2026 CDS Annual Conference

This session is geared towards networking opportunities among our CDS members.CDS believes it is essential to highlight the diversity that exists within the membership and cater to the unique needs of international members. The International Connections Session is a unique networking opportunity designed to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration between US-based and International members.

Various topics of interest will be highlighted, among which will include the re-establishment of the CDS International Chapter, a subcommittee of the Membership Committee dedicated to:

• Fostering exchange between local and international members.
• Furthering the development of CDS as a globally minded organization.
• Ensuring that community development is approached from a globally learned perspective by all CDS members in their respective communities.
  
  

CDS will be seeking to determine the interest of members that would like to participate in the International Chapter, creating opportunities for practitioners and researchers alike to meet virtually and assist one another with ongoing projects and challenges beyond the conference.

This presentation explores how rural communities proactively build cross-sector partnerships—government entities, businesses, education, and civic groups—to achieve shared goals before federal funding opportunities arise. Using a broadband planning initiative in Shannon and Carter counties as a case study, we highlight a structured process combining community engagement, data-driven research, and technical guidance. Stakeholder teams collaborated with ISPs and public officials to create actionable strategies, secure support, and initiate infrastructure upgrades. The project demonstrates that proactive planning approaches and cross-sector collaboration positions communities to act decisively, ensuring readiness for investment and achievable digital accessibility.

The Blandin Community Learning Network fostered leadership and network development in eight small, rural communities. Offering structured activities for leaders to increase their capacity to learn together, both internally and across communities, and to take action toward stronger communities. This 12+ month program is an example of how using an asset-based approach centered around the Community Capitals Framework and aligned with many of the CDS Principles of Good Practice, can build the capacity of rural leaders to leverage existing strengths for community change and capacity building. 


We invite you to hear our story about the Blandin Community Learning Network, a program designed to invite community leaders to come together to learn, dream, and take action. The program is a unique model intended to foster leadership and network development both within and across communities using an asset-based approach. 


Structured in three interconnected phases, the program used the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) as its core foundation. Launched in October 2024, the first phase of the program focused on participants identifying their existing community assets and engaging in conversations that challenged thinking about what’s possible. 


Over the next five months, leaders from eight communities took part in online learning group sessions (Phase 2) focused on cultural, human, political and social capitals where they continued to explore assets in their communities and build connections with people within and across their communities. This led to the Phase 3 of the program which incorporated Strategic DoingTM where everyone explored ways to use assets to ‘spiral up’ areas in communities where they could navigate change together.


We’ll share how we scaffolded the program using the CDS Principles of Good Practice to motivate and challenge people, and invited reflective practice. We’ll illustrate how participants developed a transformation mindset by leveraging existing strengths and resources. Finally, we’ll provide insights into maximizing community driven practice by facilitating learning within communities to support ongoing growth and action for a collective future. 

Engage in learning how the Savannah Plan of 1733 developed by James Oglethorpe aligned with CDS Principles of Practice Framework. The presentation will focus on how the good principles of practice have been enhanced as Savannah evolved through growth and change into a modern era while preserving its historical roots. 

Sir Patrick Geddes, the “grandfather of modern planning,” believed communities evolve like living organisms—shaped by culture, economy, and environment. While teaching in Scotland, I explored Geddes’ holistic approach, which anticipated today’s practices in placemaking, citizen participation, economic development, sustainability, land use planning, and historic preservation. His emphasis on collaboration, cultural vitality, and hands-on engagement resonates today. Geddes taught us to work with the natural energy of communities, bridging divides and balancing preservation with progress. This session reintroduces Geddes’ timeless ideas and invites discussion on what we can learn from them today.

Local governance is executed in a diverse range of settings, from formal councils to informal settings in the voluntary and private sectors. Determining action in these settings, however, requires discussion and debate before decisions are taken and executed. Using discourse analysis, this paper analyzes citizen-populated committees of council in an Ontario municipality to highlight the conversational strategies used to reach decisions. Up to now, the large body of governance literature has typically focused on how we ought to reach decisions rather than how we actually do reach them. Understanding existing practice points to more effective strategies for collective decision making.

This panel brings together panelists from a local nonprofit recovery organization, state and local governments, higher education institutions, businesses, and community organizations to support recovery for those with substance abuse disorder. These partnerships and programs seek to support individuals in recovery while also building and strengthening ties to community and support networks.


