Community coming together at Hannahs Bay Reserve, Rotorua

August 2010

For nearly a decade, Hannahs Bay Reserve on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua has drawn hundreds of people to it - no longer just as a place to walk dogs and play by the lake - but as a place to work together on the restoration of a wetland, community plantings and landscaping, and community gardens. A place to "build community".

Hon Tariana Turia, Minister of Community and Voluntary Sector Minister has congratulated the recipients of the Dynamic Community Learning Awards 2010.

• Circus Kumarani from Dargaville have been recognised for their circus skills classes that help build confidence and break down barriers to learning for disabled people.
• Flax Roots Whanau from Rawene in the Hokianga have been recognised for the training they provide in low budget documentary film making which has led to employment opportunities and the creation of the annual Short Film Festival in Rawene.

As part of the KiwiBank New Zealander of the Year, nominations are now open for the Community of the Year (sponsored by Mitre 10).

See full detais and nominate at the New Zealander of the Year Awards website.

You can also read about Victory Village, Nelson, winner of the 2010 Community of the Year:
- On the Awards website
- and on Stuff

Wellington City Council Housing: Community Action Programme making a difference for residents.

A special project involving some exceptional people is coming out of the Wellington City Council (WCC) changing how many Wellingtonians feel and act in their community.

Rosie Gallen is one of these people and she loves her job; fostering friendships between neighbours, supporting budding artists, gardeners, hip hop musicians and occasionally picking up a paint roller. She's part of a team working from strength-based community development approach and is making a difference in Wellington city.

Rosie and four others form the WCC's Community Action Programme (CAP) team, which works ‘to increase social inclusion, community spirit and pride within City Housing tenant communities'. The team understands that to achieve their goals, they must "take the time to build relationships and trust with the community and that quality engagement requires innovative thinking and commitment".

The team works within communities of the city council's 2,400 city housing units between Miramar and Tawa, encouraging tenants to be a part of solutions for their community improvement.

See here for the full article on Laura Benedict's work.

"The single biggest pool of untapped natural resource in the world is human good intentions that never translate into action. I'd like to change that" says Cindy Gallop in a youtube clip of one of her presentations. Her website, 'If we ran the world', is designed to 'help change the world one microaction at a time'.

Ms Gallop was interviewed during her recent visit to hear more, listen to her interview with Kim Hill on Radio NZ Saturday morning 7 August 2010 here.

Both the Talent2 Award for Public Sector Communications AND the Prime Minister's Award were given to the campaign.

Read more under "2010 Winners" at the IPANZ Awards website

Sustainable Paremoremo is an umbrella name for the network of people in the Paremoremo area contributing to the vision of... "Caring for ourselves, our families, our neighbours and our environment." One of the most significant outcomes of the regular events and workshops held is that it has brought like minded local people together.

Kate Jackson is compiling a booklet on Sustainable Pare along with help from many others. This will be a great celebration of all the wonderful things that people are doing, and also an inspiration to other communities and councils.

To read more, or to sign up for email updates, visit the Sustainable Pare page here.

Entries for the 2010 Dynamic Community Learning Awards close 2 August.  Download the entry form here: Dynamic Community Learning Award-entry (38 kB)

Entries are invited from groups who are learning together and meet the Award criteria. Please pass this invitation on to others who you think would be eligible for the Awards.

You can read more and watch the episode at the Country Calendar page on TVNZ's website.

The following story to me is a prime example of how intention and collaboration work.  Over three years ago I moved to Whangaparaoa and joined an arts group... read the full story at Happyzine.co.nz

My decrepit old laptop turned into a wide variety of locally grown vegetables... read the full story at Happyzine.co.nz

Dulux has teamed up with Auckland based charity Life Centre Trust, to help give an Auckland school an extreme makeover. The ambitious makeover project will see hundreds of volunteers donning their overalls...  Read the full story at Scoop.

