Community Imagination
Webinar with TACSI's Dr Simone Mandl, Aunty Vickey Charles, Tasman Munro and community changemakers, Watch now. 60mins.
This webinar is for community members leading change, people working in community-led initiatives or those consulting with communities and looking to bring greater imagination to the table.
“When we have these sort of skills, tools, ideas; when we're able to use our imagination as a group of people, it is really interesting how accelerated that becomes, and how that tricky word kind of almost disappears, and that the whole idea of change becomes something that's very possible.”
- Cate McQuillen
Join TACSI practitioners Simone Mandl, Tasman Munro and Aunty Vickey Charles with community changemaker Cate McQuillen, to explore practical ways to bring imagination into community work of all kinds.
Together, we discussed:
- The important role that imagination plays in generating community wellbeing, resilience, collaboration and cohesion
- Mindsets to enhance the creativity of community processes
- Practical strategies and activities to take imagination to the next level
And we explored the value of imagination in community work including:
- Stretching sense of possibility to get beyond more of the same
- Expanding the options on the table
- Developing creative responses to constraints
- Deepening participatory engagement
- Broadening the accessibility and desirability of processes
- Building will, momentum and energy for change
Webinar recorded on 6 June 2024 on Gadigal and Gumbaynggirr lands.
About your hosts
Simone Mandl
Principal Regenerative Communities, TACSI
A participatory designer and generative researcher, Simone has over 16 years’ experience working with communities and organisations to create visions for sustainable, equitable futures through fieldwork, co-design and design-led research.
Simone is passionate about re-imagining cultural narratives that enable people to lead, imagine and invest in regenerative futures.
Tasman Munro
Senior Social Innovator, TACSI
Tasman has a background in woodworking and social design practice. In his work he collaborates with communities, through design and creativity, to build social movements, promoting social justice and evolve the social and physical structures that shape our lives.
Tas is known for forming deep connections with communities and is a firm believer in the transformative potential of collaborative making. He is an advocate of using making as a way to understand, connect with, and reshape the world around us.
When he’s not at work, Tasman enjoys woodworking, surfing, hanging with friends and family, and dancing with the arts community in Marrickville.
Aunty Vickey Charles
Aunty in Residence & Cultural Lead, TACSI
Aunty Vickey Charles is an Alawa/Mara woman from the Northern Territory who grew up in Adelaide from the age of 18 months, due to government policy at the time.
She has spent her life raising awareness of Aboriginal Australia through her lived experience and work in government and not-for-profit sectors.
Aunty Vickey has led TACSI on our cultural learning journey, to become a more culturally competent and culturally safe organisation. Her work includes taking new-starters through a cultural induction, developing the Cultural Canvas that ensures TACSI projects begin grounded in the cultural context, and playing a key role in TACSI developing a Reconciliation Action Plan.