| Ted has provided consultancy/ training services to: The Arabic Council of Australia The International Association for Youth Policy Development The Department of Youth Affairs Qatar The Smith Family The Australian Centre for Social Leadership The Municipal Association of Victoria The University of Newcastle The Family Action Centre Mission Australia Woollahra CityCouncil The Benevolent Society Christian Blind Ministries Uniting Care Australia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Victorian Department of Human Services The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services, and Indigenous Affairs Age, Disability and Home Care Kamilaroi Aboriginal Legal Service South Eastern Aboriginal Legal Service, Tharpuntoo Cape York Legal Service Aboriginal Corporation Leichhardt City Council Western Aboriginal Legal Service Uniting Church of Australia Sydney Regional Corporation for Aboriginal Legal Services NSW Department of Corrective Services Department of Communities Queensland Local Government Managers Association of South Australia Catholic Education Department Broken Bay Uniting World Anglican Missions Red Cross NSW Department of Family and Community Services |
Associates
Jordan Purcell-Ashburner
Jordan is a passionate social entrepreneur who initiated his first social enterprise at 17yrs. With over 10 years’ experience in establishing new businesses, charities and social ventures Jordan has a first-hand insight into the social enterprise movement in Australia.
Jordan is a Vocational Trainer specialising in business and management training and has developed accredited training programs to support both organisations and individuals to establish and sustain viable social ventures.
Jordan is a founder and Director for Training Development at the Central Coast Business College which is involved in facilitating a regional approach towards social enterprise development.
Jordan Purcell has a passion for developing education and employment pathways that develop people as well as skills, through partnering vocational training with community development projects.
Jordan has worked in the development of targeted training programs for local, state and federal government, with some of Australia’s peak industry bodies and across a broad range of vocational industries.
Jordan has provided mentoring and leadership training for a range of youth programs, organization and associations and believes the empowerment of young people is one of our greatest avenue to solve the problems of society.
Jordan has a strong belief that the social enterprise movement has the capacity to transform the way we address the social agendas of our communities and sustain valuable social initiatives.
Jordan is a Vocational Trainer specialising in business and management training and has developed accredited training programs to support both organisations and individuals to establish and sustain viable social ventures.
Jordan is a founder and Director for Training Development at the Central Coast Business College which is involved in facilitating a regional approach towards social enterprise development.
Jordan Purcell has a passion for developing education and employment pathways that develop people as well as skills, through partnering vocational training with community development projects.
Jordan has worked in the development of targeted training programs for local, state and federal government, with some of Australia’s peak industry bodies and across a broad range of vocational industries.
Jordan has provided mentoring and leadership training for a range of youth programs, organization and associations and believes the empowerment of young people is one of our greatest avenue to solve the problems of society.
Jordan has a strong belief that the social enterprise movement has the capacity to transform the way we address the social agendas of our communities and sustain valuable social initiatives.
Jim Diers
Prticipatory democracy has been Jim Diers' preoccupation and his career for the past 30 years. In his work with grassroots community organizations, with the USA's largest health care cooperative and with city government, Jim has found ways to get people more involved with their communities and with decisions that affect their lives.Jim moved to Seattle with his wife, Sarah Driggs, after graduating from Grinnell College in 1975. For six years Jim worked as an Alinsky-style community organizer in the low-income, racially diverse community of Rainier Valley. Bringing people together to take action on issues ranging from dangerous intersections to nuclear power plants, Jim helped the South End Seattle Community Organization grow to include 25 member churches and neighborhood organizations. Its annual meetings drew as many as 800 people.Jim spent the next six years with Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, where he organized medical center councils to review budget and quality-of-care issues. He also helped members organize special interest groups: the Senior Caucus, the Nuclear Awareness Group, and Partners for Health, an organization that provides medical support to Nicaragua. Jim also organized—and reinvigorated—the cooperative’s annual meetings, which attracted as many as 3,000 members.
In 1988,Jim was appointed as director of Seattle’s new Office of Neighborhoods. By the end of Jim’s 14-year tenure, the four-person Office had grown into a Department of Neighborhoods with 100 staff.The Department’s mission is to decentralize and coordinate city services, strengthen communities and their organizations, and work in partnership with these organizations to preserve and enhance the neighborhoods. The Department manages 13 Little City Halls that provide basic services to citizens and serve as meeting places for neighborhood organizations.
It supports about 400 community self-help projects each year through a $4.5 million Neighborhood Matching Fund that was recognized by the Ford Foundation and Kennedy School of Government as one of the most innovative local government programs in the United States. Another program of community empowerment involved 30,000 people in the development of 37 neighborhood plans. The Department also manages the City’s historic preservation program, a P-Patch Program of 75 community gardens, and a leadership training program.
In 2000, the Department received the Full Inclusion Award from the American Association on Mental Retardation for its Involving All Neighbors program and a Best of the Best Award from HUD for its Cultivating Communities program.In 2001, Jim was named Public Employee of the Year by the Municipal League of King County. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Law from Grinnell College.Currently, Jim spends most of his time at the University of Washington, where he teaches courses in architecture and social work and supports community initiatives with faculty and students across all disciplines. Jim is a faculty member for the Asset-Based Community Development Institute and as the author of Neighbor Power: Building Community the Seattle Way.a
In 1988,Jim was appointed as director of Seattle’s new Office of Neighborhoods. By the end of Jim’s 14-year tenure, the four-person Office had grown into a Department of Neighborhoods with 100 staff.The Department’s mission is to decentralize and coordinate city services, strengthen communities and their organizations, and work in partnership with these organizations to preserve and enhance the neighborhoods. The Department manages 13 Little City Halls that provide basic services to citizens and serve as meeting places for neighborhood organizations.