A team of community-minded workers are this week making their daily bread by tackling litter in Masterton's parks... Read the full story from the Wairarapa Times Age

Satisfaction with keeping the streets safe is not enough to drag most people out of bed in the morning, but it has kept Palmerston North's community patrol going for 10 years...   Read the full story from the Manawatu Standard

March 2010: Nominations for the 2010 Sir Peter Blake Leadership Awards are now officially open. Six of our Emerging Leaders have made two short videos which aim to inspire all of us to consider nominations.

We encourage you to take 90 seconds to watch these videos, and also to forward this link on to your colleagues and network to inspire others.

Want to nominate someone? Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for a nomination form, which has information on criteria for either The Blake Medal or the Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award.

Inspiring Communities' Alfred Ngaro recieved the Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award in 2009.

Arihia holds tribal affiliations to Whakatohea, Ngai Tai and Tainui, and is in her first term as a Board Member of Te Whakatohea Maori Trust Board. She is and active Trustee of Maori Land Blocks, and holds the Project Managers role for Whakatohea. Her previous work experience spans travel and tourism, and management and policy. She has worked within private and public sector organizations in Auckland Wellington & Rotorua.

In 2003 Arihia moved to Opotiki to care for elderly parents. Arihia says "My view of the world, small communities, and the people of Opotiki has changed drastically since moving to Opotiki six years ago. I thought firemen were firemen, not the local store owner and real estate man; the store owner was just the store owner, not the surf life saving club chair, rugby ref as well as being the fireman; and my fellow hapu member was just that - I didn't realise they were holders of the torch for over 10 years to see the aquaculture dream come true, with the vision to create jobs and wealth for our people for the long term."

Arihia is quick to say "I was not there when those dreams and visions began to take shape. But I am here today to share my observations as to how Whakatohea have reached this exciting phase of the development which has both local and global potential."

February 2010

By Anneleise Hall

Time Banking is transforming New Zealand communities one hour at a time.

Based on the core value of reciprocity, Time Banking is also getting health, social service and other organisations excited about its potential to create more effective and meaningful partnerships with the community.

To know more about this great example of community economic development, read the full story at the New Zeland Herald online

Observations from the February 2010 Developing the Social Economy Conference in Waikatere, Auckland

Members of the Inspiring Communities Exchange team were excited to be part of New Zealand's first Community Economic Development Conference, held in Waitakere City. Here's a report back on what they experienced.

Read the full story at the Whangarei Leader online

Read in full the Christchurch City Council's press release at Scoop.co.nz

October 2009

Coinciding beautifully with Neighbours Day in Auckland, Inspiring Communities was delighted to receive some research in November which demonstrated that New Zealanders are generally the kind of folk who make good neighbours and strong, resilient communities.

The Sustainable Priorities Monitor survey undertaken in February found that New Zealanders are not only good at giving; we often do it right where it is needed to build a strong community - that is, over the neighbourhood fence. Whether its five minutes of time for a friendly chat, helping out a neighbour with a practical need, or volunteering in the local community; up to 69% of respondents had given in some way in the six months before the survey.

The Sustainable Priorities Monitor is conducted by Sustainable Advantage, a research and strategy consultancy with a special area of focus on community. It aims to survey 500 - 1000 people from around the country twice each year for the Monitor.

November 2009

Have you noticed that community gardens are popping up everywhere? And so they should be!

Community gardens provide a fantastic way to grow healthy, affordable, locally produced food and to build stronger neighbourhood connections in the process. But if you wanted to start a community garden where would you go to find out how they work, what the different options are and who might be able to help you get started?

There are many regional community gardening networks now established and District Health Boards are also helping fund many school and early childhood based garden initiatives. Many local authorities have information on their websites. However in our discussions around the country, there seems to be interest in a New Zealand community gardens guide or resource that captures the essence and stories of the many different models in use and gives people some ideas, connections and tips for getting started.

'Beautiful thinking for January 2010' from our allied organisation, Tamarack - an institute for community development.

