Our team
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.
The Co-op is made up of Directors and Members. Our current active social practitioner members are:
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.
The Co-op is made up of Directors and Members. Our current active social practitioner members are:
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Howard Buckley - Senior Social Practitioner/DirectorHoward Buckley, who is currently a director and senior practitioner with Community Praxis Co-operative; a part-time community development worker with the Sunshine Coast Coalition of Community Boards; and has had long-term experience as Manager of Deception Bay Community Youth Programs. His work experience includes six years as a Social Planner with Caboolture Shire Council and 35 years of work in the community sector. His work with Community Praxis Co-op includes a passion for community development training and facilitating the Building Better Communities courses to activate citizenship and community sustainability. He has had many years of experience in paid professional roles and also volunteering in community work and sitting on management committees, his most enduring as being one of the founders of the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre.
After more than 30 years living in Maleny Howard recently moved to Caloundra with his partner to be closer to his two young grandchildren and is so pleased being their Poppy. Howard loves bushwalking and camping, being near the beach and pretty well any outdoor activity with his family and friends. He is a passionate Richmond supporter and is still relishing in the 2017, 19 and 20 premierships! Peter Westoby - Senior Social Practitioner/DirectorPeter is a highly sought-after thought-leader in community and social change work. Combining a long history of domestic and international practice, along with a rich academic life, Peter brings practice wisdom and rigour to organisational efforts and effectiveness.
Peter has worked in youth, community and organisation development for 30+ years, within places such as South Africa, Uganda, Vanuatu, PNG, Nepal the Philippines and Australia. He has published 15 books, and 60+ professional journal articles, his most well known being monographs such as Dialogical Community Development (2013), Soul, Community and Social Change (2016), and The Sociality of Refugee Healing (2009). Peter's work is informed by reflective social practice, story, and theory. He has a love of both critical theory as a way of reflecting on the forces that shape the world and our work, and also phenomenological inquiry, ensuring embodied consciousness is foregrounded in practice, learning and research. Peter is currently:
Rachael Donovan - Senior Social Practitioner/DirectorRachael Donovan is a community development practitioner, educator, researcher and writer with more than twenty years’ experience working across Australia and South Asia. Her work has spanned grassroots community development, international development, environmental sustainability, social justice, government and systems change, with a particular focus on participatory and people-led approaches to social change.
She has spent significant periods working alongside grassroots organisations in India and Nepal, as well as working with communities in remote Australia. Her practice is grounded in participatory and Freirean traditions and shaped by a strong belief in dialogue, relationships, lived experience and collective learning as foundations for social change. She sees community development as incorporating both the social and the ecological, and supports this through facilitating nature connection processes that create space for slowing down, reflection, embodied awareness, and deeper connection with self, others and the more-than-human world. This includes nature connection workshops, soul quests and other forms of guided practice in nature. Rachael is a Director and Senior Social Practitioner with Community Praxis Co-operative, where she works across community development, facilitation, research and practitioner education. She is also a co-author of two books published by Practical Action Publishing: The Community Builder’s Journal and Transformative Community Development: Learning from Freirean and Humanist Praxis in Nepal. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of the Sunshine Coast, exploring practitioner interiority: how our histories, identities, embodied experiences and ways of being shape how we practise community development, and how attending to this interior terrain might deepen our capacity for social and ecological change. Natasha Odgers - Social Practitioner/MemberNatasha builds webs of connections with people with purpose, passion and compassion. Through her work in community development across Glasshouse Country (Sunshine Coast) over the last 14 years, her breadth of knowledge, skills and relationships has co-created positive changes in organisational and individual growth. Natasha’s work has ranged from forming structures and community connectivity across 6 townships, to localised collective action, to the establishment of the Glasshouse Country Disaster Management Network.
Natasha works strategically to strengthen community connection and collaboration locally (horizontally) and to work towards structural change with authorities and stakeholders (vertically). Natasha is also the Disaster Resilience Lead with Neighbourhood Centres Queensland and takes a developmental approach working with Neighbourhood Centres, state government and other stakeholders. Other work includes:
Natasha is inspired by what differences can be made in communities when people come together with a shared purpose. Micah Lean - Social Practitioner/Member Micah is passionate about people and place, highly influenced by practices of hospitality, kindness and social action. Micah has studied and trained in community development and has particular interest in grassroots community building initiatives.
Micah has been involved in many projects and initiatives in his local area including working in participatory processes to form the Redcliffe Repair Cafe, the Redcliffe Neighbourhood Centre community garden, the Moreton Bay Eco Fest event and many other initiatives and action groups. Micah has worked for the past 7 years in community development roles at his local Neighbourhood Centre and the City of Moreton Bay. Micah currently works for Neighbourhood Centres Queensland on a statewide disaster resilience project. Micah is also currently on the teaching team for two community development subjects at the University of Sunshine Coast – Moreton Bay campus. Micah lives in Deception Bay on Kabi Kabi/ Gubbi Gubbi country and loves bushwalking, gardening and a good plate of food shared with friends. Lisa Price - Social Practitioner/Member
For the past 40 years Lisa has practiced social work and community development in a variety of settings including government and community organisations. While work in domestic and family violence, youth development, human services and emergency management have both challenged and provided Lisa with valuable insights, her love has been neighbourhood centres. She has worked in a number of neighbourhood centres in Goodna, Hervey Bay and the Sunshine Coast. Neighbourhood centres are well-placed to be able to connect with people and mobilise around concerns. Lisa has seen many examples of this work and continues to be inspired by the energy and enthusiasm that comes from the people doing it for themselves.
Lisa has a number of "dear heart" connections and moments these days through her close relationship with her ageing mum, Adrienne and her 3 young grandchildren, Amir, Ezra and Calico. Lisa lives close to the ocean and loves nothing more than walking at sunrise and admiring the colours of the sky at sunset. Joelle Philippa - Social Practitioner/Member
Joelle is a community development worker at a neighbourhood centre on the Sunshine Coast, where she brings warmth and deep listening to every conversation she hosts. Guided by compassion and kindness, she finds joy in working with small groups to support meaningful and sustainable change. A creative at heart, Joelle delights in all things craft and has a deep, enduring love for animals. |