Open Space Coaching and Facilitation

Stories

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Community gardening

A small group of community members in Perth with access to some land but no financial resources, hosted an Open Space meeting to talk about the potential to grow a neighbourhood community garden. Having sourced a small start-up grant, the project rapidly expanded to a neighbouring piece of unused local government land and the acquisition of multiple community grants. By consistently using assets-based community development principles and dialogic collaborative processes like Open Space Technology and Talking Circles, the garden continues to thrive after 25 years.

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Collaborating on community food security

A community-based organisation in an inner-city Melbourne which had been providing emergency food relief for 30 years decided to do a review of its purpose and the best way of delivering its services. It realised that such a strategic review could not be done in isolation from the broader community-ecosystem in which it operated. It decided to work in partnership with local government to co-host an Open Space meeting on Food Security and invite other organisations working in the sector. This helped the organisation to confirm its distinctive positioning and where it wanted to focus its ongoing efforts.