Community Development Conference Attracts Delegates from Around the World

IACD’s annual conference took place this year from 6th to 8th July in Lisboa, Portugal. Hosted by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicologia Comunitária and the Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada (ISPA), the conference attracted approximately 200 delegates from Europe and around the world.
 

The theme of the conference was ‘Transformative Leadership and Empowering Communities’. Sessions allowed sharing of research and practice in areas such as community participation, women and leadership, migration, integration and entrepreneurship.
 
Highlights included a keynote address by Marshall Ganz, Lecturer in Public Policy at the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, who explored the meaning of leadership and the role of community organisers, drawing on his grassroots activitism with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers and, more recently, on Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
 
Supported by the Levi Strauss Foundation through the Indigo project, several sessions focused on asset building – specifically, on the transformative impact of saving as a route out of poverty. Speakers were Bob Friedman, of the Corporation for Enterprise Development in San Francisco, IACD President and Australian community finance expert Ingrid Burkett and three members of the Indigo network: Tibor Beres (Autonómia Foundation, Hungary), Omar Khan (Runnymede Trust, UK) and Jean Claude Rodriguez-Ferrera Massons (ACAF, Spain).
 
The conference strengthened relationships between IACD members and representatives of the Community Development Journal (CDJ), who ran workshops for delegates interested in using and/or contributing to the Journal. IACD and CDJ are currently discussing the possibility of publishing a selection of papers from the conference.
 
The conference brought together areas which for some may appear diverse – namely, community development, community psychology and asset building – yet where there are significant synergies. The audience were keen to engage with the interesting policy, research and practice questions raised and we hope the conversations will continue.
 
“Leadership is accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve purpose under conditions of uncertainty.” Marshall Ganz

 
To view photos of this conference, visit www.cdconference.com.