Case Studies

Here we bring all these stories together in a collection and it's one of the most popular site areas. Plus all these stories have been contributed by communitybuilders.nsw users.

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Be a Community Builder

• A review of communitybuilders.nsw – Report, June 2004
  - This review commissioned by Director General of the NSW Premier’s Department, was mandated to assess performance of communitybuilders.nsw across five linked areas: objectives and results; strategic directions; auspice and governance; website content, design and performance; and capacity and budget.
• Best Practice Briefs in Human Services
  - Current information on human services policies, programs, concepts, processes, models and tools.
• Citizens' Jury Process - Wollondilly Shire Council
  - A public participation case study based on the Wollondilly Shire Council Social Planning Community Panel (Citizens' Jury) Process
  - written by Max Hardy, Twyford Consulting and Sandra Ruecroft, Wollondilly Shire Council.
• Community Volunteers Success Story
  - Labour intensive work by volunteers to remove a woody weed without using pesticides results in the additional benefit of producing nesting and refuge for wildlife in a NSW sanctuary.
• Empowering Grass-Roots Groups to Strengthen Communities
  - Building stronger communities through empowering community groups.
• Governing from the Verandah: the communitybuilders.nsw discussion forum as platform for social government – Richard J Stella, 2003
  - This thesis examines the way in which the communitybuilders.nsw forum is used and locates it within an emergent political settlement of ‘governing through community'.
• Grameen Bank and its Founder, Muhammad Yunus, win Nobel Peace Prize 2006
  - The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, has been awarded, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.
• How Wildlife Corridors are Reconstructed Using Crown Roads in Southern NSW
  - The Friends of Oolong and Landcare are promoting programs which will produce reforestation and wildlife protection in large areas, not close to national parks and reserves, with the cooperation of local communities and incentives to landholders.
• Landcare
  - Landcare groups consist of volunteeers of all cultures, ages and backgrounds and have a common concern about the quality of land, water and vegetation in their local areas.
• Manitoba Voluntary Sector Initiative
  - The voluntary sector of Manitoba, Canada, has initiated a three-year community-based process to develop and improve the long term sustainability of the voluntary sector in their area.
• Royal Botanic Gardens - Volunteer Program
  - The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney (RBGS) has a strong commitment to volunteers and sees their value in building links with the community as well as enabling the extension of its programs.
• Symposium 2001 - Dr Mamphela Ramphele
  - A View from Africa. Speech presented at the NSW Centenary of Federation, Holding Together Series of International Speakers.
• Symposium 2001 - Professor Ariel Dorfman
  - A South American Perspective. Speech presented at the NSW Centenary of Federation, Holding Together Series of International Speakers.
• Symposium 2001 - Professor Norman Davies
  - An English-Irish-Scottish-Welsh Perspective. Speech presented at the NSW Centenary of Federation, Holding Together Series of International Speakers.
• The Beginning of the Men’s Shed Concept in Grenfell.
  - By Len Wallace
• The Pipeline Project in Remote NSW
  - A public participation case study involving a small community under threat of having its water supply pipeline replaced with water tanks - written by Max Hardy.
• The survival of vegetation remnants on private land
  - The Friends of Oolong (FOO), a southeast New South Wales and ACT bush environmental organisation, are trying to stop the sale of these areas to landholders by promoting the survival and protection of vegetation remnants and the links between them.

