Year: 2005
The Complexity of Engaging Communities
Introduction: For over 20 years I have pursued community, economic and sustainable development in peripheral regional communities in Atlantic Canada, North Eastern Scotland and most recently in Quebec, a province of Canada. Each of these regions has gone through some crisis or challenge or has been languishing in the wake of such events. A multitude […]
On Being a Stranger – feelings of aloneness
Several years ago when I was living and working in Scotland I happened upon an elderly woman, formerly from Newfoundland but by this time a long term resident of Scotland. An eccentric person she had come to Scotland as a nurse and was, at that particular time, in the midst of writing a thesis in […]
Creating a Ukrainian CED Process
(This picture was taken after one of many training sessions that were held for all who participated in the project. Education was a major component of this Community Economic Development project.) Why Community Economic Development is so Important to Ukraine: It is not hard when one first arrives and travels in Ukraine to feel despair for […]
Community Generational Challenges
(This picture was taken with my working colleagues shortly after I arrived in The Gambia. We were touring one of the local markets that was much in need of redevelopment.) I have taken up an assignment in The Gambia in Africa where I will be providing support to the Ministry of Economic Planning and Industrial […]
The Fragility of Community
Community is more than the sum parts of physical infrastructure, much more than the social environment in which people live and fundamentally more than the services which people have come to expect. Community is the primarily intangible environment where people co-exist, raise families and build memories. The challenge of building community capacity and subsequently using […]
Lessons Learned from Working in Rural and Peripheral Communities
(The picture is from the Lower North Shore of Quebec in the winter. My Colleague Vicki Driscoll arrives at the airport to pick me up as we prepare to travel along the coast to the string of rural communities not connected by a road network. This transportation works well during the winter season) This was […]
Summer was Easy
Here I am half way through my current volunteer contract in Ukraine. For me it’s been six months of travel, interaction and learning. Yet, at this stage there is so much I don’t understand much less appreciate and language is only a minimal component as even the people whom I have met that have been […]
Ukrainian Reflections – after three months
(This was taken on a train from Kyiv to Uzhgorod a frequent trip for me. While it was a 17 hour journey it was always fun and often insightful as you met many people.) Saturday the 14th was the beginning of my third month in Ukraine. As I write this it is once again on […]
Community Sustainability – a spiritual mission
Present societal change is causing both reflection and reorganization of the fundamentals of our society, institutions, and approach to government. Theses shifts have been evident for the past number of decades but now the limits of sustainability of our present social and economic structures are being reached.