Pathways into place-based work

This map shows different ways people contribute to place-based work – individually and collectively. It helps you orient yourself in the work, based on where you are right now. You can start anywhere. Follow what feels familiar, or explore other ways of getting involved. Click a pathway or practice point to explore further.

Don’t know where to start? Visit the landing pages for Collective pathways and Individual pathways to get a sense for the different parts of the map.

Pathways Map - Key

This map shows different ways people contribute to place-based work - individually and collectively - and where those forms of work connect.

Colours

Green - Individual pathways

Red - Collective pathways

Pathways

Each colour contains three pathways.

Pathways represent different ways of contributing, not stages or levels.

Practice points

Each circle represents a practice within a pathway.

Select a highlighted practice point to explore reflections, activities and resources.

You can visit practices in any order and return to them at any time.

Overlaps

The blue highlighted areas show where individual and collective pathways connect.

These highlight shared practices that influence both personal contribution and the wider conditions for place-based work.

Overlaps are shared ground, not additional steps.

How to use the map

There is no start or end.

Begin wherever feels most relevant to you.

Explore one pathway or move between several.

The map is designed for exploration rather than a fixed sequence.

Collective pathways

Strengthening the conditions for place-based work

People contribute to place-based work in many ways – through lived experience, local knowledge, curiosity, relationships and roles grounded in community. Current workforce systems don’t always recognise how this work happens. Formal credentials, compliance requirements and funding structures can move faster than lived or cultural expertise, creating friction for people trying to contribute.

Many people move between individual contribution and work that strengthens the conditions around it. This includes holding relationships, navigating systems and shaping how responses align with place.

Collective pathways do not sit separately from individual contribution. They reflect work people are often already doing – opening pathways for others, sustaining care and influencing how systems respond to place.

These pathways help you build on your contribution from where you are now. They apply across different places and contexts, including rural and remote communities, and support different access needs without assuming a single or linear entry point.

Choose your starting pathway

Sustaining care and connection

For people shaping everyday care, relationships and shared responsibility that help place-based work continue.

Explore the pathway Download the one-page overview

Opening the door

For people shaping who can take part in place-based work, including how roles are designed and how opportunities move across organisations and systems.

Explore the pathway Download the one-page overview

Changing the system together

For people working with others to influence the policy, governance and structural conditions that shape how place-based work is supported.

Explore the pathway Download the one-page overview