On the ten year anniversary of this biannual conference we revisit our hopes/aims and expectations when Community, Work and Family was first developed, as a journal and later as a conferences. We reflect on where we are now; and to look forwards to the challenges posed by current and future contexts. We note a number of gathering storms – global social trends which can be described as crises and form the contemporary context for communities, workplaces and families and their interface. These include: economic crisis; demographic crisis including population mobility; gender crisis; crisis of care and crisis of violence