7 & 8 September 2011
Championing community development
Greater Shepparton City Council has been working closely with world-renowned community development pioneers, Jim Diers and Ted Smeaton to encourage staff to act as community development champions.
Ted has chosen Greater Shepparton to host a special conference for anyone working in the community planning and the community development fields.
Building the Community from the Inside Out
Building the Community from the Inside Out is unlike a conventional conference.
This innovative event has input from some of Australia and the world’s leading community development, participatory democracy thinkers and practitioners. Building the Community from the Inside Out will allow practitioners to hear from dynamic and innovative speakers, attend practical workshops designed to assist policy makers, governments, community organisations, associations and community members to design and develop innovative approaches to build resilient communities and organisations to meet the challenges of a new decade.
Uniquely this learning event will use state of the art Appreciative Inquiry, World Café and Open Space so participants can participate in powerful conversations designed to develop actionable game changing strategies.
Outcomes
The conference provides an opportunity for individuals working across the community and government sectors to come together to learn, share experiences and gather ideas.
Specifically, the conference will:
- build the capacity of government and NGOs in Australia to develop and implement citizen driven community development
- strengthen community development networks in Australia
- facilitate the development of collaborative initiatives of citizen driven development
- generate recommendations and actions to deepen citizen driven community
- development in Australia.
A New Approach at Greater Shepparton
Nearly 30 staff were selected from across the organisation and have taken part in a number of workshops and sessions to embed a culture of supporting and encouraging communities to take charge of their own destiny.
Greater Shepparton’s small communities of Toolamba and Murchison are currently preparing a community action plan based on this approach which is proving very successful so far. Existing community action plans underway in other towns are also being remodelled to support this approach. Council has also set aside some annual funding to help community members deliver on their action plans and the model has been linked to Council’s community grants programs.
Greater Shepparton City Council is thrilled to be selected as the conference partners.
Register now for conference updates go to www.inspiringcommunities.com.au
