Grass-roots Community Ownership

Community Members Working Together for Positive Change

Josephine Lebbing 0438 045 853 empowermentnetwork2014@gmail.com

Facebook Page: Empowerment Network Western Australia

• Every person is valuable and has something to contribute.

• Community building can only really happen from the inside out.

• Collectively we have the capacity to create communities in which we can all thrive.

INQUIRY

HONESTY RESPECT

Acceptance Understanding

Trust

RELATIONSHIP

Grass-roots Community Ownership RELATIONSHIPS: THE THREADS THAT CREATE COMMUNITY

Tim Muirhead, Weaving Tapestries

Grass-roots Community Ownership

People and relationships must come first.

The frameworks, systems, processes which we operate within need to evolve to reflect this…

Know that change takes times and that

you / we can start practicing right now.

You can make a difference.

You can choose to make that difference a positive one.

Grass-roots Community Ownership

By growing our self-awareness we increase our capacity for working with others in a positive way.

Habits of Seeing, Thinking, Feeling, Behaving

Habits of Seeing, Thinking, Feeling, Behaving

• Like changing any habit, attention and practice are necessary…..

• Practice being mindful of ‘which glasses’ you are wearing..

• Ask yourself are these glasses helpful in getting me where I want to be?

What you focus on grows….

Perspective & focus directly influences your capacity…

Focus on what You CAN Do and what enlivens you!

Family

Comfort Zones

Characteristics: Private

person / Open Person; Slow / Fast

Mover; Talkative / Quiet

Attributes: people

person, organising, arty,

doing, interacting

Agendas, Intentions

Experiences

Culture

Connections Dreams/Visions

Concerns

Interaction Characteristics:

In Charge; ‘Doer - Get things going;

Planners; Behind the scenes.

Interest Areas:

Age Specific;

Art, Craft & Culture;

Community Building;

Education & Training;

Emergency Services;

Environment & Sustainability;

Health & Wellbeing;

Service or Self Help Groups;

Social or Special Interest / Beliefs;

Sport & Recreation

Perspectives

Roles

Spirituality

Stories

Values

Needs: Survival, Love and

Belonging, Power, Freedom, Fun.

Passions

Personality Type

History Habits/Patterns

Health & Wellbeing

Ideals & Expectations

Beliefs

Grass-roots Community Ownership INDIVIDUALS COMPLEXITIES

INQUIRY

HONESTY RESPECT

Acceptance Understanding

Trust

RELATIONSHIP

Grass-roots Community Ownership GET TO KNOW THE PEOPLE

Tim Muirhead, Weaving Tapestries

• Be curious and inquisitive.

• Find out their stories.

• What’s important to them?

• What do they care about?

When you don’t find common ground, differences become barriers.

When common ground is achieved, differences are appreciated.

Sandra Krempl

The Five Dimensions of Community

Our Community

A dynamic selection of complex individuals in relationship with each other…..

Grass-roots Community Ownership What can we do?

Nurture our Communities Capacity for Sharing Stories, Connecting & Celebrating by:

• Value –adding to what’s already there.

• Creating forums for sharing.

Nurture our Communities Capacity for Working Together • Evolving frameworks, systems, processes

and tools to be people focussed.

Our Individual Capacity for Influencing Positive Change

• Grow your self awareness of your ‘habits’; your complexities, what you care about, what frustrates you, what it looks like when you operate in an effective and sustainable way.

Grass-roots Community Ownership Nurture our Communities Capacity for Working Together

Work together to develop meetings and project management processes.

• Start with small steps.

• Identify your allies and invite them to explore what the process would look like if it was the ideal of: Inclusive, sustainable and reinvigorating….

• Be mindful of developing a shared language and understanding of the aims and processes of communication.

• Plan – do – reflect.

• Repeat

Grass-roots Community Ownership Check In: How are we all feeling?

Feelings Matter They can be like a gauge on the dashboard.

How’s the fuel tank?

Nurture the exploration and co-creation of inclusive and sustainable projects….

“Give a man fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime”.

http://www.pozible.com/index.php/collection/detail/27

Castlemaine Crowd

Castlemaine Crowd is crowd funding gone local. The collection showcases local projects from Castlemaine and surrounding districts of Mount Alexander Shire. Become a micro-philanthropist and give life to one of the projects in your community! Or apply to add your own project to Castlemaine Crowd!

Proactive Community Building: • Complexities are important and need to be considered when developing new group habits:

Inclusive; Sustainable; Accountable;

• Change takes time…. Trust that it takes time…..that there are no big bang, showy, one size fits all ‘answer’.

• For each individual the steps will be different.

• It is not a linear process. We plan to allow for emergence. This is where the exciting stuff happens

• Timing is everything!

• Empowerment cannot be done by one person (or service) to another. It is a process which requires certain conditions. It’s a collective approach where we work together to be the best individuals we can be for the benefit of all…

• Language matters – it can either disconnect or connect. Develop a common language around working with others which is suitable to the community: inclusivity.

• Openness: Shared experience; shared opportunities to grow; shared weight/responsibility. Not reliant on individuals.

• Build people’s confidence and understanding of: running community projects; the complexities of community; their own skills, attributes, challenges.

• ‘Community work’ is most effective when ongoing, consistent and reliable support for groups and projects is provided to assist them to self-organise.

Creating a positive future begins in human conversation. The simplest and most powerful investment any member of a community or an organization may make in renewal is to begin talking with other people as though the answers mattered.

William Grieder, Who Will Tell the People?