Community Building National Network

A national network of community builders has been formed to influence governments to take community building seriously following the National Symposium on Community Building: Critical Voices, Alternative Strategies in June this year.

The Network will operate nationally and will be hosted by the Centre for Civil Society.

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 will aim 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.

There is no cost for participation in the Network. You can register to participate at www.civilsociety.org.au/CommunityBuildingNetworkRegistration.htm

For further information contact Vern Hughes on 0425 722 890 or email vern@civilsociety.org.au