Articles in this issue:

• The 2010 Communities Collaborating Institute: Leading Together in Chaotic Times - By Sylvia Cheuy
• Frameworks for Measuring Community Change - By Liz Weaver
  Senate Recommends A National Poverty Strategy - By Tom
• Cooper, Director Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction
• David Pecaut: Canada Loses A Great Collaborator - By Paul Born
• Poverty Reduction Momentum Builds in Atlantic Canada - By Eric Leviten-Reid
• Tamarack Board Member Receives National Honour - By Paul Born

Read the full newsletter via the Tamarack website

The island at the bottom of New Zealand lost its last early childhood teacher in November, and is trying to find a replacement for its 12 "Rakiura Rugrats" aged under 5 (and another seven on the way)...

Read the full story at the New Zealand Herald website

When I arrived in New Zealand eight years ago...

Read the full story at the New Zealand Herald website

Maybe a tiki tour of business can help. So here are suggestions of places to visit and things to think about on your travels...

Read the full story at the New Zealand Herald website

Read the full story at the New Zealand Herald website

Read the full story

A group of Auckland's homeless have become part-time gardeners, thanks to a collaboration involving Ngati Whatua and the city's young business leaders.

Ngati Whatua has given up part of its "whenua rangatira", the land of its chiefs around Orakei Marae at Bastion Point, for homeless people to start a vegetable garden to supply the Auckland City Mission's foodbank...

Read the full story at the New Zealand Herald website

Fed up with petty crime by local youth, residents in Manurewa's Randwick Park met local police and city councillors on Tuesday to find a solution.  Among them were Karen Fraser, Nancy Peihopa and Waina Kapa who got to know each other after petitioning for improvements to the local park together last year.

"We look out for each other and if something happens we let each other know," Ms Fraser says.

"And right now we see a need in the area and we are working together to address it," Ms Peihopa says.

Crime has fallen significantly in the street in the past few years but there's still graffiti and vandalism, Ms Kapa says.

"I was brought up believing that if you were caught painting on someone's fence you had to go to their house and do their chores to pay back what you'd done and earn back their respect."

Now they want to organise activities for 12 to 17-year-olds to "keep their hands occupied", she says...

Visit stuff.co.nz to read the full story from the Manukau Courier.

"Hundreds of new jobs are expected to be created after the approval of two shellfish farms to be developed in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and the Firth of Thames.

The contentious Eastern Seafarms 3,000 hectare operations wil now go ahead after a failed challenge in the High Court against the developments by fisheries giant, Sandford.

And yesterday the Ministry of Fisheries approved a 520 hectare shellfish farm off the west coast of the Coromandel peninsula..."

To hear the full article follow this link to the Radio New Zealand website and search/scroll for MP3 file: mnr-20091021-0751-hundreds_of_new_jobs_expected_from_approval_of_two_marine_farms-048.mp3 (1.2 MB)

Porirua City Council wins Community Relations Award

A revolutionary initiative in Porirua city has won first place in the Community Relations category of the New Zealand Post Group New Zealand Local Government Excellence Awards. Porirua City Council's Village Planning Programme involves a groundbreaking partnership between the Council and local communities. This inspiring programme puts communities in charge of developing a vision for their own neighbourhoods and then partnering with Council to make it happen.

So far, eight Porirua communities have engaged in the Village Planning process. Their plans have been hugely diverse, reflecting the differing nature of the villages. Projects requested have included everything from a new waterfront promenade and skate park, to a beach management plan and a community fair.

Eastern Porirua's Map to the Future

Among the projects identified in the subsequent Eastern Porirua Map to the Future was the development of a community park in Waitangirua. A Community Design Group was formed by representatives from Maraeroa Marae, Waitangirua Action Group, Waitangirua Residents Focus Group, Waitangirua Mall, Porirua Community Guardians, Housing New Zealand Corporation, local residents, schools and the Council. This group meets regularly to review park design and provide feedback from the community. Construction is expected to start this year. The process of community consultation to develop the park plan has been documented in a 20 minute DVD called "Te Wairua o Waitangirua".

