Reminding those with power that we are still here: Reflections on CDS and the International Association for Community Development

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2003, I was honored to become the first British recipient of the Community Development Society’s International Community Development Award. This was presented in light of my work in setting up the new International Association for Community Development (IACD) in 1999 and, in forging the close partnership between IACD and the American Community Development Society (CDS). It marked five decades of my involvement in community development. The article reflects upon those five decades, but especially upon the work of the international association since 1999 and its links with CDS over that period. IACD grew out of two predecessor international networks, the International Society for Community Development (ISCD), and the Association Internationale pour le Développement Communautaire (AICD). I was a board member of AICD and then played the lead role in establishing IACD, serving as its Secretary General and later as President