About a dozen people from about half-a-dozen countries gather in the coastal city of Barcelona, Spain this weekend to talk about the future of an effort they are all dedicated to — enabling local, strengths-based responses to community issues. I am honoured to join them at their invitation as a member of the Axiom News team.
Most of those joining the gathering fulfill some function within a network called the Constellation that now has a presence in about 60 countries.
The Constellation network centres on a belief that every community “has the inner strength to envision, to act and to adapt,” according to its charter document.
Today, more than 1,000 people — facilitators — affiliated with the Constellation use an approach called Community Life Competence to support communities in manifesting that inner strength.
Community Life Competence’s ways of thinking and working include:
— appreciating strengths, stimulating the exchange of ideas
— inviting participants to take ownership for response to an issue
— collaborative decision making and action.
This gathering represents the power of such local, strengths-based community efforts in effectively addressing pressing issues with communities ranging from HIV to cholera epidemics.
At Axiom News, we see cross-pollination possibilities between the work of the Constellation and community efforts we touch on in North America, which, by the way, bear a striking resemblance in many ways to the essence of the Constellation efforts.
We are also thrilled to engage in conversations about the possibilities around weaving Generative Journalism, the approach pioneered by Axiom News founder and CEO Peter Pula, into these community efforts.
As media makers with a passion for strengthening communities, we see a menu of options for journalists to engage in community transformation. Narrating the change is an obvious and logical choice. But there’s also the possibility of media joining in co-creating the change through generative inquiry and the creation of generative news artifacts. There’s also much more to be explored around the notion of media makers hosting community dialogues themselves — which both ourselves and other media folk are already doing.
Looking ahead to these conversations in Barcelona, I am tremendously excited about the learning, surprises and generative possibilities I anticipate will unfold through the three days. My faith in this stems from warm, inspiring conversations I’ve already had with the likes of Rituu B. Nanda from India, a Constellation member and world class connector as well as Constellation cofounder and great visionary Jean-Louis Lamboray of Belgium.
— More to Come!
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