Seventythree Foundation is part of an evolving web of organisations that includes local and indigenous communities, associations, civil society groups, networks, and other partners. This web of organisations represents different values, perspectives and objectives but share a commitment to mutual respect, and the rejection of all forms of domination and violence. We are united by a desire to create liveable, viable and just societies that can exist in balance with nature, and at peace with themselves and their neighbours.
The Seventythree Foundation Partnership Charter
While being informed by science and engaged with academia, our work with our civil society partners is ultimately about attitude and practice, building relationships and trust, and seeking to unlock local agency, ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness. Our work is rooted in the local context, grappling with the real and immediate questions of survival, rather than in theory or ideology.
Our collaboration is non-interventionist. We have no desire to manage local affairs and people, or their environment and resources on their behalf. We cooperate on the basis of equal partnerships through free agreements based on the principles of self-organisation, voluntary association and mutual aid.
We respect how our partners wish to show up and how they wish to be as communities and civil society organisations. Each organisation constitutes itself, and sets its own objectives and rules. We do not hold our partners up against an image of where we would like them to be; rather, we support them in defining their own destinations, and in writing their own histories.
Our collaboration is guided by the practice of ethnography and anthropology. Our partners know their contexts best and what best works for them. As companions in dialogue, we work with our partners to tease out and reflect on the logic that underlies their actions and situations; and we seek their counsel, too, in understanding our own purpose and practice.
This includes the ways in which we make sense of our habits and actions as individuals and collectives, and the ways in which the inner factors that we may not be fully aware of, such as intergenerational trauma, get in the way of our ability to be better than we are now.
As such, we aspire to nurture an open and adaptive structure to support, connect and expand locally-led development, without expectation to agree on everything and without the need to challenge the fundamental beliefs of others. This frees us to focus our efforts on identifying issues where we can help and reinforce each other, through regular reflection and feedback.
How we support our partners
Learning from our experience over the past ten years, our aspiration as Seventythree Foundation is to serve as an enabling network of support, so that our civil society partners might continue to grow and flourish in service to communities.
The support we offer takes specific account of the legacy of top-down development that has left people feeling powerless, and that has severed their connection to place and community. Tackling this legacy does not happen overnight. It is a slow, iterative process demanding method and a strong ethical grounding.
Working in partnership with the Training for Transformation in Practice network based in South Africa, Seventythree Foundation offer our Indonesian partners periodic skills training in the use of popular education methods, and in the design and facilitation of community dialogue. The aim is to enhance our partners’ capacity to build sustainable, community organisations capable of leading their own development.
We also support our partners’ organisational development through period mentoring, supported by some of our global partners such as the Centre for Human Ecology in Scotland, and Deep Wellness in South Africa.
Drawing on approaches such as psychodynamics, mentoring sessions nurture the skills and qualities needed to hold their organisations as and in solidarity with communities. We equip our partners with simple ways to help navigate the complex trauma that often affects communities and gets in the way of their ability to work with each other and organise.
We respect the fact that faith is fundamental to many of our partners and so we make room in our conversations to explore the spiritual and ethical underpinnings of work in the community. This includes conversations that reconcile religious and indigenous perspectives on nature, and on questions of servant leadership.
We are working to link our partners to equivalent community and civil society networks, globally, where these offer opportunities for skills development; as well as for the exchange of skills and experience in community organising and movement building such as with, among others, the community land trust movement in Scotland.
Next: Community guardianship
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