But while we’re trying to change all of that, what can we do now, with what’s already around us?…
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From Passion to Action: Growing a Community of Cooks River Changemakers
What happens when you bring together people who care deeply about a place — not to tell them what needs fixing, but to discover what they already have and what they might create together? In 2019, Soulgen founder Dimitrios Papalexis was contracted by the Cooks River Alliance to facilitate a series of workshops for the…
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Children and Young People: Our Most Underutilised Community Asset?
What a walk through Parramatta reminded me about moving beyond identifying assets to connecting and mobilising them – and bringing places to life. At a recent workshop with Cormac Russell, hosted by Resourcing Inclusive Communities in Parramatta, we were invited to do something very simple. Leave the room. Walk through the neighbourhood. And notice the…
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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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🌿 The Real Value of Asset-Based Community Development Training
Why Councils and Community Organisations Keep Calling for ABCD Across councils, youth services, libraries, placemaking teams, neighbourhood centres, and community organisations, one theme has become clear over the last decade: we need approaches that move beyond deficit-based thinking and activate the strengths already present in our communities. That’s where Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) training continues…
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How to Naturally Turn Any Project into Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) – Without Forcing It
So many of us work inside systems – councils, NGOs, services, schools, health, and community programs – where projects already come with agendas, KPIs, timelines, templates, and reporting frameworks. And yet… beneath the forms and frameworks, there is something deeply human:✨ People who care✨ Communities with gifts✨ Stories wanting to be heard✨ Possibilities waiting to…
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When a Strengths-Based Approach Is Truly Tested
A strengths-based approach isn’t truly tested when you’re surrounded by people who already agree with you.It’s tested when you step outside your echo chamber and immerse yourself in community – especially in the moments that stretch you. Critical incidents.Grief.Burnout.Conflict.Politics, competing priorities, funding constraints, and sector limitations. Moments where it would be easier to default to…