We are delighted to announce the appointment of two new Country Correspondents for Australia – Anna Jennings and Michelle Dunscombe.
Anne has been a member of IACD for over 15 years. She lives in Broome, on the coast in the sub-tropical far north-west corner of Australia. Her career has involved working in community development In Western Australia for Commonwealth, State and Local Government, for the community and non-government organisations (NGOs), as well as a consultant. Until recently she was Course Coordinator and Lecturer for the Diploma of Community Development at The University of Notre Dame Australia, Broome Campus. Anne has now returned to consultancy work, whilst concentrating on a PhD. Her study involves facilitating a community action research project in her local community, applying Pope Francis’s social justice, sustainability and climate change encyclical (letter), Laudato Si’, On care for our common home, within a bottom-up, community development context.
In common with most people working in this field Anne has also held various voluntary management positions with NGOs, and worked with others in a pro-bono capacity. She presented a paper, “Community development – The missing ingredient in striving for sustainability” at the 2017 ACDA/IACD conference in New Zealand, February 2017 – see www.unitec.ac.nz/epress/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/ACDA-IACD-2017-proceedings.pdf pp. 6-18 – as well as having “Without community development there is not sustainable development” published in Practice Insights, Issue 7, 2017, pp. 16-17, see https://www.iacdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/IACD-PI-7-final.pdf
Anne holds a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment; a Diploma of Community Development; a Bachelor of Social Science in Human Services, and a Master of Arts in Ecologically Sustainable Development. Australian and Oceania members can contact Anne at anne.jennings@bigpond.com
Michelle is an enthusiastic community development practitioner, facilitator and trainer. She is skilled and passionate about strengthening regional and rural communities, developing community leadership capacity, building community resilience and supporting community members to take action. She is a co-facilitator of the ABCD Asia Pacific Network, and a member of the International Association for Community Development (IACD) with a wealth of experience working with communities and community organisations. She has extensive experience with a range of community engagement processes and projects across Australia and internationally working with government departments, non government agencies and communities.
Michelle is passionate about strengthening communities, developing organisational and community leadership capacity, building community resilience and communities playing a lead role in disaster preparedness and recovery. With a focus on strengths practices Michelle utilises Asset Based Community-led Development and Art of Hosting practices and principles to support communities and organisations to flourish. Michelle believes we learn best when we share our stories and experiences and work collaboratively together to build strong resilient communities.
Country Correspondents
Since 2015, we have also been piloting having Country Correspondents in as many countries as we can, who will send us information and news about what is going on in their country. If you would like to become an IACD Country Correspondent, you must be a fully paid up IACD member. Country Correspondents are responsible for feeding in to Regional Directors news about what’s going on in community development in their country. We are very keen to encourage IACD members to become correspondents for their country. The post is unpaid, as are all Board members. If you would like to become a Country Correspondent and we have a vacancy for your country, please contact Paul Lachapelle, IACD President or the respective Regional Director for your country.
