Australian Council of Social Service

The Conference will build our knowledge and understanding of CCB in local government by providing current and emerging research and presenting detailed case studies of CCB projects. It will both challenge our thinking and inspire our work.

The Conference will examine the different roles that local government can and does play in building capacity, resources and resilience in communities. It will also examine approaches developed and implemented from different sections of local government particularly social and community teams and libraries/ learning centres. It will also tease out - and attempt to answer some of the key questions for local government wanting to engage and work with communities to build/ strengthen their social capital:

-how is a CCB approach more effective in building social capital and increasing social inclusion within a community, than the traditional target group ‘community development' approach?
-why is it critical that local government works to increase the social inclusiveness of its communities and how does CCB strengthen social inclusion?
-what are the challenges within local government of adopting a CCB approach- and what helps us to overcome these?

There are five Conference themes:

• place - based community capacity building
• strategic and issues based community capacity building
• challenges implementing a community capacity building approach in and through local government
• community engagement (within local government and externally, in community)
• indicators and evaluation of CCB

The Conference will be a two day event and will include 4 Key note speaker presentations, discussion forums, participatory workshops and performances.

About the Community Capacity Building Team, Parramatta City Council

Parramatta is the second largest CBD in NSW and the economic capital of Western Sydney. It has an estimated population in 2008 of 161,912 of which nearly 45% speak a language other than English at home: it has a diverse multicultural and multi faith community including populations of newly arrived refugees. It has both affluent communities and communities living in poverty and a high and growing number of homeless people.

The Community Capacity Building Team, Parramatta City Council was founded 5 years ago. Its work is based on the following principles:

A holistic approach: we recognise the diversity that exists within the communities of the area and that our responses must therefore me diverse to respond to communities' needs, wants and aspirations.

An issues based approach: In recognition of the diversity that exists even within identified groups such as ‘young people', we takes an approach of looking at issues rather than particular ‘groups'. In looking at the factors that contribute to these issues the team can then work in cooperation with the community to determine the most appropriate response and relevant strategies to address the issue at hand, rather than branding an issue as the problem of a particular group of people or community.

A whole of community approach: We view our role as that of ‘enablers'. The whole of community approach values the contribution that members of our communities have to make in regard to their needs, wants and aspirations and works to move away from a welfare based model and towards a model of community based solutions for community issues. The model also appreciates the importance of developing strong partnerships with the not-for-profit and business sectors and of using their expertise to develop sustainable outcomes for our communities.

A strengths-based approach: In addition to seeking to work with the community on a range of issues, the community capacity building model also seeks to identify the strengths in our communities and to support and grow them so that communities become robust and resilient. We also apply this approach to our not-for-profit and business sectors by recognising the strengths and the values they bring to the communities of Parramatta, and the potential for working in partnership to build on those strengths and to mobilise additional resources to expand them to areas where they are needed.

In practice, the CCB team has three areas of responsibility:
To build the capacity of the community: We work with community members to identify their areas of concern, their needs and their aspirations and work to build their capacity to address needs and concerns and achieve their aspirations. We resource and support connections and networks between individuals and groups within and between communities. e.g. we work with residents and groups of residents to develop their community leadership and self advocacy skills which they use as individuals and collectively to advocate in regard to particular issues.

To build the capacity of PCC: The CCB team holds the view that every service in PCC is a community service provider. It is our role to build the capacity of the organisation to understand the communities it services and to ensure that the needs of those communities are considered in all aspects of service provision.  To build the capacity of the not-for-profit sector: We work alongside local not-for-profit organisations and groups to support the work they do. We do this in a number of ways including:

• Supporting the development of the sector through the provision of a range of professional and sector development events.
• Working with the sector to advocate for better resourced and better planned service provision across the LGA.
• Working in partnership with the sector to ensure that strategic planning processes on a local and regional level consider the needs of the community and the impacts on the not-for-profit sector. We then developing strategies to manage and resource responses to these.
• Working with partners to work to address priority issues: seeding and facilitating action groups to address priority issues; resourcing and supporting emerging coalitions and partnerships; sharing information, resources, skills and knowledge.
• Providing the sector with the best information possible about our communities and the sector.
• Working on projects that compliment and add value to the work of the sector.