Excellent update Howard, I enjoyed reading it and knowing more about the concept of “Communities of Practice”. Especially, I liked how you mentioned the historical facts about this concept and how it began. I also liked how you enriched your update with your personal experience.

• Samaa Haniya

Howard,

Thanks so much for this detailed update! I especially appreciate the diagram with the circles indicating different levels of participation in a community of practice - I hadn't clarified it like that for myself before.

Personally, I find that I am often in the position of not having too much expertise, but needing to organize and be in one of the inner circles of this diagram to get momentum going for a group, just because not too many people are visibly doing something related. For example, I'm a HS teacher, and I've both survived trauma and worked with many, many kids in all kinds of schools who are living with all sorts of trauma, medical, interpersonal/incident-based, and war- or political-stability related. I've waded into the trauma literature before and I'm fascinated by the neurobio and the implications for education, but it's hard to find teachers deeply interested in incorporating insights from mental health fields directly into their practice.

Anyway, I am starting a brown bag lunch with the head school psychologist at my therapeutic school for any interested staff next year - hopefully it will grow from there! When I have experienced communities of practice, one of the most powerful parts has been the eclectic nature of peoples' training and experiences, how, for example, I as a performance poet and patient have such a different perspective from a medical student from a seasoned psychiatrist or clinical social worker re: experiences of trauma or depression. It can seem like an incredible amount of work sometimes, but totally worth it!

One thing I'm thinking about too - I wonder how online ecologies or systems can help us form communities of practice, and/or how rich of a community one can sustain totally or mostly sharing ideas and resources online. Online, it seems better than nothing, and it seems like it'd add an international accessibility and allow us to bring together a wide range of specialists. But it does seem, to me, like interpersonal dynamics and trust are key in such a community, and that can be hard to build when you don't spend time together face-to-face.

• Jamie Banks