IACD President, Paul Lachapelle, presents the Association’s first Lifetime Achievement Award to former President and Secretary General Charlie McConnell at the 2017 conference.
The Award was presented to Charlie for his work over 45 years in community development and, for his 18 years as a member of the IACD Board. Charlie served for two periods on the Board, having been first elected in 1989. He was instrumental in re-establishing IACD in the late 1990s, moving its HQ to Scotland and played a central role in securing funds for the Association’s work. As IACD President, Charlie led on creating the Association’s global definition of community development and its current strategy in relation to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
Much of Charlie’s career in community development was in the UK, where he played a lead role in establishing a discrete community learning and development professional sector, being appointed the first Chairperson of the UK’s first training standards body. He was also the European Director of the Community Development Foundation and was closely involved with the Council of Europe’s Resolution on Community Development that urged that all European municipalities and Regional authorities to employ community development staff. Charlie also worked closely with the International Organisation of Consumer Unions on consumer education and action programmes.
For a decade Charlie was the CEO of the Community Education Council, and later CEO of the Carnegie foundation, where he initiated a Commission of Inquiry and funding streams to support sustainable rural communities and secured funding for several years for IACD. Following earlier fieldwork practice, Charlie became a community development educator and later in his career was the principal of the international postgraduate Schumacher College. He is an author and editor of several books on community education and community development.
