Community building NATIONAL NETWORk
A NATIONAL LEADERSHIP NETwork of community
builders
Getting
Governments to take Community Building Seriously
Register to Participate Here
Following the National Symposium on Community
Building: Critical Voices, Alternative Strategies on 19th June 2007, a
national network of community builders has been formed to influence governments
to take community building seriously.
The five key recommendations of the Symposium were:
-
Community builders need to influence government policy and agendas in a
pro-active way, not wait for governments to lead. A network of community
builders
that is independent of government is needed for this task.
- Funding reform is critical - governments should overhaul their funding
methods to enable communities and projects to act with more autonomy and
flexibility, with longer time frames, and with access to pooled funds from
various programs and jurisdictions.
- Regulatory reform is urgent - governments should overhaul their regulatory
and reporting requirements for community building activities to ease the
regulatory burden.
-
Measuring community building is
important - community builders should develop appropriate ways of measuring
their achievements through effective evaluation methods, not wait for
governments to impose these from without.
- Empowerment and devolution are essential for community building -
governments should enable community strengthening and social capital
development, not control its form or dictate its direction.
The
network aims to influence the
policy agenda in these directions
and support good community building.
It will connect
community leaders, practitioners,
researchers, policy makers, social
entrepreneurs and workers in
community agencies who are
interested in authentic community
building work.
Sue Smyllie, President of Self Help Queensland,
is Convenor of the network.
It operates nationally, hosted by the
Centre for Civil Society. As in all projects of the Centre, a local
focus will be developed through a Contact in each federal electorate, with
maximum use of online communications. Papers, project reports, case studies of
local and overseas innovations, and advocacy progress will be posted online and
shared.
There is no cost for participation in the
Network.
CLICK HERE for
details of our national conference Funding
Communities: New Vision, New Agenda. Melbourne, 26-27 May 2008.
Details on the 2007 Community
Building: Critical Voices,
Alternative Strategies Symposium
are available.
Register
to Participate Here
Further information:
Vern Hughes
0425 722 890
network@civilsociety.org.au
