January 2023 CD Practitioner Gathering Harvest
By Amanda Palmer
On Wednesday, January 11th we hosted our first gathering for community development practitioners of 2023.
We had three conversations - though room two was a shorter one - and had a lot of resources and upcoming opportunities to share. See our full harvests here or in the slides below.
What shifts can we make to empower equitable access to leadership and decision-making in projects/organizations?
Challenges being faced right now for more collaborative decision-making include things like time, space, capacity to step in right now, etc.
We need to design creative processes that support this shift. For instance, bring decision-making to where people already are and not a separate time/place… or hold the same meeting at two different times to meet the different needs for different parts of the community.
Requires relationships, trust, time, and acceptance of the messiness!
How to engage equity deserving groups?
Hearing from several equity deserving groups that they are feeling over engaged right now - often the same person or group will have been approached 6, 7, 8 times to give their feedback or perspective… and it often doesn’t go beyond that for them. This is not good.
Focus on relationship building!
What strategies are we using to build connection in community right now?
Focus on the value of residents and neighbours connecting with one another, not practitioners!
Old school strategies of volunteering, food, print materials continue to be helpful and important, meeting in person where possible, with virtual as a tool in the toolbox
Connect with the natural ‘connectors’ of a community who are informed about what’s happening and who are also able to share opportunities with others