Panel Presentations:
DFCS Family Support 
Discussion of work with Georgia Department of Family and Children Services to support families in recovery that interact with the system.
Peer Support for Incarcerated Individuals
Discussion of Peer Support services in the local jail for those seeking help for recovery.
Center for Addiction Recovery
Discussion of partnership with Georgia Southern University’s Center for Addiction Recovery which provides support for students in recovery as well as research and training on issues related to addiction and recovery.

In Western societies, contemplative practice is often considered an individual endeavor; however, throughout human history, contemplative practices—activities and rituals that nurture inner awareness and reflexivity have also been employed in the service of community connection and resilience. Moreover, these practices and rituals have had deep historical roots across diverse cultural traditions and have the potential to inform contemporary approaches to community development, particularly through the arts. For instance, in Hawaiian culture, practices such as hula and oli (chants) serve as contemplative acts that connect participants to ancestral knowledge, communal identity, and environmental awareness, fostering cohesion and shared meaning. Appalachian communities have historically used contemplative folk arts—storytelling, music, and quilting—as means of reflection, resilience, and intergenerational transmission of values, supporting both personal and collective well-being. African American contemplative traditions, including spirituals, gospel music, drumming, and call-and-response rituals, have long functioned as mediums for the collective processing of grief and trauma, fostering social solidarity, and cultivating communal empowerment. In addition to the Christian monastic contemplative practices rooted in medieval Scottish history and in historical Gaelic/Celtic daily blessings and devotional practices, folk rituals such as saining and caim open collective contemplative spaces deeply rooted in place, material culture, and embodied presence.
 
Envisaged as community development practice, these practices have the potential to nurture collective compassion, calmness, and creativity in the service of community wholeness. This paper provides visceral examples of how communities across cultures employ contemplative practices in response to natural disasters, political and economic challenges, and overall divisiveness within communities.  The paper is intended to stimulate healthier deliberation and debate about the use of contemplative practices in community development. 

This paper is a declaration for leaders to engage in ongoing and edifying activism in the form of Indigenous advocacy. Due to the unjust generational trauma of Indigenous peoples, this work promotes Indigenous authorship, participation, and empowerment, specifically in negotiated land agreements, commonly known as Impact Benefit Agreements (IBAs). Red Pine Economic Development Corporation (EDC) (pseudonym), a for-profit Indigenous organization owned by Red Pine First Nation, holds two IBAs that lack Indigenous participation, voice, and culture. To address this omission, this paper provides direction to Red Pine EDC to redraft a more fulsome cultural chapter of the IBA, involving Indigenous leadership in the form of an Indigenous-led Advisory Council (IAC). The cultural chapter will be a culmination of Indigenous sovereignty practices, language reclamation, and decolonization methodologies. 


This paper focuses on historic preservation connecting the past and future of Indigenous peoples by discussing the discriminatory history of Indigenous peoples in Canada and encouraging reconciliation, which is not a “one-size-fits all” solution to colonial trauma; rather, it is a practice that is unique to each nation (Peters, 2019). This paper directly relates to the theme “Community Currents: Navigating Change Together”, as this work focuses on the needs of Red Pine First Nation members. Community development as highlighted in the conference theme, is achieved when different forces converge. This principle is echoed in this paper as it calls for decolonization practices in resource extraction industries, such as mining corporations, a traditional capitalistic environment in which decolonization has not been prioritized. It amplifies Indigenous voices and promotes the peaceful and activist work among leaders from polarizing backgrounds; First Nations and mining corporations, to achieve reconciliation. Specifically, this work relates to the conference sub-theme “Harnessing Cultural Energy” which highlights the important role cultural traditions such as storytelling play in promoting unconventional partnerships to propel communities forward. This work utilizes storytelling as an evaluation tool which aligns with TribalCrit tenet number 8 which states: “Stories are not separate from theory; they make up theory and are, therefore, real and legitimate sources of data and ways of being” (Brayboy, 2005, p. 430).  Ultimately, this paper promotes decolonization and reconciliation practices between First Nation communities and industry partners in a manner that situates Indigenous cultural needs at the forefront. 

This qualitative study, as part of a larger mixed-methods study, explored the manifestations of community leadership structures –capacity for change, community growth mindset, civic engagement, and effective local leadership– and the differences in these manifestations between communities with a record of leadership success and their matched counterparts. Findings showed that a community's leadership system is highly complex and multidimensional, extending beyond individual leaders. Differences in the system between the two community types were also evident, especially in the type of community mindset, resilience to negativity, portrayal of a united front, and bringing diverse voices together.