​The Community Development
​Resource Association (CDRA) has closed

After 34 years of service in development in South Africa, Southern Africa and globally, CDRA has closed.

CDRA was established in 1987 to support a radical form of inner and outer transformation at a time in South Africa’s history when both kinds were sorely needed.

This initiative was funded through the solidarity of people of the post-war welfare states of Europe, and alongside that, the vestiges of free philanthropy of the United States; the kind that promotes responsible agency and freedom in service of the common good.
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CDRA was inspired by a radical humanist and spiritual impulse, one that defended and advanced a certain seriousness about agency, consciousness and justice and what that asks of the individual and the organisation. In a time of little freedom, CDRA offered a thoughtful, disciplined and free space.
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While work of a similar nature persists through initiatives and forms more adapted to the rigours of 21st century organisational life, it is with both sadness and appreciation, that the Board and associates of CDRA recognise that the organisation has completed the work for which it was established, and accept that it is time for it to close its doors. 
In the last two years – and also through the Covid times - associates of CDRA have been engaged in intense processes of reflection on the impact and legacy of CDRA, and possible future manifestations of the practice it developed and nurtured. Out of engaged discussion and reflection with over 50 people, and a writing retreat, eight essays have been produced. In seeking a contemporary view of practice, these pieces have sought to capture something of the spirit of what we face and recognition of the times in which we live.
 
We have hosted a series of workshops around these essays over the past year, to which you are invited to read. 

Into the future:
the CDRA House, a website, a publication and a Tiny Trust 

​While CDRA has closed, its legacy will live on in the inspiration and work of many people all around the world and also in some tangible traces.

In accordance with CDRA’s articles of association, its building has been donated to an organisation with similar goals -  SCAT - the Social Change Assistance Trust. SCAT and CDRA have enjoyed a long relationship, over decades, with origins in a similar shared understanding and social justice commitment. SCAT’s mission is to empower communities, strengthen civil society, and promote social change in partnership with local development agencies which act as community-driven responses to social justice.  In making the gift CDRA has acknowledged, supported and valued SCAT’s work and the ethos and practice behind it. Given the shared history and values of CDRA and SCAT, the gift of CDRA’s building to SCAT is seen in the spirit of an inheritance, of transferring value that was built from one to another, and with that an expression of mutual trust, regard and appreciation.

Further, and as part of its ongoing programme of work, SCAT will host CDRA’s website as static resource for practitioners and researchers into the future. The final papers from this workshop series will also be housed on the website and be published as a book, also in hard copy, as CDRA’s last publication.

​Finally, a small fund has been created using seed funding from SCAT, and CDRA’s reserve. The ‘Tiny Trust - sustaining a legacy’ - will be housed and administered by SCAT and will provide small grants to practitioners and activists in the development sector. Grants will be for practitioners’ personal and career development, made in keeping with the spirit and intentions of CDRA’s contribution to development practice, and in a spirit of volunteerism, sufficiency and trust. It too is seen as an inheritance, bequeathed by CDRA to SCAT for caretaking of its legacy.




​CDRA will continue to offer numerous articles and resources on the practice of social change and development that we have written over the years.
To be updated about the CDRA  Tiny Trust and other announcements :