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Author Archives: Graeme Stuart
An introduction to strengths-based practice (a video lecture)
An introductory lecture on strengths-based practice I prepared for students in a course on engaging families and communities. In it I outline 8 principles of strengths-based practice. Continue reading
Reflections on the election
As you can tell from my last post, my 15-year old daughter is quite involved in the Student Strike 4 Climate movement and worked hard in the lead up to the election. On the day, she spent six hours at a polling booth trying to get people to think about climate change when they voted… The election results, however, suggest that adults weren’t listening and that they really don’t care: other issues were seen as more important. Continue reading
Posted in Environmental sustainability, Social change
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School Strike 4 Climate: Make it a #ClimateElection
We are facing a climate emergency. Through the School Strike 4 Climate, children and young people, who will pay the greatest price for climate change inaction, are finding their voice and demanding that politicians start showing leadership in responding to this global crisis. Continue reading
An interactive exercise exploring parenting styles
The Alternatives to Violence Project in Newcastle has been exploring workshops on nonviolence and conflict resolution with parents and partners. The following is an exercise Gener Lapina and I have developed (with input from Anne Hoffman) to explore four parenting styles Continue reading
Interested in postgraduate study in family studies?
If you could be interested in postgraduate study in family studies, the Family Action Centre is offering an online, interactive information session on Wednesday 10th April, 2019 at 7.30pm, Newcastle time. Continue reading
My current projects (April 2019)
I’m employed as a lecturer at the Family Action Centre (FAC), University of Newcastle (Australia) which is a great place for somebody with my interests as the FAC incorporates teaching, research, and the delivery of family and community programs. There is always something interesting going on. Here are some of the projects I’m currently involved in. Continue reading
Posted in Being an academic
Tagged Academia, Family Action Centre, My work, University academic
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Strengths-based measurement and collective impact
Data driven approaches like collective impact often prioritise shared measurement and collecting data, particularly quantitative measures, and do not consider the impact of what questions they ask, how they collect data, and who is responsible for interpreting the data. If … Continue reading
A strengths-based approach to collective impact
Collective impact is an approach to addressing complex social problems. As discussed in the previous post (Collective impact and community engagement), community engagement needs to be at the heart of collective impact, but the (sometimes subtle) message underlying too many initiatives is that the community is part of the problem. When initiatives take a top-down approach and do not involve the community from the start, they are implying that the community has little of value to offer. Continue reading
Collective impact and community engagement
Kania and Kramer 1 argue that collective impact involves “the commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors.” There can be a great deal of variation in how these “important actors” are defined and identified. Some collective impact initiatives are quite top down with a focus on government agencies and professional community services rather than adopting a more bottom up approach that starts with community members. Continue reading
What is collective impact?
Collective impact is a multi-sector/multi-agency, collaborative leadership approach to large scale social change in communities that is usually place based (i.e., it is focused on a particular town, neighbourhood or community). Continue reading
