About us

Community Praxis is a worker’s co-operative that provides the collaborative infrastructure for members, friends and colleagues to earn an income by forming self-managed teams for project, consultancy and training work. We will consider any work for which we can bring together a team with appropriate skills and experience, in which there is an opportunity to contribute towards building more peaceful, just and sustainable communities.

As a result of our work all of us in Community Praxis Co-op hope to contribute to the reduction of exploitative competition; the expansion of productive collaboration; the celebration of the unique gifts of all people, especially those on the edge; and the equitable utilisation of our common resources.

The Co-op seeks to practice traditional co-operative principles, encouraging the development of acceptance and respect, spirituality and compassion, solidarity and participation, responsibility and competence in the individuals, neighbourhoods and organisations with whom we work.

Our current members are:

Dave Andrews

Dave, his wife Ange and their family, have lived and worked in intentional communities with marginalised groups of people in Australia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal and for more than forty years. Dave and Ange together with their friends started Aashiana, Sahara, Sharan and Sahasee – four well-known community organisations working with slum dwellers, sex workers, drug addicts, and people with HIV/AIDS in India. They are currently a part of the Waiters Union, an inner city community network working alongside Aborigines, refugees and people with disabilities in Australia.

Dave is interested in intentional community, interfaith engagement  and the dynamics of personal and social transformation. He is author of many books and articles, including 'Not Religion, But Love', 'Building A Better World', ‘Down Under – In-Depth Community Work’ and ‘Living Community’  Dave is an educator at large for TEAR Australia, an aid and development agency, and a trainer for the Praxis Community Co-operative.

Neil Barringham

Neil is a community worker who has worked with others in his home and neighborhood to facilitate inclusion and community supports. As an inclusion worker with “A Place to Belong” (Anglicare Southern Queensland) in Brisbane, Neil also enjoys interacting with passionate people in the mental health and disability fields about ways to build community-based supports and opportunities for participation. Neil has postgraduate qualifications in community development and social work.

Deanna Borland-Sentinella

Deanna comes to community development through the framework of using creative practice to engage, share stories and create authentic connections between individuals. Deanna is interested in how to facilitate spaces that practice embodying the communities we want to create. She has worked in Brisbane, England, Brazil and Timor-Leste drawing on Applied Theatre forms as a way for communities to imagine new possibilities and rehearse for change. Currently completing a PhD on this topic, Deanna has also co-developed learning programs and taught into university programs at Griffith, QUT and UQ, at undergraduate and Masters levels.

Howard Buckley

Howard has been Manager of Deception Bay Community Youth Programs since 2009. His work experiences include six years as a Social Planner with Caboolture Shire Council and over 25 years of work in the community sector.  His work with the Co-op includes a passion for community development training and he loves facilitating the Building Better Communities courses. For the last 28 years he has lived in Maleny with his partner and children, and played a major voluntary role in establishing and developing the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre. Howard loves bush walking, camping, and is a passionate supporter of the Richmond Football Club (2017 left a big smile on his face). He enjoys the humour of Leunig & The Far Side and is a Monty Python tragic. 

Gerard Dowling

Gerard was born in North Queensland, a descendent of Irish-English folk who came looking for gold in the 1870's and ended up scratching for tin and wrangling packhorses in the bush. Since 1987 he has lived in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End, where he has shared a home with Lyn, raised Ciaron and Jack, and (much to his surprise) fulfilled Ciaron’s naïve childhood dream of growing a rainforest in the backyard of a humble rented cottage on a little sixteen perch block.

He's done 20 years in various community development roles, including housing work with the Tenants’ Union, prisons work with the Catholics, and collaborative community planning consultancies with Community Praxis Co-op. His work beyond praxis includes organising youth projects for Brisbane City Council, where he explored creative ways to engage young people in youth space, urban design, multicultural community, sustainability, active travel, social enterprise, and e-citizenship - with a great crew of young and young-at-heart colleagues in an innovative local government context.

PJ Humphreys

​PJ lives and works on the south side of Brisbane involved in supporting a wide variety of community led projects in her community development role with Community Plus+ and also as an active citizen in her own neighbourhood. PJ has a Masters in Development Practice and has worked in the community sector for fifteen plus years in disability, Indigenous communities and in community organising to build collective power to create positive social change. PJ has also combined her love of travelling with international volunteering in Kenya. PJ is passionate about harnessing community energy to act together that is cooperative and collaborative. PJ enjoys good coffee, hiking, camping, travelling and quiet time to read, reflect and meditate.

Em James

Em is a community trainer and development worker on Brisbane’s southside. Having worked with local people to establish and coordinate new community centres around Brisbane, Em is passionate about co-creating welcoming spaces where people can connect across difference. Recently awarded a scholarship to complete an MBA in Social Impact, Em is also currently working at Griffith as a researcher and sessional educator in Community Development and Group Facilitation. Adventures, creative projects and a good idea are some of Em's favourite things.

Tina Lathouras

Tina lives in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland and is currently a lecturer in the Social Work program at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She teaches courses in Community Development and Social Action; and Critical Social Policy Analysis.  Tina has had a long-term career in the social service sector in the fields of disability services, community development in neighbourhood centres and sector development with peak bodies.  Her recent PhD research explored the structural dimensions of community development practice.  Currently, she is engaged in participatory action-research projects exploring community development practice that is making micro-macro connections and working towards structural change; and citizen-led social movements that are working for social justice and human rights.   

Christel Palmer

Christel has been involved in community and human service work in varying forms for the last 15 years. After doing a short course in community development in India in 2008, Christel moved to West End and became involved in the Waiter's Union - seeking a way that communities could meet their own needs and be more inclusive. Christel's curiosity led her to study a Postgraduate Certificate in Community Development at UQ and to work as a CD worker in a neighbourhood centre for three years. Christel is passionate about building more inclusive and connected communities, valuing those most marginalized, and encompassing the whole earth community. Christel is currently engaged in various pieces of project work around Brisbane.

Lynda Shevellar

Lynda Shevellar is influenced by 25 years of experience and study in community development, the disability sector, education, and psychology. Her work focuses upon personal agency, organisational culture, social structures, and the interplay of these dynamics in the rich space of community organisations. Lynda has worked in the public sector, and the community sector, and is currently located in tertiary education, as a lecturer in Community Development within the School of Social Science at The University of Queensland, Australia. In addition to her work in community with Community Praxis Co-op she also volunteers for a local mental health network, A Place to Belong. Lynda has published in community development, mental health, disability, education, social work, occupational therapy and social policy journals. Her less horrific poetry appears in Antipodes: A North American Journal of Australian Literature.

Peter Westoby

Peter Westoby originally hails from the UK but now loves living in Yeronga, Brisbane, Australia. He is currently an Associate Professor in Community Development/Social Science within the School of Public Health & Social Work at Queensland University of Technology, Australia and a Visiting Professor with the Centre for Development Support, University of Free State, South Africa. Peter’s experience includes over 28 years of development practice work in South Africa, Uganda, PNG, the Philippines, Vanuatu and Australia. He is also the author of several books including Theorising the practice of community development – a South African perspective (2014), The Sociality of Refugee Healing (2009), Theory and Practice of Dialogical Community Development: International Perspectives (2013) with Gerard Dowling, and Learning & Mobilising for Community Development (2012) with Lynda Shevellar  In his spare time Peter also loves drinking good coffee, hanging out in his local bookshop Avid Reader, travelling to remote parts of the planet and bush walking.