With a foreword by Anthony Kelly

Designed as a yearlong guided workbook, The Community Builder’s Journal invites you to experiment with building community in your street, neighbourhood, workplace, or wherever life places you. Part reflective journal, part practical guide, this book offers weekly ideas, stories, questions, and invitations to try something new. Organised into twelve monthly themes, it supports a year-long rhythm of deepening awareness and purposeful action.

You’ll explore how to build small groups, sustain collective energy, and respond to conflict. You’ll reflect on what gets in the way, be it personal doubt, social fear, or structural barriers, and find grounded ways forward. Through diverse lenses - including social, economic, cultural, ecological, and political - you’ll reimagine what’s possible in the places and communities you care about.

Whether used on your own, in a small group, or within a broader community of practice, this journal offers not just ideas, but encouragement to live them. Plus, each month includes a recipe from the Nundah Community Enterprise Cooperative—a small reminder that community is also made around shared tables.

'The Community Builder’s Journal offers a year of weekly reflections and experiments to help readers strengthen the ties that make communities thrive. Each entry blends story, practice and a shared recipe, turning everyday acts of care into opportunities for connection. Practical and hopeful, it’s a resource for communities that want to grow more collaborative, creative and compassionate.'
Andrew Leigh MP, Assistant Minister for Charities and co-author of 'Reconnected: A Community Builder’s Handbook'

'The Community Builder’s Journal is a powerful catalyst for reimagining our connections, inviting us to embrace the transformative potential of community development and place conscious pedagogy. With its thoughtful prompts and practical guidance, it enables us to cultivate belonging in every corner of our lives and local places.'
Cormac Russell, co-author of 'The Connected Community and author of Rekindling Democracy'

'We all know that humans are social creatures who need groups and communities of all kinds – especially local communities – to nurture and sustain us, and to give us that all-important sense of belonging that is so fundamental to our mental and emotional health. And yet, we are suffering epidemics of loneliness, anxiety and depression fuelled by social fragmentation and isolation. What’s to be done? With the publication of The Community Builder’s Journal we now have a solution.
Wise, sane and realistic, this book is a treasure-trove of intensely practical advice for community-building, based on the authors’ rich experience.
If you want to be part of a quiet revolution that will improve the mental and emotional health of the nation, start local … and start with this book.'
Hugh Mackay, social psychologist and author

'The Community Builder’s Journal is an extraordinary weaving of wisdom, practice, and heart. It honours the deep knowing that true community building is as much about connection and care as it is about method and action. Through stories of lived experience and grounded reflection, this book invites us to pause, listen, and remember what really matters; our shared humanity and the strength that comes from working together. As someone who has walked alongside communities and facilitators around the world, I’m inspired by how this collection embodies the spirit of possibility and reminds us that when we build with, not for, we create lasting change. Used as a daily reflection tool throughout the year, it gently guides readers into deeper thought, meaningful action, and an ever-growing sense of what’s possible when we nurture community from the heart and yes, the cookies and the hummus will help.'
Dee Brooks, Jeder Institute, Australia; ABCD Institute, Chicago; and participatory community building practitioner

Peter Westoby
Dr Peter Westoby has been involved in development practice for over thirty years, working as a grassroots practitioner, facilitator and scholar in diverse contexts such as Australia, PNG, the Philippines, Vanuatu, India, South Africa and Uganda. He is currently teaches at Murdoch University in Perth, and is a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State, South Africa.

Dave Andrews
Dave Andrews, his wife Ange, and their family have lived and worked in intentional communities with marginalised groups of people in Australia, Afghanistan, India and Nepal for over fifty years. He is an elder emeritus of Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor, and an author of numerous books and articles.

Howard Buckley
Howard Buckley began his journey in community work in the 1980s, honing his skills through voluntary work with young people and refugees in a suburb of Brisbane, and joining with his friends to establish a vocation in community work.

Rachael Donovan
Following studies in social science, community development, and environmental management, Rachael has also worked in community development and advocacy roles that centre lived experience, amplify people’s voices, and influence both local action and public policy. Her passion lies at the intersection of social justice and environmental sustainability, and exploring how healing for individuals, communities, and the planet are deeply interconnected.

Kirsty Leigh
Kirsty Leigh works at Nundah Community Enterprise Co-operative (NCEC) to create meaningful work for people with diverse abilities. She is also the author of recipes inspired by popular dishes created and sold at Nundah Co-operative’s Hospitality Enterprises.

Gerard Dowling
Gerard Dowling studied community development at The University of Queensland and has worked as a professional practitioner in various roles in Brisbane for over thirty years.

Richard Warner
Richard Warner has managed Nundah Community Enterprises Co-operative (NCEC) for fifteen years. He has a passion for meditation and has studied Zen Buddhism for 25 years, recently taking on teaching duties in his local Sangha.