Community Capacity Building Programs And Approaches

Presentation notes by Gary Moore, NSW Premier’s Department, for NSW Health Promotion Director’s Forum, 19 Feb 2002

What is community capacity building?

• Improving the abilities of communities to enhance their quality of life
• Assisting disadvantaged groups in communities to participate in these processes and obtain their fair share of the benefits

What are these abilities?

• adequate living standards which encourage/allow for, a community focus
• trust (bonding social capital)
• effective and inclusive communication/participation/engagement measures across a community (bridging social capital)
• presence of community controlled/responsive local organisations and community facilities
• adequate and appropriate level and mixture of skills across different segments of the community
• preparedness to engage with government and other external to community stakeholders
• shared commitment and an entrepreneurial spirit to improve well-being
• resilience and flexibility to deal with conflict and change
• sustainability of shared commitments, networks, and outcomes

Who is notionally involved in NSW?

• NSW Government (some core agency activity and several newer programs across human services, economic development and environmental protection)
• Commonwealth Government (key programs in FACS, Health and Aged Care, DEWSB and Transport and Regional Services)
• Local Government (over 80 NSW councils with community development activities)
• Business (partnering projects in community development with non profits)
• Community organisations (local community development, specific population groups in locations)

What are some features of these approaches?

• Location specific, especially regional cities, towns, neighbourhoods or remote communities experiencing social exclusion
• Project or program specific
• Often multi-agency within government, with lead agency arrangements
• Varying degrees of community participation in the planning and implementation
• A level of partnering between agencies across sectors (govt, business and community)

What are the Premier's Department community capacity building initiatives?

• Government Access Centres
• Regional Service Delivery Program projects
• Strengthening Local Communities Strategy
• Drugs and Community Action Strategy
• International Year of Volunteers initiatives
• Youth Partnerships Initiative
• Partnerships with Arabic speaking young people
• Migration Heritage Centre
• Capacity Building for NGOs Project

What are key issues in this work?

• Whose responsibility is community capacity building?
• To what degree is community capacity building a core objective or a peripheral goal of current activities?
• Can "whole of government" succeed without "whole of community"?
• How are the abilities in communities enhanced if not all the key stakeholders are engaged?
• How are outcomes conceived and how are they measured?
• How are longer-term processes supported when shorter-term results are wanted?
• What does longer term and sustainable change to community capacities and government initiatives look like?
• Should silos amongst the practitioner community be bridged, and, if so, what are the best options?

For further information

Contact	:	Nada Nasser, NSW Premier’s Department
Address	:	Level 32 Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place Sydney 2000
Email	:	nada.nasser@premiers.nsw.gov.au