Our Approach
A countercultural movement
WEvolution emerged during a time when community development was evolving, and we embraced an approach rooted in possibility and potential. From the beginning, we focused on the strengths, creativity and resourcefulness already present within people and their communities.
Our Self-Reliant Groups (SRGs), later known as Small, Powerful Groups (SPGs), grew from this belief. The model championed the idea that sustainable change thrives when individuals come together, support one another and build from their own collective power. It celebrated what communities could create for themselves—entrepreneurship, connection, confidence and meaningful opportunities—when given the space and trust to lead the way.
Asset-Based at Our Core
At WEvolution, we believed:
People were not problems to be solved. Every individual brought valuable skills, experiences, and insights to their community.
Communities already possessed what they needed. Our role was to help unlock and mobilize these existing resources.
Economic empowerment mattered. Beyond social connection, SPGs focused on building financial independence through collective enterprise. At the time most organisations focused only on the social. We knew it needed to be both/and. Not the social without the economic. And not the economic without the social.
Relationships of equality transformed communities. We met people as equals, not as beneficiaries or service users.
Our approach respected the whole person and their environment, recognising that people responded to environments, not just strategies or processes.
From Gatekeepers to Nurturers
Over time, many people working in communities recognised the importance of shifting from controlling structures to more enabling ones. Within this wider evolution, WEvolution embraced the role of the Nurturer — creating the conditions in which people could explore ideas, build trust and take the lead in shaping their own futures.
Nurturers focused on encouragement rather than direction. They offered support without prescribing solutions and created space for communities to grow in ways that felt authentic to them. This approach reflected a deep belief in people’s capacity to steer their own development, and it became one of the defining qualities of WEvolution’s work.
The Carefronting Approach
Our work moved beyond traditional models of engagement:
Beyond Preaching: We didn't lecture communities about what they should do.
Beyond Encouraging: We didn't simply cheer from the sidelines.
Toward Carefronting: We engaged in honest, direct, and sometimes challenging conversations that pushed members toward their goals.
Carefronting combined care with confrontation—it was about caring enough to have difficult conversations that led to real growth and change.
The Challenge and the Promise
We recognised that this way of working challenged deeply entrenched systems and mindsets. It asked organisations to give up control. It required communities to take up responsibility. It demanded patience as true change often developed slowly.
But the promise was profound: communities that solved their own problems, individuals who discovered their own power, and a legacy of change that will continue long after WEvolution's direct involvement ends.