Read more at the Porirua City Council's website

Alfred Ngaro wins Sir Peter Blake Leadership award

Press Statement: Monday 29 June 2009

Alfred Ngaro has been awarded a Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award for his contribution to a revolutionary community project in Tamaki, Auckland.
The Tamaki Transformation Project which is just starting will be the most innovative social renewal project in New Zealand.
It has the community working together with local and central government to deliver new and refurbished housing, create local jobs, improve parks and reserves, make the streets safer, lift the health of the residents and provide better delivery of services to the people of Tamaki.
Alfred Ngaro, a former Pastor, and a leader in the community with mana and standing has been recognised for his role in this outstanding project, particularly his ability to bring together people from a wide variety of experiences and backgrounds.
The other members of the Inspiring Communities Exchange - Mary-Jane Rivers, Megan Courtney, Barbara MacLennan and Jenny Blagdon - have been thrilled at Alfred's award which they welcomed as recognition of Alfred's work that fits with Inspiring Communities' emphasis on the importance of thriving communities as a basis for New Zealand's durable and sustainable development.
They said "Alfred proves that true leadership is bringing together diverse elements. He identifies and promotes common ground, working with strengths rather than focusing on weaknesses, and finding the point of lift-off for working together to address complex social issues."

Two years ago when John Maynard was asked how to grow potatoes by a fellow postie, he decided to demonstrate how easily this could be done. Since then the pots behind the Khandallah Postal Delivery Branch have provided posties and their families with a wide range of organic food, from onions, climbing beans, sweet corn and tomatoes, to carrots, lettuces, strawberries and rhubarb.

All 14 posties from the branch are involved in one way or another, and each year when the first of the new season's crop is harvested there is a shared morning tea at work. Now, encouraged by their green fingers, some of the posties are taking home seedlings to plant. In an example of reciprocity, when the resulting bounty is too much for one family, the vegetables come back to the posties' office to be given to another postie's family. Post managers have been so impressed they have been spreading the news to other branches.

North East Valley in Dunedin is famous as the home of the steepest street in the world. The "Baldwin Street Gut-Buster" takes place annually and involves athletes running from the base of the street to the top and back down again. The event attracts up to 1000 competitors.  However, there's much more to North East Valley than Baldwin Street.  This is a community defined not only by its geography, but by the wonderful community development work begun there by a local school.

A question based around the improvement of the lives of those living in the valley led to the emergence of 5 major themes: education, housing, environment, social inclusion and community initiatives.

In the far south a local authority is taking a leading edge approach to how it manages its affairs. In 2004 the Central Otago District Council officially endorsed a Destination Management philosophy with a view to exchanging its top-down management structure for a grassroots, bottom-up approach. This set it on a very determined tack of integrating services, and establishing the common values of its communities to serve as a guiding vision for the region's future.

Destination Management is community driven. It's about how communities see the place now and in the future; what's special to them, and what they want to maintain and accentuate.  Pivotal to it is its engagement of communities, agencies and departments - Council is only one element - and its encouragement of communities in managing their own affairs using local expertise.

The concept of Destination Management was initially broached in tourism at a national level with a view to educating regions on how to cater to visitors. The Central Otago District Council is concerned with delivering what local communities want. 'It's about managing the destination for the people who live there, first; and then those that visit', says John Cooney, former CEO of the Council

A Vision

Anne Pullar, District Development Manager, and John Cooney have led the Council's conversion to Destination Management. John says he always knew they needed a vision that would encapsulate what was important to the region. Getting that vision articulated took a mammoth process of community engagement to get a clear direction. But the rapid growth of nearby resort towns was a motivating factor in facilitating discussion.

Consultation in progress

Being on the doorstep of Queenstown and Wanaka made us articulate what we want as a community. We didn't want to lose sight of values that are important to us on a daily basis. We like what we've got here and don't want it ruined.

