Mary-Jane Rivers is the Development Manager for Inspiring Communities and convenes The Exchange.

It is hugely energising to see communities manage change and develop the capacity for innovation and renewal - in short to be resilient. That means being good neighbours as well as being able to deal with tough, complex issues and - through including everyone with their diverse and multiple talents - to focus on the future while understanding the past.

How do we build these resilient and confident communities? How do communities share and learn from each other, accelerate development and reinvent the wheel as little as possible?  These are questions that encouraged Mary-Jane into fostering Inspiring Communities.

Phone: 04 385 1415
Mobile: 021 248 0418
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Megan Courtney - I've spent most of my working life with Waitakere City Council, an early adopter of interagency working which has been at the forefront of local government led wellbeing collaboration in New Zealand.  My role from the mid 1990s was to facilitate and broker both sector based government and community sector partnerships and also broader citywide processes for "joining up".

From 2002-04, I was the co-leader of the Waitakere arm of the "Strengthening Communities through Local Partnerships" Research Project. This research focused on the development of social sector partnerships  in Waitakere and changes required to make 'partnering' more sustainable, both in Waitakere and throughout New Zealand as a whole. I've also worked with the Department of Internal Affairs to produce practical partnering tools and resources for those working at the collaboration coalface.

Phone: 09 815 3848
Mobile: 027 678 8622
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I'm originally from "the far south" and from a large family. My parents (Dad of Scottish, and Mum of Irish and English descent) had both grown up in small rural communities in the King Country and in Eastern Southland. They strongly valued neighbours and communities, and modelled ways of actively caring about and contributing to any place we all lived as a family, including Invercargill, Dunedin, and Wellington.

My passion for being involved in community led development started with youth politics and led to roles in the non government sector at a national level at the beginning of my working life. Since then, community led development has been a constant thread through my paid work in development and management roles in local and central government and the community sector, through adult teaching and consultancy roles, and through unpaid work and advisory roles at both local and national levels.

Phone: 07 348 7822
Mobile: 027 242 4409
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Jenny Blagdon has a role in the Exchange as advisor on learning, ensuring that we capture the lessons to be learnt from each of the associated initatives around New Zealand.

Jenny is a social innovator with many years experience as a social worker and community worker in both the not for profit and government sectors, most recently in leadership roles. She is particularly interested in collaboration beyond the rhetoric and measuring the impact of social innovation.

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