Communities for Kids: Ideas, Partners, Theory

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Jabiru Kids’ before and after school and holiday programs have always been places that are safe and fun and where children feel as though they belong; where they can participate in organised activities like sport, games, cooking, music, and craft; where there is plenty of free time to play or run; and where there is time for quiet reading or doing homework.

After 20 years in this work, we don’t think the word ‘care’, as in ‘child care’ or ‘Outside School Hours Care’, describes the special magic that we want to contribute to the time children spend with us. We need an idea that value-adds something more, in a way that is always fun and meaningful to each child.

‘Communities for Kids’ is that value-adding idea. With the word ‘community’ as its heartbeat, it describes the fun we have, the ways we get along together, the ways we support and take care of each other, and the ways we involve staff, children, parents, schools, and local communities. It echoes the African proverb popularised by Hilary Clinton – that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’.

Jabiru’s C15 Framework
To help us describe and remember some of the key elements of Communities for Kids, we’ve developed our C15 framework. Each Jabiru Kids community is:

  • CREATIVE because we have imaginations and creativity
  • CONNECTED because we love being together and we are good at it
  • CARING because we care about each other, and about children in other communities
  • CAREFREE because we love to move and feel free in our bodies
  • CURIOUS because we like to understand how things work and why
  • CALM because we can be quiet and still
  • CAREFUL because we take care with our bodies and the food we put into them
  • CAN-DO because we are strong and confident
  • CONSERVING because we look after the Earth and everything in it
  • CRAZY because we love to play and jokes and laughing and fun
  • CAUTIOUS because we stay safe
  • COMMUNICATING because we share information to understand each other
  • COMFORTABLE because we love and look after our spaces and buildings
  • COORDINATED because we are well organised
  • COLOURFUL because we are all different and that’s fantastic.

Theoretically speaking
For those who like to understand the thinking behind things, Communities for Kids is based on theories drawn from the fields of: creativity and holism,1 traditional child care and child development,2 ecological systems theories of spaces and human development,3 community development,4 strengths-based and appreciative frameworks,5 and contemporary management theory.6 The authors and readings footnoted below are just a tiny sample from popular and academic sources of people whose ideas have helped us. It is important that, in addition to our own work and thought in creating Communities for Kids, we acknowledge these people.

  1. David Bohm Unfolding Meaning (1985) On Creativity (1996) and On Dialogue (1996); Peter Senge Presence: Exploring Profound Change in People Organisations and Society (2005); Daniel Pink A Whole New Mind: Moving from the information age to the conceptual age (2005); William Bloom SOULution: The Holistic Manifesto (2004); Colin Peile The Creative Paradigm: Insight, synthesis and knowledge development (1994); Mattie Stepanek Celebrate Through Heartsongs (2002) and (written with Jimmy Carter) Just Peace: A Message of Hope (2004); Ken Wilber Integral Spirituality (2006).
  2. Works and theories of Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Erik Erikson, B.F. Skinner, together with the Queensland Child Care Act and Regulations, and the Quality Assurance Framework of the National Childcare Accreditation Council.
  3. Uri Bronfenbrenner The Ecology of Human Development 1979; Christopher Alexander The Timeless Way of Building (1979) and A Pattern Language (1977).
  4. David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney and Jacqueline Stavros Appreciative Enquiry Handbook for Leaders of Change (2008); Wayne McCashen and Karen Masman The Strengths Approach: A strengths based resource for sharing power and creating change (2005); Ben Furman Kids Skills: Playful and practical solutions-finding with children (2004).
  5. Dave Andrews Compassionate Community Work (2006); Jim Ife and Frank Tesoriero Community Development: Community-based alternatives in an age of globalisation (2006); Susan Kenny Developing Communities for the Future (1994); Anthony Kelly and Sandra Sewell With Head Heart and Hand: Dimensions of Community Building (1988) ; Martin Buber I and Thou (1937)and Between Man and Man(1947); Mohandas K Gandhi The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1929); Paulo Friere Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970).
  6. Peter Senge The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook and The Dance of Change (1999); David Limerick, Bert Cunnington and Frank Crowther Managing the New Organisation: Collaboration and sustainability in the post corporate world (1998); David Korten The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism (1999); Gary Hamel The Future of Management (2007); Stephen Covey Principle Centred Leadership (1990); Fabian Dattner, Jim Grant and Ken Luscombe Three Spirits of Leadership: Seeking the united voice of the entrepreneur, the corporation and the community (1999); Fabian Dattner Naked Truth: An open letter to the Australian working community (1996).