It supports about 400 community self-help projects each year through a $4.5 million Neighborhood Matching Fund that was recognized by the Ford Foundation and Kennedy School of Government as one of the most innovative local government programs in the United States. Another program of community empowerment involved 30,000 people in the development of 37 neighborhood plans. The Department also manages the City’s historic preservation program, a P-Patch Program of 75 community gardens, and a leadership training program.
In 2000, the Department received the Full Inclusion Award from the American Association on Mental Retardation for its Involving All Neighbors program and a Best of the Best Award from HUD for its Cultivating Communities program.In 2001, Jim was named Public Employee of the Year by the Municipal League of King County. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Law from Grinnell College.Currently, Jim spends most of his time at the University of Washington, where he teaches courses in architecture and social work and supports community initiatives with faculty and students across all disciplines. Jim is a faculty member for the Asset-Based Community Development Institute and as the author of Neighbor Power: Building Community the Seattle Way.a
Cormac Russell
Cormac is Managing Director of Nurture Development and a faculty member of the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute at Northwestern University, Chicago. He has trained communities, agencies, NGOs and governments in ABCD and other strengths based approaches in Kenya, Southern Sudan, South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia. He uses skills and processes including World Café, Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space Technology alongside strength based thinking to support those with whom he works to move towards inclusive, actionable change.
In January 2011 Cormac was appointed to the Expert Reference Group on Community Organising and Communities First, by Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society in the UK. Porteous
Paul Porteous
Paul’s extensive leadership experience includes work as a senior diplomat, representative to numerous
international organisations including the United Nations and International Court of Justice, and as a
consultant in the United States, South East Asia, Middle East, Europe and Africa. He is Visiting Faculty
at Harvard Kennedy School for the Executive Program “Leadership in the 21st Century” and was previously a Fellow at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership where he received the “Dean’s Award for Excellence in Student Teaching”. From 2005-2009, Paul was Senior Adviser to the President of Madagascar, developing cutting edge leadership practice for nation building and the alleviation of poverty. In Australia, Paul was Executive Director of the Centre for Social Leadership, developing innovative programs across government, business and community sectors focused on social impact, cross-cultural relations and conflict management. Paul also has extensive experience in the Australian federal government including foreign affairs, regional development, transport and industrial relations. He worked extensively with corporate CEOs and Ministers in pioneering leading edge responses to globalisation and developed Australia’s first National Logistics Strategy.
Dr Amanda Howard
With 20 years experience in working with a range of individuals, groups, organisations and communities in the areas of health, community development, social and community planning, evaluation and research, Amanda brings a passion and commitment to building on strengths and creating spaces for innovation whatever the context. Using creative approaches in engaging with communities and organisations to bring about positive change is a particular interest for her, as is the challenge of collecting data, describing and analysing community development projects in a way that reflects their contribution and complexity.
Amanda currently teaches social work at the University of Newcastle and continues her research in community. Her PhD thesis on the emergence of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) on the Central Coast of NSW gave her a chance to work with local practitioners as they explored the practice frames and ideas that underpinned the work they were doing in a diverse range of communities.
Previously Amanda worked in community development and social planning in a local government context, and in counselling, groupwork, community education and community development with young people and families where she learned about resilience and the importance of irony and humour. A founding member of the Central Coast Community Congress Working Party she works as a volunteer to build a culture of learning and celebration about great community building.
Amanda currently teaches social work at the University of Newcastle and continues her research in community. Her PhD thesis on the emergence of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) on the Central Coast of NSW gave her a chance to work with local practitioners as they explored the practice frames and ideas that underpinned the work they were doing in a diverse range of communities.
Previously Amanda worked in community development and social planning in a local government context, and in counselling, groupwork, community education and community development with young people and families where she learned about resilience and the importance of irony and humour. A founding member of the Central Coast Community Congress Working Party she works as a volunteer to build a culture of learning and celebration about great community building.
Barbara Donaldson
IMAGINE…Community Development Worker and Artist Barbara Donaldson loves to imagine!
She works from the premise that imagination and intuition along with the ability to hear and share peoples’ stories are vital ingredients for successful community development. Peoples’ stories acknowledge valuable skills and talents that may otherwise not be acknowledged.
Barbara believes that for a program to be successful the people involved must drive it.
In her 10 years as a Community Worker with Uniting Care Wesley Adelaide she has worked in Neighbourhood Support Programs which seeks to address social isolation for older people, adults with a disability and carers.
Barbara’s’ exuberance, passion and ongoing optimism has been instrumental in the introduction of many successful projects.
Programs such as Cosy Club, SPIN (Sharing Passion Interest and Needs) In Your Street, Backyard Chatters and Violet’VIsitors’ continue to draw people together with ongoing benefits to all involved.
Currently Barbara is involved in developing Homeshare Adelaide. In the Imagining are projects such as Cosy in the Park and Imagine Adelaide
Barbara is a Mosaic artist pictured with her latest artwork Tilly Rose.
