At the heart of Inspiring Communities Networks is a small Exchange team

The Exchange exists to build and spread the "know-how" of place-based, collaborative community-led development, and to provide more leverage than is possible from disparate and unconnected local initiatives, through:

• Learning from experience
• Advising
• Community leadership development
• Promoting and advocacy
• Bringing unlikely people together and developing the 'strength of loose ties'

For more about us and what we do, you can:

• Meet the members of The Exchange in the Our People section
• Download our two-page pamphlet (1MB) Inspiring Communities 
• Download a March 2010 presentation (delivered to the Social Services Industry Training Organisation) (3MB) ICE-presentation-Mar2010

The Exchange is the engine room that:

• Supports a national network of people and places actively involved in practising and learning about community-led development - the Core Learning Cluster
• Supports the development of regional learning networks of people, initiatives, organisations and places wanting to share experiences, strengthen community-led development ways of working and enhance community resilience
• Inspires and supports development of local leaders and leadership styles that foster community-led development
• Develops tools, processes, case studies and identifies lessons learned
• Communicates about community-led development through the newsletter, website and advisory services
• Provides focused community-led development expertise in selected communities for specific purposes
• Builds cross sector understanding and connections over practical community-led development initiatives
• Connects and learns from developments in New Zealand and internationally, distils and shares information