Community Solutions & Crime Prevention

• A Different Warrawong - Case Study
  - A small, neighbourhood level consultation held at Warrawong Community Centre attracted people who lived in the local area. The group included some homeless men who met frequently to pass the day together in a lane at the back of the Neighbourhood Centre; some long term Warrawong residents; some older people; and a couple of people from public housing estates.
• Bourke High School Mentoring Program
  - The mentoring program at Bourke High School was initially funded as a project from Department of Education Science and Training (DEST) in 2003. When DEST funding for the project ceased, the Premier’s Department through the Community Solutions program provided further funding.
• Chifley Centre, Bidwill Campus
  - Funding through the NSW Government's Community Solutions and Crime Prevention Program has enabled the multi-campuses of Chifley College in Sydney's western suburbs to implement three educational initiatives focussing on supporting students (and their families) at risk from a number of factors.
• School-Link Plus
  - School-Link+ is a collaborative initiative between the Central Coast Area Mental Health Service and the Department of Education and Training. The initiative identifies schools as strategic locations for programs around promotion, prevention and early intervention in depression in young people, building on the existing School-Link program.
• South Coast NSW Regional Women's Business Gathering - Case Study
  - The Community Solutions Fund has provided funds to the South Coast Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation to establish and develop the South Coast Aboriginal Holistic Healing Service Substance Use for Aboriginal families and communities along the South Coast of New South Wales.
• Sustained Home Visiting Team
  - Sustained Home Visiting is a program that employs specialist child and family health nurses to work intensively with high needs families with children 0-2 years in the first 2 years of a child’s life. Through the provision of this service the project aims to improve developmental outcomes for children and reduce the rates of child abuse.
• The Good Start Breakfast Club Walgett
  - A nutritious breakfast can have a significant and positive impact on a child’s behaviour and their ability to perform at school. The Australian Red Cross has long recognised this and has been operating Good Start Breakfast Clubs in schools around the state since 1991.
• The Peninsula Project and Celebration Calendar
  - The aim of the Peninsula Project is to develop and implement effective and efficient whole of government and whole of community solutions that address the issues facing young people and older people in the Peninsula area and to increase the community's capacity to resolve future issues as they arise. The need for a promotional tool to introduce the concept of the Peninsula Project to the community was identified through discussions with stakeholders and community members.
• Vehicle Brokerage Scheme
  - Young people on the Central Coast, particularly those in remote locations, now have a better chance of accessing the services that are provided to help maximise their potential as young adults.
• Youth Outreach Program, Chifley College
  - Funding through the NSW Government's Community Solutions and Crime Prevention Program has enabled the multi-campuses of Chifley College in Sydney's western suburbs to implement three educational initiatives focussing on supporting students (and their families) at risk from a number of factors.