Those daily values form the basis of the regional vision or identity, which has become the region's brand: Central Otago - A World of Difference.   Getting the vision right is very important. 'You have to be thinking: What's authentic here? Developing a byline is not the same as developing a regional identity with values', says John

Applying the vision

Establishing a regional vision is the first step, applying it is the next.  An integrated approach is the only way to make the vision work in practice. "It's about our collaboration with communities, agencies and departments," says John.  "One group can't do Destination Management alone. Council is one cog in the machine and helps provide the infrastructure".

Communicating the vision

Destination Management as a grassroots approach couldn't fail to get the attention of elected officials. John says some councillors are really behind it. "They say, 'This is why I'm on this council, because of this vision.'"   But with any change there continues to be tensions about who is responsible for what.  Over time roles will continue to be clarified, but what's most important is respect for each person's role; then a strong partnership results.

Council now encourages communities to manage their own affairs and to resolve problems with the expertise of local people. "In that structure you get traction really, really quickly; far more quickly than through a council system," says John.

By way of support the Council is initiating community plans. These plans are drawn up in consultation with individual communities. They take into account a community's history, economy, environment, lifestyle and social structure and discuss specific features and points of interest. They state recommendations, which communities have agreed upon and are achieving.

Both John and Anne agree that the key to destination management and community planning is to get the integration and communication happening. "It's easy to overestimate what you can do in two-three years, but underestimate what can happen in 10," says John.

"What you are doing is building momentum. And that happens without Council."

Anne Pullar

Defining community-led development

Community-led development (CLD) is happening in communities across Aotearoa/New Zealand.  It  has many faces - it may be Iwi creating jobs in Opotiki, neighbours coming together in Taita or Porirua people working together to overcome cycles of debt in their community.  So how do we sum up what CLD is?

• CLD is about place – local communities.
• CLD is about people from all sectors (residents, business, funders, iwi, local and central government, schools) within local communities working together to release local resources, energy and ideas to create opportunities and solve problems.
• CLD can embrace economic, cultural, social and environmental issues—with the driver being local vision and priorities.
• CLD is not a service delivery model, project or programme, but a planning and development approach, underpinned by several key principles. We present these as a Framework for CLD.

Championing community-led development in Aotearoa New Zealand

Inspiring Communities’ strategic focus is to growing the recognition, understanding and practice of CLD, and to notice the difference it makes in Aotearoa New Zealand.

As well as the ongoing learning we are doing together with a core learning cluster of initiatives around New Zealand, our work involves: 

National Initiatives

Neighbours Day Aotearoa

Victory Village Forum

Regional Networks 

Regional Forum Reports

Leadership Development

The Framework in Practice

Working together words and links

There are growing numbers of New Zealand and international examples of effective working together.  We list some here and will add to them.

Project Twin Streams is an urban sustainability project which aims to restore 56kms of Waitakere stream banks through an integrated community development approach. By engaging local communities and residents, via community organisations, the streambanks are weeded, replanted with natives and maintained.

The project is about many things: community engagement, stream health, natural environment and the health and recreation of people and their community.The project also fits in with other stormwater initiatives in Waitakere. It is designed to work with nature rather than against it. www.projectwinstreams.org.nz

Pen to Paper (to add along with other partnering documentation)

Better Connected Services for Kiwis - not place-based, community-led development but fascinating insights into the practice of working together that are highly releavnt.

It features  a project that brought together academic and practitioner perspectives on what is happening on the ground in New Zealand. It drew on the experience of other administrations such as Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and on the public policy literature. The grounded theory research approach meant that we focussed on the practical experience of front-line staff and managers in the New Zealand state sector.

What is different about this project is that this is almost the first research in NZ about why interagency work actually happens on the ground. As one of the staff commented "Others have asked about what we did but no-one has asked before about why or how."  Visit their website

Vibrant Communities Canada is a community-driven effort to reduce poverty in Canada by creating partnerships that make use of our most valuable assets – people, organizations, businesses and governments.

It’s a unique approach to poverty reduction that allows communities to learn from — and help — each other.

Vibrant Communities links communities across Canada, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, in a collective effort to test the most effective ways to reduce poverty at the grassroots level.

