Lead Partner: Central Coast Community Congress, Australia
Description
The Central Coast Community Congress is a biannual gathering of “real people doing real things” in New South Wales Australia. It is a “cutting edge community development event to which everyone is invited”.
The Community Congress started in February 2002 as a group of people who wanted to work towards these goals on the Central Coast. Participants at that event warmly embraced the key directions and concepts presented by keynote speakers and community enthusiasts, Robert Fitzgerald and Peter Kenyon (Bank of Ideas), in changing the way we think about our communities and the way in which we undertake social planning and community development work.
The concepts of building on what we have got, focusing on the positives and strengths in our community are very simple and practical, yet traditionally have not been the focus of our work. As a follow up to this the steering group produced “Making Headway:
A guide to getting started in Asset Based Community Development”
In addition to the Congress the group have produced an ABCD tool kit
and a website (see below) as resource for people interested in building
strong and vibrant communities where they live and work. Their approach to community development is founded on the belief that
communities are places where everyone is needed, everyone is included and local people can have a say over things that affect them.
The aim of the Tool Kit is to assist communities to undertake community activities that enhance cohesion and pride within the community by building on the community’s strengths. The Tool Kit provides a practical guide of how to do it in your area and is available via the website opposite.
“All historic evidence indicates that significant community development only takes place when local community people are committed to investing themselves and their resources in effort. That’s why you can’t develop communities from the top down, or from the outside in”
(McNight & Kretzmann, 1993, 1997)
Contact Details
via the website belowWebsite: http://www.communitycongress.org/