Communities of Practice (CoP)
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are another form of collaborative practice. They are utilised across a range of sectors – education, government, health and within organisations. They can take place wherever a common interest occurs amongst practitioners.
CoP’s in community development primarily consist of practitioners working together to share information, resources and help to address shared problems. This will occur over an extended period of time (12 months or more) as members continue to learn from each others’ experiences and stories. There is a collective responsibility for learning alongside building rapport.
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.
CoPs may be formally identified as CoPs or may incidentally exist in organisations and communities under another name. Any group of people that regularly work on similar problems together could be considered a CoP.
Some common examples of what people in a CoP might do together include:
Click on the black question marks below for more information
Adapted from Wenger-Trayner (2015)
Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.
– Mattie Stepanek
CoPs promote community development principles of empowering people with information and building the capacity of communities. It is also innately strengths-based, drawing on the skills, knowledge and resources of the community.
Extend Your Learning
Wenger-Trayner have answered a number of Frequently Ask Questions regarding CoPs and Social Learning on their website.
Enjoying the course so far? Buy the course or the full Getting Started in Community Development package.
- Wenger-Trayner, E. & Wenger-Trayner, B. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice: a brief overview of the concept and its uses. Accessed on 08/03/23 at https://www.wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/
The Victorian Academy (State of Victoria) has a range of Community of Practice Resources available to help you get started or check the effectiveness of your current CoP. These are specific to the education sector but principles and templates can be applied across other sectors.
The Centers for Disease Control has an extensive Communities of Practice Resource Kit with guides and templates for starting your own CoP or evaluating a current one. Again, this is specific to the health sector but principles and templates can be applied across other sectors.
