In this resource sheet, Dr Higgins examines child abuse and neglect in Indigenous communities from a societal perspective: applying a community development framework to understand effective strategies for reducing risks and enhancing children's safety and wellbeing. To be effective, strategies to address the problem of child abuse in Indigenous…

The study is situated within a national youth organisation called the Australian Air League Inc (Air League). We examine the recent progress of the Air League in South Australia, starting as a loose network of volunteers engaged in a sporadic array of activities, to become a learning community that worked collaboratively and then developed further…

The 21st century has seen renewed interest in activism, community development and social change globally (Kenny 2006). This paper outlines the educational significance of the learning practices of activists as they engage within and against the state. In an era of adult education which emphasises lifelong learning and learning in the workplace,…

Attracting and retaining effective education leaders and teaching staff for regional, rural and remote schools in Australia is a major sustainability and quality issue facing every State and Territory. It is also a major concern in pre-service teacher education, particularly for those universities which have a commitment to rural and regional…

A study of disenfranchised learners in a regional area found that their engagement in formal education was influenced by their learner identities, their perceptions of themselves as learners, and the identity resources on which they draw. Understanding the disconnects between individuals', communities' and educational institutions' assumptions…

Purpose: This paper aims to: extend the concept of "The learning organization" to "The learning community," especially disadvantaged communities; demonstrate how leaders in a migrant community can achieve positive change at the personal, professional, team and community learning levels through participatory action learning and…

Since the 1980s, community development in Australia has become professionalized and operates in a milieu of deregulation and privatization. Development workers struggle with questions of integrity and compromise and the contradictory pulls of modernism and postmodernism. (SK)

This report explores the ways in which Indigenous Australians are learning through enterprise and small business development. It reveals that this learning will be more effective if it takes into account that Indigenous experience differs by location, with remote areas offering a significant challenge. Learning through Indigenous business is most…

Describes the founding philosophy and everyday life in a company that specializes in the recycling and salvaging of materials. The venture is described as an example of combined job creation, profit potential, and conservation. (CH)

The recent hype and ascendancy in the discourse of community capacity-building has generated a lot of heated debate among development and policy experts on its applicability in various contexts. In particular, questions have been raised on the presuppositions inherent in the discourse and, more so, the tension that exists between theory and…

Over the last decade, rural leadership policies and programmes have attracted substantial support from all tiers of government. These policies are promulgated as a support mechanism for enhancing the internal capacity of rural communities to adjust to changes in the social and political-economic landscape. Leadership training programmes have been…

This report on a three-year study of the Social Well-Being in Mackay Schools (SWIMS) project includes a survey of the literature, a discussion of aspects of the program's implementation and examples of new and innovative means of successful interagency collaboration in educational and child protection contexts. These examples also highlight the…

The Closing the Gap Clearinghouse was established by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to bring together evidence-based research on overcoming disadvantage for Indigenous Australians. The Clearinghouse provides access to a collection of information on what works to improve Indigenous people's lives across the building blocks identified…

Environmental justice provides a linking theme with which community development workers and environmental activists can build cross-sectoral coalitions. Examples of Australian environmental problems illustrate constraints that must be overcome. Building vertical and horizontal links between and within nongovernmental organizations is one solution.…

This article reviews research into the genesis and spread of both neighbourhood houses and learning centres in Victoria and community-based men's sheds in Australia to identify some similarities and differences. Our article asks questions about the gendered communities of practice that underpin houses for women on the one hand, and sheds for men…