This article was first published in Touchstone in May 2019.
A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Communities of practice are informal, self-organising, and span across the membership of the Methodist Alliance. They are the structure that allows staff and volunteers from our member agencies to promote best practice and build common capability.
The Methodist Alliance agreed to create communities of practice to achieve our strategic priorities. The following communities of practice have been established:
1. Safe and secure housing
2. Strong resilient tamariki/children and families/whānau
3. Building stronger communities – including reducing social isolation for older people
4. Communication & Fundraising
5. Working towards a bi-cultural future
Source: https://medium.com/@d.salnikov23/few-thoughts-about-communities-of-practice-fa5c4ed583f2
The objectives of each community of practice will vary over time, however they all providing opportunities for collaborative sharing of expertise; identification of the community needs; to advise other Methodist Alliance members and the Steering Group on matters relating to their area of expertise.
The communities of practice meet every three to four months either face to face or via telephone or video-conference and have achieved the following since they were established:
Housing
This community of practice is led by Peter Glensor and it has shared the Government’s Public Housing Plan; drafted a brief of Methodist Alliance housing information for use with government; drafted a resource to be used with parishes & synods about what the Methodist Alliance can offer parishes in addressing the need for housing; drafted a resource for parishes on interacting with people who are homeless; is planning a two day strategy meeting in Christchurch in May for members who are engaged in social housing, or intend to be engaged in social housing; working with key staff at Connexional Office to clarify and streamline process for property developments and how we can work more collectively.
Children & Families
Moira Lawler leads this community of practice and to date it has drafted a theory of change which describes how Methodist agencies work with children & families. They are planning a wananga for staff and volunteers working in this area to be held in the third quarter of 2019 in Wellington. Also information is being collated to form a database of Methodist services in the children & families space.
Building Stronger Communities
This community of practice has drafted a discussion document for synods about Neighbours Day Aotearoa & community led development; provided regular updates about Neighbours Day Aotearoa to the membership and wider Methodist church; compiling lists of community led development projects in each region; shared projects and ways of working with each other. This community of practice meets at various venues around Aotearoa, so members can see the community led development projects and hear from the people doing this work. The people in the area where the meeting is held lead and facilitate that meeting.
Building a bicultural future
Haehaetu Barrett, Lifewise Rotorua Regional Manager, has agreed to lead this mahi with support from Te Taha Māori. A regional workshop has been held in Auckland with Lifewise staff and further regional workshops are scheduled for Wellington & Christchurch. These regional workshops will provide opportunities to gather information for a national hui which will be held later this year.
Communications & Fundraising
Members shared their organisations fundraising and marketing strategy; and examples of co-branding. They discussed what documents should be co-branded and how this can be done in a consistent way across the membership. This community of practice is going to draft co-branding guidelines with instructions on how and when to co-brand. They are also going to draft a communications policy. The work of this community of practice is led by Sandra Cox, the Communications Coordinator at the Christchurch Methodist Mission.
If you would like more information on the communities of practice, or any other work undertaken by the Methodist Alliance, please contact me.
Carol Barron, Methodist Alliance National Coordinator, Carol@MethodistAlliance.org.nz