Return of Community Development Online
Community Development Online Blog
I’m about to restart the Community Development Online blog, after a break of almost 5 months. I shall continue to build resources for anyone who aims to follow community development principles, particularly where it intersects with local economies. I’m happy to write about any aspect of community development and one of the first sequences I’m planning is about models of community development. I shall explore how to extend community development principles from neighbourhood work to online marketing approaches for community and voluntary sectors.
This will work best if you guide me, so please comment on my posts and request posts on topics I haven’t touched upon yet. I shall respond to all the comments I receive.
If you prefer, you can write for this blog as a guest author. If you’re interested, leave me a comment or send me an email (my address is in the footer) and we’ll take it from there.
Community Web Consultant Website
You may have noticed changes to my website. Most important, the content is about local economies, see the home page about a thriving marketplace in every neighbourhood as well as introductory material about non-directive consultancy and my approach to website design.
If you sign up to my email list you receive a short introductory email sequence about how to support your local economy and the option to download my ebook, “Community Development is Dead! Long Live Community Development!“. As before you will receive notice of new blog posts every Tuesday morning, if there are any.
The site promotes two things. First, a community committed to sharing experiences, ideas and insights about local economies. This is long-term work, neglected over the years. The second is my business offer of consultancy services for local businesses owners or leaders of community organisations. This will take you to my offer of a free consultancy session, where you can test your desired outcome for your business or community group. There is no obligation to use my consultancy service.
More About the Blog
My aim is to build a resource of information about local economies, community development and how both can be resourced online and in real life. For the immediate future, new posts will have a somewhat looser structure than before. I shall aim for a minimum of three posts per week, starting next week.
Local Economy – Online Resources
I shall review and share some of the resources about local economies I’ve found. These are mostly websites. My aim will be to review one website each week. Unlike the sites I’ve reviewed previously, my focus will primarily be on content and not so much on how it works as a site. I may point out some design issues en passant but the primary aim will be to open up the site to greater use, if it deserves it. I’ll focus on the value of its content, opportunities to collaborate, etc.
Community Development Models
My plan is to start by bringing my old email sequence about community development into the blog. The reason I initially produced it as an email sequence was that it didn’t quite fit my plans for the blog. The sequence complements the ebook and may suggest approaches to how community development might be revived. I’d love to help build a professional body for development workers and this may become possible as an online community becomes a reality. In the meantime I hope to build a resource of ideas to support the work of those who are on the front line.
Needs Assessments
I started to write on this theme towards the end of my last sequence and I’m now I can write about a new approach. I’m planning to review it some detail and use my work as an example.
Finally, publish posts on topical issues as they occur to me. This should mean the blog will take on a more spontaneous tone. So, please read and enjoy. Tell me what you like and what you would like me to cover. Don’t forget, I’m open to offers from guest authors too!