Stewardship Circles: Leaders & Policy Makers

This course is for  leaders and policy makers  who ask the question “What is the community alternative to my service and how can I resource it?” They want to precipitate action that is led BY communities. They work in community, health, education, housing and policing.

Stewardship Circle members are invited to commit to meeting six times over a year to take part in facilitated discussions.

Each of these gatherings is themed around a particular topic, so members are invited to read key articles, watch relevant videos or listen to podcasts in advance of the session so that they can shape the discussion on the day. Whilst these topics offer a structure to the conversations, the sessions are flexible, enabling members to take responsibly for sharing the issues that are important to them. The group will create a space to explore stewardship behaviours and practice, and consider what rituals and routines it wants to develop in order to model how a strengths based culture can evolve.
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Facilitating Change at
City, County & Regional Level

Read | Watch | Discuss | Reflect | Research | Steward

Cormac Russell and other international thought leaders and ABCD practitioners challenge conventional thinking as to how leaders and policy makers can better serve communities and how they can do that at city, county and regional level through inter-agency collaboration. The Stewardship Circle involves six different elements:
Read
Life-long access to a library of e-books and written resources  and a copy of Cormac Russell's book Rekindling Democracy: A Professional's Guide to Working in Citizen Space
Watch
Bespoke videos  delivered by Cormac Russell on the key  ABCD principles and tools.
Discuss
Six facilitated 90 minute  video conference sessions that deepen understanding and practical application with invited ABCD thought leaders who bring their experiences and stories to the conversation.
Reflect
Facilitated reflective practice that deepens understanding and embeds learning.  
Apply
You can undertake an action research project on applying strengths-based principles in their context. These will be presented to the group and reviewed by the course facilitator.
Steward
Stewardship is an art, not a science. You will learn the art, with focus on mentoring, facilitation and leading by stepping back.

Course contents

Meet the instructor

Cormac Russell

Cormac is Managing Director of Nurture Development and a faculty member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute at De Paul University, Chicago.
Over the last 20 years Cormac has worked in over 30 countries around the world. He has trained communities, agencies, NGOs and governments in ABCD and other strengths based approaches in Kenya, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, South Africa, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia.
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