Create Stronger Communities

• Aspire Australia – Scenarios for Australia in 2025
  - The Business Council of Australia seeks to make a major contribution to national public policy debate by providing a framework for understanding what the future may hold for business, policy makers and Australians generally over the next 20 years.
• Australian Business Arts Foundation - case studies of successful partnerships
  - The following partnerships are presented as examples of good practice in partnerships between cultural organisations and business.
• CARE for Families
  - A new free program based in Enfield and Rockdale that provides case management and psychoeducation to people with a mental illness and their families, carers and friends for 9 months.
• Caring and Sharing: The co-owned route to better care
  - This Employee Ownership Association paper by Dave Wheatcroft is the story of award winning employee owned Sunderland Home Care Associates and how founder Margaret Elliott and co-owners have built a family of enterprises lifting care standards in the North of England. Published September 2007.
• Case Studies in Sustainability from Western Australia
  - These case studies document initiatives undertaken in Western Australia that have contributed to increased ecological, social and economic sustainability.
• Co-operatives making trades more profitable - Case study: Plumbers Supplies Co-operative
  - Joining forces to form a co-operative may be the way of the future for many modern small businesses.
• Community Business Partnerships
  - Mutually beneficial collaboration between business and community can provide more efficient and long-term solutions to community issues and build greater social cohesion.
• Creating Our Future - Youth Vision and Action for the NSW Central Coast
  - The Jigsaw Project (Central Coast Child and Youth Strategy) and the Futures Foundation partnered in a futuring process for young people which created a preferred vision for the Central Coast in 2020 and implemented three practical action plans to help achieve that future.
• Crime and Community Safety Partnerships - UK and South Africa
  - Through a joint project with Leeds in the UK, a Durban township in South Africa, has given its residents greater confidence, reduced crime and the fear of crime, and helped to create a thriving and prosperous community.
• Employee Share ownership: a win - win solution
  - How does a director and shareholder turn his equity into a retirement fund and ease out of a business to enjoy semi-retirement? For one Director, employee share ownership was the answer.
• Enhancing Water Safety – A NSW Safe Communities Project
  - The lifeguards in Kiama have been visiting the local primary schools for several years coming up to the long summer holidays with surf safety messages.
• Environmental Sustainability Initiatives in North America and Europe: Churchill Fellowship report by John Hepburn
  - This Churchill Fellowship focused on the creation of alternatives - exploring a small sample of local community environmental sustainability initiatives in the US and UK.
• GR8 MATES Youth Mentoring Program
  - The GR8 MATES school-based youth mentoring program is a program that falls under the Schools Industry Partnership umbrella and operates in schools in the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury and Penrith. It is built on the Plan-It Youth concepts, though has added an ementoring component and has its own Student Manual and Mentor Training Program.
• Getting to Know the Locals: Researching the Impact of the Mentor Program for Tibetan Refugees
  - The aim of this study was to evaluate the short and long term impact of mentoring on participants of the program. We were interested in exploring whether this approach to helping refugee families settle in the local community has any advantages over traditional community settlement models.
• Growing small communities – Coolamon’s success story
  - Liz Lawson’s contribution to the panel discussion at the NSW Department of State and Regional Development Community Economic Development Conference describing how Coolamon, a small town in the ‘shadow’ of Wagga Wagga has managed to attract tourism and new residents to the town, providing the catalyst for the local economy to grow and generate employment opportunities.
• HIV 0 FOOTBALL 1 in Nigeria
  - Football matches provide an opportunity to teach people about prevention of HIV/AIDS in the town of Mgbala Agwa in South Eastern Nigeria.
• Homeless not alone at ‘Tony’s Place’
  - The Bridge Back to Life Foundation helps young homeless men get off the roundabout and back into the community with accommodation and living skills at 'Tony's Place'
• Mall Walking – A NSW Safe Communities Project
  - Within the community of Kiama, there are socially isolated older people who do not exercise as much as we would wish.
• Marrickville's Accessible Pathways Program
  - A Marrickville Council project providing a continuous, non-interrupted accessible pedestrian pathway supported by infrastructure so that all members of the community can participate in all aspects of community life.
• Mayfield on the Move - Developing a Sustainable Retail Environment
  - Kathie Heyman’s community showcase at the NSW Department of State and Regional Development Community Economic Development Conference describing how the community of Mayfield, an inner suburb of Newcastle got together and developed a sustainable retail environment, delivering for the community needs and aspirations.
• Mental Health Legal Services Project
  - The Mental Health Legal Services [MHLS] Project, funded by Legal Aid NSW and auspiced by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), aims to better meet the unmet legal needs of people who are mentally unwell.
• Mentors Supporting Local Youth.
  - The NSW Active Retirees & Mentors Inc. has been running this program in NSW since 2001 and the South Western Sydney sub-committee has been running it in their local area since 2002.
• Merrima Indigenous Design Group
  - The Merrima Group provides consultation and architectural design services for Indigenous and other communities.
• Nimmitabel – Top of the Range: Building a better future
  - Marjory Kobold’s presentation at the NSW Department of State and Regional Development Community Economic Development Conference showcasing the history, achievements, products and business potential of Nimmitabel, NSW and surrounding districts.
• Northcott – observations of community and cultural development in a public housing estate
  - "What have they done there? 2 years at Northcott: An Observation of a Work in Progress" by Emily Mayo in consultation with all partners (December 2004) illustrates a process of community and cultural development in an inner-city Sydney public housing estate, part of the state’s largest cluster of Department of Housing stock.
• One Umbrella - Food Collection and Distribution
  - One Umbrella is a unique organisation which collects food that cannot be used and turns it into nutritious meals for the homeless and hungry of Melbourne.
• Resource for Urban Design Information (RUDI)
  - UK website featuring a collection of international case studies focussing on good practice in urban design.
• Shoalhaven Aboriginal Safe Community Partnership
  - Shoalhaven Aboriginal Safe Community Partnership has launched its own community web discussion group. SASCP members work together to promote a healthy and safe Koori community.
• Sierakowo: From Desperation to Inspiration – A Creative Idea That Worked
  - This case study details how Sierakowo, a small village located in north-western Poland, broke out of marginalisation and poverty to create a local knowledge-based economy.
• The Body Shop - Business and Social Responsibility
  - A very thought provoking and practical paper, examining the issues and realities of the community sector forming partnerships with the business sector.
• The Factory Community Centre's Mosaic Project in Waterloo
  - The large and brilliant mural mosaic is located at the Waterloo Green Marton Gardens area, which is between the high rise social housing buildings, bringing new colour and life to the area.
• The Sydney Energy Co-operative - A case study
  - Sydney Energy Co-operative was founded in June 2007 by a small group of enthusiastic students from the photovoltaic and renewable energy engineering program at the University of NSW.
• Three Social Enterprise Stories
  - Three stories recount the success of community involvement in positive change in the Sydney suburbs of Claymore, Minto and Campbelltown.
• Townlife Development - Crookwell Shire - Community Planning Model
  - Crookwell Shire Council was offered a community planning package in the first round of The Townlife Development Program. This package included funding for an interim co-ordinator, a strategic planning workshop, a business retention and expansion survey and a business marketing workshop.
• Toy Share Story – a thriving community enterprise
  - Toy Share, Australia’s first community toy store in Wollongong NSW, restores and distributes toys and educational products to sick and disadvantaged children and their families.
• Traffic Offender Program – A NSW Safe Communities Project
  - Medium to high range drink drivers are offered the chance to attend the eight-week Traffic Offender Program (TOP) on a voluntary basis.
• Windmill News - The Development of a Community Magazine with A Difference
  - The development of a community magazine - an exercise in community building focussing on community based assets, social entrepreneurship , developing social connectedness and maintaining a vibrant community.
• Youth - The future of our Communities
  - Lani Houston's presentation at the concurrent sessions of the NSW Department of State and Regional Development Community Economic Development Conference describes how the community of Hay in the Riverina Region of NSW is addressing the drift of young people away from rural communities toward metropolitan centres.