Vibrant Communities concentrates on four key approaches:

Annie E Casey Foundation's Making Connections - Improving outcomes for children by strengthening families and transforming communities

Making Connections is the flagship initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Its core strategy is based on the belief that the best way to improve outcomes for vulnerable children living in tough neighborhoods is to strengthen their families’ connections to economic opportunity, positive social networks, and effective services and supports. Launched in 1999, Making Connections is a decade-long effort to demonstrate this theory in disinvested communities across the country, and in full partnership with residents, community-based organizations, local government, businesses, social service agencies, community foundations, and other funders.

Casey’s two-generation approach seeks to change the future for large numbers of at-risk kids by finding ways to help their parents succeed in the present. We know that kids do well when their families do well and families do better when they live in supportive neighborhoods and communities. We are committed to changing the environment in these neighborhoods so families can connect to economic opportunity, social networks, and trustable services and supports. Visit Annie E Casey's website

This Inspiring Communities site provides information about:

• The work of the Inspiring Communities Network

• Its philosophy and approach to learning
• Community-led  development activities around New Zealand

• The learning and experiences of community-led activites based around Themes &  Topics

• Links to related websites

• References to other useful resource material and books

• Contact details for the people and iniatives that make up the Inspiring Communities Network

Alfred Ngaro and other leaders of the Tamaki Church in Panmure were enthusiastic about a project based on empowering community development. But they were unhappy that the project was based on notions of deprivation and deficit.  Instead they wanted to draw on community wisdom, knowledge and enthusiasm, and to let the people take leadership.

Community discussions began and communities came up with their key health concerns and designed the programme. Times were set to fit in with the busy needs of diverse families. Funding was sorted out. The initiative was given a meaningful Cook Island Maori name - not an English name translated.

Aerobics classes were led by a 68-year-old mama from the community. The classes were linked with healthy eating, weight loss, fitness and raining for life skills and employment. Doctors from the community joined in to provide health advice and tests. A family trip to the Cook Islands was donated as a prize decided on weight loss, family participation and sustained attendance.

Eight months later 500 people participated in a launch at which the Minister of Health and officials were the invited guests of the community. Community members shared a meal and their stories. It was a deeply moving occasion.

Alfred Ngaro says Ora'anga Kopapa Matutu illustrates "core elements of community-led development in action". Parties focused on generating "concrete outcomes" through a focus on tangible results.

This DVD records a presentation made by Alfred on 22 May 2008 describing the success achieved by Ora'anga Kopapa Matutu through reframing the issues to put the community at the centre.  Copies are available free on request to The Exchange, Inspiring Communities.

In May 2008, David Hanna attended the Tamarack Institute three day Collaborative Leadership Workshop in Canada. David chairs the Management Group of Inspiring Communities' Community-Led Development Trust.

Reflecting on the workshop, David says that participants had to confront a number of paradoxes around the notion of collaboration but that key resource person, David Chrislip, understood well this paradoxical landscape in which many groups operate. Some of the issues explored were:

• Collaboration is not exclusive of competition. Sound planning needs to be balanced with openness to what emerges and is unplanned. All communities are dynamic and events or opportunities can occur serendipitously.

The Learning Centre is a virtual place to exchange experiences, learn from each other, provide inspiration, share tools, techniques and learning drawn from community-led development initiatives. The resources are divided into sections:

Publications

In December 2010 we published What we are learning about community-led development in Aotearoa New Zealand

Our regular newsletter follows the community-led development in Aotearoa and shares fresh Learning Links as we come across them.

In the CLD section you can browse past Regional Forum Reports

Our approach to learning

Inspiring Communities wants to shine a light on the learning:

Inspiring Communities is in essence a learning community and as such learning sits at the heart of everything we do. We learn to be inspired and, in turn, to inspire others. Our aim in learning is to discover what "changing for the better" looks like in our communities and how we know when this is happening.

