Speakers

Lee Griffiths is a community development practitioner, facilitator and strategist with more than 20 years’ experience working across government, local government, housing and community organisations in Australia and the UK. 

Through his work with the Jeder Institute, Lee supports organisations to move beyond traditional consultation and toward approaches that strengthen connection, participation and local leadership in the places people live. 

At the heart of his work is a simple belief: thriving neighbourhoods are not created by infrastructure alone. The true foundations of strong communities are the relationships between people - the skills, passions, care and local knowledge that already exist within every neighbourhood. 

Lee works with housing providers, developers, local governments and community organisations to help uncover and mobilise these strengths so communities can grow from the inside out. 

His work is grounded in Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), a globally recognised approach that focuses on identifying and activating the assets already present within communities. Rather than beginning with problems or deficits, ABCD starts with people - their talents, relationships and capacity to shape the places they live. 

Over the past two decades Lee has supported community initiatives in neighbourhoods shaped by social housing, local government and major urban development. His experience includes leading large-scale engagement and place-based initiatives in government, building partnerships across housing and social service sectors, and supporting resident-led activity within local communities. 

More recently he has been involved in the design and delivery of a three-year Community Builders program within a large master-planned community. The program focuses on helping neighbours connect with one another, supporting resident leadership and building the social fabric of a new community as it grows. 

Through this work Lee helps organisations understand that successful developments are not only well designed physically - they are places where people know their neighbours, feel welcome, and have opportunities to contribute to the life of their community. 

At Sydney Build Expo, Lee will share insights from this work and explore how developers, planners and community practitioners can collaborate to build neighbourhoods where social infrastructure grows alongside physical infrastructure. 

Because when communities are strong, connected and locally led, developments become more than places to live - they become places where people truly belong.