Welcome to Sustaining Community
Families, community engagement and environmental sustainability – for parents, students, practitioners and anyone who wants to make a difference. By Graeme Stuart from Newcastle Australia.
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- Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) (41)
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Tag Archives: Definitions
What is terrorism?
Terrorism is very high in the public’s consciousness and is frequently in the news. As a term, however, its usage is quite inconsistent and highly political, with it generally being used to describe violence we condemn, find immoral or believe … Continue reading
Posted in Social change
Tagged Definitions, political violence, Terrorism, Terrorists, Violence, What is
1 Comment
Some definitions of family
Everybody knows what a family is, but trying to find a widely accepted definition is actually very hard. I’ve been looking at how various writers define families and the following are some examples. I’m not going to comment on them … Continue reading
Posted in Families & parenting
Tagged Definitions, Diversity, Families, Families & parenting, Family Studies, For students, What is
8 Comments
What is….?
I’ve created a new page which has links to all the posts I’ve done on “What is….?” These are posts I wrote for students I teach at Uni in a range of subjects on working with communities. They are brief, simple … Continue reading
What is community capacity building?
According to the Western Australian Department for Community Development (2006) Community capacity building is about promoting the ‘capacity’ of local communities to develop, implement and sustain their own solutions to problems in a way that helps them shape and exercise … Continue reading
What is Appreciative Inquiry?
Appreciative Inquiry is a strengths-based approach to creating change. Although it is often discussed in the context organisational change, Appreciative Inquiry can be applied in a range of contexts. The following is a great overview by Jackie Kelm from Appreciative … Continue reading
What is asset-based community development (ABCD)?
[Updated 7 November 2017] Asset-based community development (ABCD), or asset-based community-driven development as it is sometimes called, is a bottom-up way of working with communities that focuses on community strengths and assets rather than on deficits and problems. In another … Continue reading
A short definition of community
A colleague recently asked me to define community in 100 words or less. Here is my attempt. What do you think? A group of people with something in common who consider they have some connection. Community suggests some form of … Continue reading
What is the Strengths Perspective?
The strengths perspective and strengths-based approaches offer service providers ways of working that focus on strengths, abilities and potential rather than problems, deficits and pathologies (Chapin, 1995; Early & GlenMaye, 2000; Saleebey, 1992d; Weick et al., 1989). Since the mid 1980’s … Continue reading
What are vertical and horizontal community engagement?
[Updated 21 July 2017] The more I read and practice, the more aware I become of the many dimensions of community engagement. One of these dimensions is vertical and horizontal community engagement. At a seminar in 2012, Alison Mathie from … Continue reading
Types of community engagement
Community engagement takes a variety of forms. I recently suggested that there were three broad forms of community engagement, but last week I realised that I had overlooked a fourth type. The four types are: Community engagement with a focus … Continue reading
Posted in Working with communities
Tagged Community building, Definitions, Working with communities
7 Comments
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