cultivating community in a concrete jungle · •helping individuals cope with existing environment...
TRANSCRIPT
Cultivating community in a concrete jungle
Concrete / jungle – both powerful forces
Delinquency is not inherent in people but a product of their environment.Position 1
Holding space for the “eco” in “ecosystem”
Current service ecosystem
• Helping individuals cope with existing environment
• Focus on psychology
• Belief that problems require treatment
• Needs-based
• Goal is for individual facing difficulties to behave differently
• Professional-client (beneficiary) relationship
• Helping is the domain of experts
Community building approach
• Transforming environment to care for all individuals
• Focus on context and circumstances
• Problems are an opportunity for people to come together
• Strengths-based
• Goal is for community and society to behave differently
• Relationships between neighbours, fellow citizens
• We all have a stake and can co-create solutions
Shifting the narrative about youth on the margins
A social issue is not just a problem to be eradicated, but an opportunity to rally different segments of society towards a common good.
Position 2
Wider society strengthens
local community efforts
Local community cooperates
Families and friends support
each other
A whole-of-society approach
Building community from
the inside out…
…with goodwill flowing
outside in.
Co-creation with community
Empowerment is not simply transferring power, but championing cooperation over competition, and acting from a place of abundance rather than scarcity
Position 3
Cultivating community is more like farming than gardening
What we must safeguard
Shared meanings and purpose,
despite differences
Within community; and between community and other
stakeholders
Families’ stability and self-
determination, from system interventions
Family Group Conferencing
Community resources and initiatives, from the encroachment of more powerful interests
Void decks, community centres
Interdependence between
neighbours, rather than dependence
on systems
Community can respond to crisis and develop sustainable
solutions
Counter-narratives from
the margins, amidst dominant
narratives
Community theatre, social media, engaging
decision-makers
Some other things we must safeguard…
• Our self-reflexivity, from the anxiety to “do good” and the pressure of KPIs
• Our commitment to people, principles and positions, rather than specific models and programmes
• The rhythm and pace of community, from organisational logic
• Our identity as citizens, alongside that as customers, consumers, professionals and clients