It is an exciting time for the community development field. In 2023, the Community Development Society revised the Community Development Principles of Good Practice for just the second time since they were initially adopted in 1985. CDS made these changes to better reflect the changing nature of how we approach the community development process (including co-learning, collaboration, community-driven practice, community power, and dignity with diversity) and the outcomes we strive to achieve (economic autonomy, social justice, and sustainability). The new principles provide a framework for evaluating our work and a language for how we learn from each other at a time when there are many challenges and opportunities in community development.

Building on the updated Community Development Principles of Good Practice, the theme of the  2024 Annual Conference of the Community Development Society is, Creating Capacity for Resilient Communities. The conference focus offers participants an exciting opportunity to explore the broader impact of our work on communities and the steps they are taking to secure their futures. In this context, resilience, acknowledges and seeks to address:

1) Climate change and environmental disruption – the challenges posed by environmental changes due to climate change and other environmental disruptions that threaten the physical wellbeing of a community;

2)  Changing economic conditions – the economic conditions that present challenges to communities in terms of meeting basic needs and providing opportunities for people to grow and develop;

3)  Social Systems – the social systems in place that help make sense of what is happening around us, shape decisions based on a sound understanding of the choices available, and generate broad-based support for collective action in an increasingly polarized world.

The Creating Capacity for Resilient Communities conference theme offers participants a unique form to investigate and discover the role of community development in the work of communities as they strive to address these and related challenges in community development. Community developers from all walks of life grapple with these local challenges and leverage local opportunities in a myriad of ways. Concurrent sessions will include academic paper presentations, program and project presentations, storytelling circles, and roundtables from activists, practitioners, and scholars.