Report from Victoria: ‘Lessons Learned by Community Recovery Committees of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires:

Advice we offer to communities impacted by disaster: Written by a group of community members who each played a role in their community’s recovery and renewal and who then became inspired by our belief that as community members we can and should share their lessons with other communities impacted by disaster. This is not a formal report prepared by government bodies or any other organisation but a report by communities, and for communities.

At the website of the Premier of Victoria You can download the 22-page report  and read about how it has been shared internationally.

What gets counted, counts: New Economics Foundation programme on ‘valuing what matters’.

UK-based NEF claims that £1 invested in high-quality residential care for children generates a social return of between £4 and £6.10. NEF is creating new  approaches to value and measurement so that those things that matter most to people, communities and to achieving a sustainable planet are made visible and measurable.

Read more about it at: http://www.neweconomics.org/programmes/valuing-what-matters.

Added December 2011

Applications are invited for this programme by the deadline of 25th November 2011.

The first residential session is scheduled to take place in July 2012.

Download the brochure for details about applying, including costs. 

Should you have any other queries, or simply wish to have a further conversation around this programme please contact The Proteus Initiative: Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Shaping Tamaki's Future Together:  A Transformational Approach

Produced by The Tamaki Transformation Community Engagement Team – Jenny Chilcott, Alfred Ngaro, Tamati Patuwai and Moka Ngaro.

Tamaki Transformation Programme has published this resource for those who want to explore a new way of working with communities, and across organisations, and learn some tools to support them along the way.  It offers snapshots of work undertaken during the Tamaki Transformation Programme's two year foundation period as it evolves new approaches to bring together residents and groups from across community, government and private sectors, in service of common goals.

Click to read more and find out how to get a copy.

Added September 2011

The HOW COMMUNITIES HEAL project is being published in fortnightly instalments on the internet at www.nzsef.org.nz/howcommunitiesheal.

Writers and topics include:

Brian Donnelly — Affordable Housing for All
Viv Maidaborn — Action for Inclusion
Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o — Growing from the Roots
Kim Workman — Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Gael Surgenor — Innovation in the Public Service
John Stansfield — The Community Organiser as Entrepreneur
Stephanie McIntyre — Hope on the Streets
Major Campbell Roberts — Faith, Mercy and Social Justice
Philip Patston — Adding Diversity to Common Sense
Ngahau and Debbie Davis — Making the What
Malcolm Cameron — Putting Unity Back Into Community
Nuku Rapana — Migrating to Enterprise and Development
Robin Allison — For Earth and Neighbourhood

Comments and conversations on this project are encouraged through the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/howcommunitiesheal, and on Twitter at @HowCommHeal

Added September 2011

This resource is an account of the ‘doing it differently together,’ that is social innovation. It charts the relational journey made by a group of social innovators comprising staff from the Families Commission, and four exemplary social service organisations, who came together to undertake an ‘action inquiry,’ to learn more about what we have come to call a family whanau centred approach.

THRIVING was produced in collaboration with Auckland Women’s Centre, THRIVE Teen Parent Support Trust, Te Waipuna Puawai, Anglican Trust for Women and Children, Know Your Neighbours, Lifewise, and Takapuna Methodist Church 2011.

To download: http://www.familiescommission.govt.nz/sites/default/files/downloads/THRIVING_Resource_0.pdf

Added September 2011

These books are available free as downloadable PDF files:  

In-Between Infrastructure: Urban Connectivity in an Age of Vulnerability
Edited by Douglas Young, Patricia Burke Wood, and Roger Keil

"This book presents a focus on infrastructures in the "in-between city" and features original chapters by some of Canada’s leading urban thinkers as well as new voices in the debate."
http://www.praxis-epress.org/availablebooks/inbetween.html

Information and Communication Technology Geographies: Strategies for Bridging the Digital Divide
By Melissa R. Gilbert and Michele Masucci

"Drawing on case studies of women organizing for economic justice, seeking to attain employment, and trying to improve their health, the book argues that an understanding of poor women’s frameworks for the use of information and communication technologies necessitates rethinking the policies that seek to address the digital divide."
http://www.praxis-epress.org/availablebooks/ictgeographies.html

These books are published under the Creative Commons license system, where users are free: to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work, under the following conditions: Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work (except for ‘fair dealing’, as in the case of reviews or citations of text for scholarly purposes).

Added August 2011

When Milicent Johnson told friends and family she would be traveling to Detroit (US) to write about community resilience, she “got the same reaction from everyone: Silence”.

However, contrary to popular preconceptions, she discovered a city of people who “live in the biggest small town you'll ever experience and everyone's ready to pick up a shovel and work with you to build the future”. Various people and projects are changing Detroit by putting community development in the hands of the community; building healthier, more connected community, one seed at a time; and giving students a chance to design the future.

Read the article at www.grist.org.

Added August 2011