About TCDI

By whom, with whom, for whom?

We intend this to be a gathering of budding activists and experienced practitioners from the whole universe of community work fields – community organizing, environmental advocacy, capacity building, movement building, unions, cooperatives, social enterprises, and more.

We are seeking to nurture and sustain opportunities over time that support linking and learning across generations, and among community members, leaders, resident activists, social justice groups, ethno-cultural organizations, faith groups, equity seeking groups, community arts and environmental activists, and the range of agencies, institutions and government initiatives that promote equity and social justice through community development activities.

This second event will be another step towards many years of rich and sustained sharing of our work. What subsequent ones look like, who will be involved in planning them, how they are organized, and how the “institute” will grow, will be topics of discussion during and after the Spring 2009 Institute.

We maintain our modest objectives for this second “spring conference.” The workshops for the first event emerged from a single open invitation for proposals from groups and individuals. We then sorted all the workshops that met our criteria (e.g. using participatory learning, focusing on community development practice, and integrating an anti-oppression framework) into theme areas and arranged them over three days. We also organized one plenary presentation, and opportunities for celebrating together. These 2009 event will be similar and we hope that the workshops, presentations, celebrations and informal opportunities for networking and exchange will enrich our understanding and help sustain our collective passion for progressive social change.

This initiative is a collaborative effort on the part of people from the universities, colleges, community networks, labour organizations, anti-racism/anti-oppression networks, social justice groups, and others. Over time, we hope to nurture this “institute” as an open and fluid space and not one that is shaped by the interests of any one institution or group.

What is community development?

Working together towards collectively and democratically chosen goals, we know that people can achieve significant changes. Setting this in motion from the grassroots, from the bottom-up, and sustaining efforts to improve community well-being, and to increase equity and social justice…this is community development in our opinion. Within this label there are many approaches and ideas at play:

“Community development” . . . “community engagement” . . . “community organizing” . . . “neighbourhood action” . . . “health promotion”… “community capacity building” . . . “popular education” . . . “community economic development” . . . “Anti-racism and anti-oppression work”… “participatory action research” . .  “community arts”… “community asset building” . . . “community-based research” . . . “social justice movement building” …

Whatever we call it and whether we are volunteers or paid workers, we all have some things in common. Primarily, we’re trying to make a difference in our world by finding ways for people in neighbourhoods, communities, or regions to gain more control over their lives, and mobilizing for better living conditions, more social justice, peace, equity, and opportunities to participate, contribute, and benefit from society.