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Co-Design: A Necessary Skillset for Community-Led Development

Posted by Lisa Attygalle on February 21, 2020
F'or the community, by the community’ is the rallying cry for community-led development – where those who are most impacted are involved in developing solutions for their own future.
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Understanding the Impact of Power and Privilege in Community Change

Posted by the Tamarack Institute on February 14, 2020
Over the past few years, the Tamarack Institute has been exploring the role and impact that power and privilege have on community change work.
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Dancing with Complexity: Reflections on a Week of Learning

Posted by Liz Weaver on January 15, 2020

There was a time, just before I was to leave for a week of learning at Roffey Park in the UK, where I could make the case not to go.  I was too busy.  The holidays were coming up.  I was just back from travelling and now was packing my bag again.  The tree was not decorated.  The dog needed attention and on and on the excuses went. 

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Three Strategies for Navigating the Language of Evaluation

Posted by Pamela Teitelbaum on January 9, 2020

What’s so stimulating about the language of evaluation?

On several recent occasions in meetings about designing evaluation plans for community interventions the terminology about evaluation has almost derailed constructive, creative and innovative conversations about an intervention, and all I keep thinking is “WOW! I am finding this really overwhelming, I can’t imagine how people without a background in evaluation must be feeling when having to make decisions about these things!?”

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Repairing Trust

Posted by Liz Weaver on December 17, 2019

In his ground-breaking book The Speed of Trust, Stephen Covey describes five waves of trust. The first two he tackles are self trust and relational trust.  He notes that foundationally, we must trust ourselves, living with integrity and fulfilling our commitments.  The second relational wave of trust is based on the principle of consistent behaviour and investing in and generating trust with others. Throughout the book Covey describes the reciprocal nature of trust, that it is about giving and receiving. 

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Where You Live Makes a Difference to Mental Health and Well-Being

Posted by Charito Gailling on October 10, 2019

The Mental Health and Well-being: Considerations for the Built Environment report offers evidence-based planning principles for health professionals and local governments and it explains how we can build neighbourhood spaces that promote mental health and well-being while mitigating unintentional negative impacts.

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