Contents

National Community of Practice; National Disability Services. 1

What are National Committees and National Communities of Practice?. 2

State/Territory Divisional Committees: 2

National Communities of Practice: 2

Why National Disability Services replaced National Committees with National Communities of Practice?. 3

What are State and Territory Communities of Practices?. 3

FAQ.. 4

The more, the merrier! Working collaboratively, as a team, helps to share ideas, expertise, and responsibilities.

Collaborative working is what National Disability Services believes in too. This is why NDS developed National Committees. However, National Committees have now been replaced by National Communities of Practice/s.

What are National Committees and National Communities of Practice?

NDS has developed various forums for its members. These forums helped participants to become involved and offer beneficial input on national issues. It also provides the opportunity to respond to the concerns/interests of members in every state and territory.

The National Committees involved:

State/Territory Divisional Committees:

These committees comprised representatives elected by NDS members in every state/territory.

National Communities of Practice:

Contrarily, these are open to every associated entity like:

NDS members

Support collaborations

Networks with members sharing same the interest

Why National Disability Services replaced National Committees with National Communities of Practice?

National Committees have gotten replaced by the National Communities of Practice for a very obvious reason. That’s because CoP is more inclusive than the National Committees

The National Communities of Practice framework is one of the greatest examples of successful communities of practice. This combines the efforts of more than 1200 NDS members from every disability sector or all states/territories are implementing positive changes.

It doss not only benefits elected representatives like National Committees. NDS CoP promotes collaboration and encourages all members to enjoy the benefits of networking with members with shared interests.

National CoP adds to the State/territory CoP too by helping them fulfill the responsibilities like:

What are State and Territory Communities of Practices?

These are different communities but work in collaboration. Just like National Communities of Practices, various states and territories have communities of practices too. And just like National Communities of Practices, these are also open to all associated entities.

These CoPs offers opportunities to the NDS members in every state and territory to engage in specific areas of interest within specific state and territory. These CoPs encourage and enable local community connections etc. They perform tasks primarily for developing the sectors locally.

The state/territory CoP feeds into and informs discussions in the NDS CoP by offering them local perspectives and knowledge

Similarly to this, the NDS CoPs offer national perspectives, information, and knowledge that State/Territory CoPs use for their benefits.

State/Territory CoPs and National CoPs work in harmony to strengthen collaborative problem-solving and development.

FAQ

In general, Communities of Practice (CoP) are actually a multi-purpose concept. This concept is based on a social learning theory stating that

“Learning in the social context requires the involvement of both participation and reification for making learning meaningful”

If you are an NDS member, you can subscribe to and attend the CoP (communities of practice). Also, you can simply follow the detailed steps written on the member subscription preferences page for indicating your preferences. When you subscribe to it, you will state receiving meeting invitations and information from CoP