Community development is an action-oriented line of work. Whether we are connecting change agents to resources, building connections within communities or building capacity through aligned opportunities for skills development and learning – our work is about helping communities take action on matters that are important to them. Helping them work together to improve the places they live in and the lives of the people who live there.

In a field where practitioners work across a broad range of policy issues and where day to day work contexts vary enormously – the practice of ‘helping make things happen’ takes on a variety of forms. There is however some important foundational work that underpins our ability to be effective in all of these contexts. Whether we are working on ending homelessness, building social cohesion, revitalising neighbourhoods or creating opportunities for children and young people – our ability to help ‘make things happen’ in a place is underpinned by both our knowledge of a community and the relationships we have within it. We may possess a range of other skills and abilities that help us help communities achieve their goals but without knowledge of place and relationships in place, our efforts are constrained.

The previous articles in this ‘Place Musings’ series explored the different dimensions of place and the importance of ‘place knowledge’ as a foundation for place-based community development practice. In this last article of the series, we focus on the importance of place relationships as a pillar for effective practice.

Gain practical insights into building a comprehensive understanding of your community's unique context. The article provides effective strategies for fostering curiosity, applying place knowledge, and enhancing your overall approach. Explore how intentional place-based initiatives can empower and enrich community development efforts. Take a deep dive into the nuanced world of community dynamics and local insights

Are you working in the for-purpose space, eager to make a positive impact? You may have come across the term 'place-based' in discussions, as these approaches gain renewed attention.

Having been deeply involved in several place-based projects in recent months, I've been contemplating the significance of place—how we connect with it, its role in community development practice, and the factors influencing our ability to achieve social outcomes in a specific locale. This marks the first in a series of musings about place that I look forward to sharing with you over the summer.

I’m voting Yes because I believe that supporting First Nations people to have a say in matters that affect them is the right thing to do. Much of the conversations around the Yes campaign have focussed on what it will mean for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Rightly so as this invitation came from them, and they are the people who will be most affected by the proposed changes.

A change in our country’s Constitution is, however, a change that at some level impacts on all of us and I’ve thought deeply about what that means to me and my family. So, I’m also voting yes for myself, for my family and because I believe it’s the right thing for our country. For me it all comes down to identity – the big question of what it means to be Australian in 2023.

Most of my professional and personal life has centred on social change. My networks are filled with people who have causes that they are passionate about or questions they spend time trying to understand. Leading people, I learnt the value of carving out spaces for people to work on things that they care about.

My burning cause has for a very long time been ‘welcome’. How do we create communities that truly welcome newcomers? How do we ensure that they have the same opportunities to participate as everyone else? Much of my career journey and my adult life has centred on driving change in the context of this cause.

Many people have asked me how it all started. This is a question that I’ve asked myself recently as I’ve been reflecting on driving social change and how we can be more effective as humans in making things happen. For me it all started with a story - with connecting to a story.

Over the last few decades working in local government and non-profit sectors, I’ve learnt that as much as there is diversity within and between communities, there is just as much diversity in the ‘how to’ of community development work. Whilst those of us who practice community development ascribe to a common purpose and some consistent principles that guide our practice, the nature of the work requires us to become adept at playing a range of different roles. In this article I’ll unpack some of these different roles and the practice skills we need to develop to perform them well.

Spending time recently thinking about how to articulate my work, it made sense to commit some time to defining what community development means to me. In the absence of a universally accepted definition, community development is a concept that means many things to many people.

Have you ever found it challenging to articulate what you do? I've been crafting and re-crafting my 'community development' elevator pitch for years.

Communities are made up of people and people are complex, right?

The complexity of human experience, further complicated by the different ways of knowing, doing, and being that exist within multicultural societies means communities can be downright messy, chaotic spaces to work in.

As Australians we can be immensely proud of our long history of cultural diversity. For over 60,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been practicing their cultures on this land with at least two hundred and fifty distinct language groups prior to colonization. Contemporary multicultural Australia builds on this rich cultural heritage with newcomers bringing new skills, experiences, perspectives and knowledge that has enriched our social, political, economic and cultural life.

Multiculturalism as we know it now, was first pursued as a social policy in 1973 following the dismantling of the White Australia Policy and the growth of multicultural associations which had formed to promote the cultures and represent the interests of migrant communities. Last year the newly elected Albanese government announced it planned to undertake a review of the institutional and policy frameworks that support multiculturalism. Fifty years on from the Whitlam Government's declaration of a 'multicultural future' it is very timely to review how far we've come and to sit together to determine what we want our future story to be.