"Personal and social transformation do not grow just from ideas, but develop from conscious daily practice and a willingness to go on learning and acquiring new skills. Developing the skills for real community and co-creativity is not easy. Creating projects and taking action are relatively easy, really listening to each other and appreciating each other's differences is not. Sharing leadership and resources is a challenge for most people.
Rose Diamond "Living Your Passion How love in action is seeding a whole new world" 2008

Last week I found out about a project that got me really excited. The project, Inspiring Communities immediately attracted my attention by a key statement:

"For too long, we have looked to governments or to expert individuals for solutions when many of the answers lie with us".

The project focuses on community development, with an emphasis on establishing a network of communities who want to work collaboratively. It operates an exchange which links communities together to share the way in which they have linked local resources, energy and ideas to fix local problems.

Feelings of deep concern about the entrenched nature of deprivation within certain communities prompted the gathering of fifty leaders at the third Social Innovation Summit in Australia recently.

Representatives from government, business, and not-for-profit organisations gathered together to find solutions to what one speaker, Tony Vinson, called ‘postcodes of disadvantage’. During the talks, a New Zealand delegate was able to show the real differences being made in Canada and New Zealand through community-led development approaches.

Framework of Change for Community-Led Development

We see community-led development as a planning and development approach; underpinned by these key principles:

'Place' the focus

• Priorities being determined and ‘visioned’ by those who live, work, care, connect and invest in local community of place – the principle of ‘ahi kaa.’ 
• Interconnection of people and local environments recognised, along with commitments to planning holistically for current and future communities.
• Understanding that the make up, history and context of each community is special and unique. While whole models can’t be transplanted, ideas, principles, key elements, tools and resources can transferred. 

Local voice and leadership valued
and empowered 

• Community experience and knowledge is integral to local solutions.
• Local residents and organisations being encouraged and supported to participate and
  actively lead.
• Genuine local ownership of community visions, plans and actions.

 Working together across boundaries

• Encouraging connections between diverse people, organisations and sectors to develop
  creative solutions and harness additional resources. 
• Pactising new ways of working – creating and co-creating together, building respectful relationships and reciprocity.

Strength and asset based

• Identifying existing local physical, cultural, environmental and ‘people’ assets and strengths, and leveraging off what each community does well. 
• Not dwelling on or being overshadowed by deficits or ‘fixing’ approaches –asking instead ‘what is the vision for our community’ and ‘how can we work together to make it happen.’
• Inspiring hope and optimism for a different future – not being constrained by what is, or has been.

Growing collaborative community leadership

• Acknowledging that everyone has a contribution to make.
• Actively seeking and growing new leadership within communities.
• Supporting energetic, catalytic individual leaders and organisations who can work skillfully
  with others to make things happen.

 Being intentional, adaptable and demonstrating progress

• Being clear on future visions and goals while being flexible in adapting plans, priorities and projects to respond to changes that occur.
• Adopting robust planning processes and practices to ensure monitoring, analysis, reflection, learning about and measuring progress towards desired outcomes.
• Proactively sharing experiences, learning, results and resources across communities.

Whole Systems Change

• Going beyond ‘one-offs’ to longer term, sustainable change.
• Influencing policy and legislation, commercial systems, organisational practice, personal, cultural and institutional relationships for lasting impact within communities. 
   

What’s different about Inspiring Communities and the Exchange?

• Releasing local resources, energy and ideas to fix local problems
• People actively involved and having a strong pride in their place
• Communities being participants rather than clients
• Moving from delivering separate services to community-led decision-taking and local control
• … and about untying the knots and connecting the dots.

The Challenge

Our communities are ready for a release of energy to overcome complex and intractable issues. Issues like violence, crime, job creation, and climate change can be tackled head-on at a local level when we bring together the skills and resources that already exist in our community.

When we say community, we mean everyone. Local residents, business, community organisations, Maori organisations, central and local government, and funders: each has their strength and perspective to contribute. Their voices need to come together to achieve change.

In this new approach we work and learn collaboratively, joining across the barriers that traditionally distance us. By working together, we create positive change and build a stronger, more resilient and more effective society – a better place to live.

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