Best practices in aboriginal community development

Community Development: A L i terature Review and Wise Pract ices Approach The Challenges of Aboriginal Leaders The most effective contemporary Aboriginal leaders are visionaries, with big dreams for their nations and organizations.(Calliou, 2005-2006) They are a new breed of leaders who are thinkers and doers, committed to life-long learning, and have the best interests of their community at heart [...] Consequently, many of the leaders indicated that leadership development began in childhood with individual and family development.(Ottmann, 2005) The leaders described the need for a First Nations leadership development program that was flexible (able to work in community, tribal, and provincial settings), cognizant of First Nations culture, needs, and issues, and aware of current and innovative l [...] The Centre will do this recording in a variety of ways; through the assembling of a cohort of young Aboriginal people from across Alberta involved in data gathering (including interviewing community members, elders and community leaders) and journaling; through multi-media methods that utilize video, radio, and photography to record sessions and community visits; and through writing. [...] Community Development: A L i terature Review and Wise Pract ices Approach and management; transparency and accountability; and the positive interplay of business and politics.(Loizides and Wuttunee, 2005) In another report on best practices for Aboriginal businesses they set out the following keys to success: purpose; clear corporate vision; winning attitude; using creativity to overcome obstacles [...] Geert Hofstede argues that the failure of much of the international development initiatives of the 60s and 70s was at least partly due to this lack of cultural sensitivity in the transfer of management ideas.(Hofstede, 1980, 1983, 1993) There is a growing skepticism about the universality of best practices and the extent to which those standards can be judged and utilized according to universal le