Phase 2. Building the Foundations
is about becoming more open to working together, building a shared understanding of the system, brokering agreement that business as usual is not enough to make large scale impact, and partnering with community as the foundation for change.
What you might see
- Recognition of the importance of partnering with people from across the community in setting priorities for change;
- Active involvement of existing community leaders, and the identification and development of emerging community leaders;
- Community conversations are taking place, with new insights emerging from community input and experiences;
- Community is confronted by organisations defending their funding, expertise, roles and outputs, and a default to traditional structures, processes and approaches;
- Existing and emerging community leaders are participating in the agenda setting process.
What you can do
- Discuss and plan how to engage the broader community (including the ‘sub-communities’ existing within the whole);
- Encourage and support community conversations that generate insight into the lived experience of community members and the strengths they bring in addressing issues;
- Work with interested community members to engage the broader community, understand what is working well, and identify what change they would like to see and who they trust to take action;
- Develop high-quality communications to share the journey, context, and intended impact of the emerging work;
- Support community members to participate in the emerging structures (while also ensuring that the emerging structures are suited to community);
- Support the community to assess its strengths and resources to ensure that its assets are understood from a community, not service provider or administrative, perspective.
Community Tools & Resources
See our latest Facilitator Tools
Understand where your initiative is on the Collaborative Change Cycle
This video explores how conflict – often seen as the enemy – can be an asset to partnerships when understood and harnessed. Deep Collaboration is a way of working that was created by First Nations and other Multicultural Australians to find new ways to work and lead together.
Deep Collaboration
2. Building the FoundationsWorking in the dynamics of cross-cultural partnerships can be challenging, and this video speaks about ways you can foster resilience in the work of Deep Collaboration. Deep Collaboration is a way of working that was created by First Nations and other Multicultural Australians to find new ways to work and lead together.
This video explores how understanding the idea and impact of ‘roles’, and separating yourself from a ‘role’ you are in a group, supports resilience and sustainability in collaborations. Deep Collaboration is a way of working that was created by First Nations and other Multicultural Australians to find new ways to work and lead together.
This tool will help you to map and interpret stakeholder dynamics in your initiative. This tool can be useful at the start of an initiative when you are working out the ‘lay of the land’, if things go wrong, if there is conflict, or if you are not making progress.
Downloadable pdf
This resource explores different ways of assessing a community’s readiness for collaborative work and includes links to tools and resources for assessing and building community readiness.
Web link
This resource is a comprehensive toolkit for planning, delivering and analysing Harwood Community Conversations.
This resource will walk you through the philosophy of an Appreciative Inquiry, and how to facilitate one or more phases of the exercise.
This resource briefly describes the four key steps in Appreciative Inquiry: discover; dream; design; and deliver.
This website contains links to a diverse range of videos, written descriptions, templates, and tools for understanding and delivering Asset Based Community Development (ABCD).
Change Cycle Locator Tool
Take the quick survey to work out where you are on your change journey and access information specific to your needs