Innovative
Resources - A Brief History
Innovative Resources emerged as the publishing initiative of
St Luke's Anglicare in 1992 after St
Luke's produced the now famous Strength Cards
for its own workers. The Strength
Cards had been developed as a tool to help
clients recognise and use their strengths to find solutions
to their problems. To the surprise and delight of those involved,
there was significant demand for the cards generated by other
human service workers. The success of Strength Cards
even led to their creator, Russell Deal, being awarded the Anita
Moranetz Scholarship from Melbourne University for innovation
in family therapy research.
Soon St Luke's created several other sets of materials and realised
they had stumbled onto a successful publishing formula. This
discovery led St Luke's to establish Innovative Resources as
a separate publisher of materials, and provider of training.
Innovative
Resources originally intended to create social work tools, but
the spectrum of products rapidly broadened in response to demands
from other professional domains such as education, management
and governance. As we were increasingly recognised for our capacity
to independently create materials with the potential to transform
lives, we began to receive numerous unsolicited manuscripts.
Our publishing vision has thus ventured down some fascinating
paths as we have endeavoured to publish edgy, pioneering materials
that mainstream publishers may be unlikely to tackle.
Innovative
Resources is a not-for-profit enterprise. We contract with a
network of talented writers and graphic artists and, wherever
possible, use local printers. Where possible, we also source
recycled and environmentally-friendly materials.
We
now sell our books and resources worldwide, and a number of
the products have been translated into Swedish, Japanese and
Finnish. We have a number of major
retailers around the world. As for those original
Strength Cards, we have now sold over 17,000 packs
and they continue to be one of our most popular products!
St Luke's
St
Luke's was established in 1979 to resource and strengthen families
throughout north central Victoria. Since then it has grown significantly;
diversifying its services, extending its geographical coverage
and becoming independently incorporated.
St
Luke's remains an active member of Anglicare
Australia, the national network of community service
organisations that are auspiced by the Anglican Church. The
agency has also maintained its distinctive strengths-based
approach to service delivery. This strengths-based philosophy
has led St Luke's to become a passionate believer in the need
for community development programs which are driven by the community.
At the heart of this approach is the understanding that people
are their own best experts on their lives and that each person
has strengths they can uncover and develop.
In
addition to service delivery, St Luke's attempts to translate
its experience of working with disadvantaged individuals and
families into social policy reform at local, state, national
and international levels. The organisation contributes to social
policy through its networks, advocacy and research activities.
All staff members are also encouraged to participate in peak
organisations, policy debate and social action. One of the hallmarks
of St Luke's has been the willingness of both its board and
staff to think beyond traditional 'paternalistic' approaches
to service provision.
St Luke's has retained its commitment to strengthening families
and continues to provide a range of child and family services
from the strengths-based philosophy it pioneered. St Luke's
motto is: Respect, Hope, Fairness.
The
role of Innovative Resources as a publisher complements and
supplements St Luke's in a unique way.
Click
here to visit St Luke's website.
Our Principles
Our
resources work as reminders of things that are important - our
strengths, self-esteem, values, relationships and the ways we
learn and grow.
Innovative
Resources' original charter was to publish ideas that grew out
of, or were inspired by, St Luke's strengths-based
approach to service delivery and leadership. This mission continues
to be a feature of our work. However, these day Innovative Resources
will also publish products deemed to be in sympathy with St
Luke's strength-based focus.
During
the process of publishing a new tool or product there are a
range of questions we ask. For example, is the item consistent
with multiple and evolving concepts of strengths-based practice?
Does it build citizenship, fairness and social justice? Does
it reflect and build creativity, curiosity, respect, passion
and imagination? Is it culturally relevant to Australia , or
will it be culturally relevant at an international level?
Here
at Innovative Resources, seeing beauty and offering it to others
is, for us, a priority in our work. So, too, is linking materials
for personal change and growth to a vision of a more fair and
just society. Our humble attempt at publishing attractive materials
that can help re-story fractured lives is in many ways a profoundly
spiritual journey. As activism can provide purpose for our creativity,
so creativity can provide resilience for our activism.
'Skill
is not the answer, neither is money. What you need is optimism,
humanism, enthusiasm, intuition, curiosity, love, humour, magic
and fun and that secret ingredient-euphoria.'
Anita
Roddick, Founder of the Body Shop
Want
to find out more?
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The Tools Manifesto
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Staff Profiles
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Key terms that we use
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The Serious Optimist
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