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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Tag Archives: Strengths-based approach
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
An example of asset-based community development
Asset-based community-driven development (ABCD) is built on four foundations (Kretzmann, 2010; Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993; Mathie & Cunningham, 2003): It focuses on community assets and strengths rather than problems and needs It identifies and mobilises individual and community assets, skills … Continue reading
Seven principles for a strengths-based approach to working with groups
There is surprisingly little literature on strengths-based approaches to group work. Most of the available literature focuses on groups as part of a broader strengths-based approach to a particularly issue or target group, rather than a strengths-based approach to actually … Continue reading
Creating positive images of Aboriginal fathers
We are surrounded by negative images of Aboriginal men and fathers. In the mainstream media, and even academic literature, they are mostly portrayed in a negative context: the focus is on crime, domestic violence, alcohol and other drugs, unemployment, and … Continue reading
Reflections on using conversations in a course on community engagement
In the undergraduate online community engagement elective I teach, I introduce students to strengths-based approaches (e.g., asset-based community-driven development and appreciative inquiry). To encourage them to think about the difference between deficit-based questions and strengths-based questions, I ask students to … Continue reading
Angela Blanchard – Building on the strengths of communities
In this TEDx talk, Angela Blanchard (Neighborhood Centers Inc) discusses a strengths-based approach to working with communities. It is an example of what asset-based community-driven development (ABCD) looks like in practice. ABCD is built on four foundations: It focuses on … Continue reading
Strengths-based approaches = HOPE
Strengths-based approaches are about HOPE: Helping Other Possibilities Emerge When we focus on the half-empty glass, we discover what is broken, missing or inadequate.These tell us what we can’t do and can lead us to relying on professional, external support. … Continue reading
Looking for problems!
A few years ago, Jasmine came home with a survey for us to fill out as part of a university research project being conducted through the school. I didn’t know at the time, but the survey was the Child Behavior … Continue reading
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