Funding Facts

• No Interest Loans
  - No Interest Loan Schemes (NILS) are loans by community organisations to low income people who can't get affordable commercial credit.

Get Organised

• A Transformational Approach to Organisational and Community Development
  - In early 2005, the community based organisation, Macquarie University Sport & Recreation (MUSR) decided that they were fed up with the usual approach to developing strategic plans which make for good door stops but not much else. They knew that the right approach would somehow engage and develop enthusiasm amongst not only the Board and staff but also other important external stakeholders. They came across an approach called ‘Future Search’.
• Peninsula Community Access News
  - It is not coincidental that the words "community" and "communication" are similar. A strong community requires good communication. This story tells how one community started a newspaper to meet its communication needs.

Rural and Regional Communities

• All Aboard the Sports Batbus
  - 3 Youth Transport Services on the Far North Coast of NSW received in May 2006 additional funding for 2 years to provide transport for Sporting groups consisting predominantly of young people between the ages of 12 -25.
• Brunswick Heads' Story
  - Funding, support and advice through the Townlife Program has enabled Brunswick Heads to pursue economic development while retaining its friendly and relaxed lifestyle.
• Community Learning Project Hunter Region NSW
  - The project aims to work with local community members and learning providers to identify community learning priorities and find the resources to meet those priorities.
• Crookwell's Story
  - The Townlife Development Program has helped Crookwell develop an action plan and a focus for action to reinvigorate the community.
• Dorrigo's Story
  - Funding, support and expertise through the Townlife program has encouraged Dorrigo to initiate a successful Film and Documentary Festival which is seeing other creative spin-offs for the town and its people.
• Eden Access Centre
  - The Eden Access Centre provides internet access and secretarial services to the local community. It provides facilities that would otherwise be unavailable in our town.
• Gloucester's Story of the SnowFest
  - "Gloucester trucks real snow 735 kilometres from Perisher Blue. At the first SnowFest, the town prepared for 2,000 people and was nearly overwhelmed by 8,000 visitors." - Lorna Tomkinson, Gloucester
• Gulargambone's Story
  - The Gulargambone Flying Ahead Program, supported by theTownlife Development Program, has found ways of revitalising the town and helped the community face tough economic times.
• Iluka's story
  - Iluka's involvement in the Townlife Program resulted in a community economic development strategic plan and four core groups of projects that have achieved over 90 percent of their goals in 16 months.
• Kendall: Small Town Haven Revival
  - Alison Haylett’s presentation at the NSW Department of State and Regional Development Community Economic Development Conference recounts how the village of Kendall on the Camden Haven River in NSW has seized opportunities to revitalise itself and become the arts and crafts centre of the region.
• Lockhart's Story
  - Lockhart in South-Western NSW has built on its history and its agricultural base to become a dynamic tourist-friendly rural centre.
• Milparinka's Story
  - The Townlife Development Program has given the Milparinka community the capacity to develop plans and ideas for its future.
• Nymagee's Story
  - An outback music festival has attracted international artists to Nymagee, nearly doubled its population and increased the prospects for tourism and economic diversification in the district.
• Pristine Waters' Story
  - The communities of Pristine Waters on the NSW north coast are working to find a balance between economic development and maintaining their relaxed lifestyle in beautiful surroundings.
• Sharing the Lode - the Broken Hill Migrant Story
  - Sharing the Lode: The Broken Hill Migrant Story is a publication which draws an entire community together and celebrates the cultural diversity and spirit of its people.
• Small Town Renewal: Overview and Case Studies
  - This report is designed to generate action for community change and renewal by focussing on what communities are doing and can do.
• Uki's Story
  - Communication and information technology has played a part in boosting the confidence of the Uki community in their attempts to guide their future.
• Working Together in Strengthening Rural Communities
  - An early initiative of the Western Regional Co-ordination Program which led to the establishment of the communitybuilders website.

Understand Your Community

• Neighbourhoods that work
  - The Blue Mountains Community, Housing, Employment and Co-operation project is encouraging neighbourhood participation through the establishment of food gardens, a neighbourhood events program, a community fire unit and the pooling of resources.