July 2025 Practitioner Gathering Harvest - CDLI
On Wednesday July 9th CDLI hosted the seventh gathering for community development practitioners of the year.
We had two discussion topics that practitioners chose to engage in. See our shared harvest here or in the slides below. If you have a topic in mind that you would like to discuss with other community development practitioners please let us know and we will include it in a future COP date that works for you.
Practitioners came and went in this month’s gathering so it was decided that we would all come together to discuss the topics most of interest, instead of moving into breakout rooms. One attendee also put forward a new topic to discuss. Key points of reflection appeared to be:
Room 1: Summer can be THE season for community development. How are you balancing all the activity, keeping the momentum going and caring for yourself?
For some summer is a very “expensive” (time, financial cost, etc.) time to ask people to be invested and involved in something - children are at home, they have summer activities and traditions they want to do with their families or for themselves.
For others summer is the time when community can happen without inviting people into their homes, and connection thrives.
Room 4: What support exists for changemakers that are undergoing transition between roles, into social enterprise, etc. if they aren’t involved in networks like CDLI or others?
Recently there has been a lot of changemakers, mission/purpose driven people who have been entering and navigating the transition from long term work, work within organizations, to other ways of working such as social enterprise, going to new work or work that feels more aligned.
Strategic support is important to determine the how of what you will do, do we recognize the importance of psychological support as well, which is a primary offering of community
Click through the slides to view the notes in their entirety. Resources offered within a particular discussion are noted in the bottom of the “slide”. General resources shared are on the second last slide.
CDLI looks forward to hosting open space COP’s for Community Development Practitioners (paid and unpaid) on the second Wednesday of each month in 2025. Register to join us here.