Community wellbeing…Councils working WITH ratepayers

How good does it sound for competent, responsible people – wearing ‘grassroots hats’ – NOT to have to become an incorporated body to do a community job done that needs doing?

‘Place-based, bottom up community planning’ sounds inclusive and relevant to all community groups/residents/businessowners interested in a sustainable future. According to a recent MAV (Municipal Association of Victoria) Bulletin this style of planning is now widely used here and will soon be ’embedded in state and local government decisionmaking’.

Seattle’s experience – in the US – has been a ‘model’. Seattle has developed a Matching Grants program which has spread to over 100 cities around the world.

The Neighborhood Matching Fund provides money to Seattle neighborhood groups and organizations for a broad array of neighborhood-initiated improvement, organizing or planning projects. A neighborhood group may be established to undertake one specific project – the group does not need to be ‘incorporated’.

Once a project is approved, the community’s contribution of volunteer labor, materials, professional services, or cash will be ‘matched’ by cash from the Neighborhood Matching Fund.

Community Planning and the MAV Lighthouse Program in Victoria

The Lighthouse Program supports Councils with an interest in the ‘new way’:
• working together to see what works and what doesn’t;
• collaborating to save reinventing the wheel/ breaking new ground.

Lighthouse asks, ‘Does our system of government deliver (frustration?)?

It says Local Government (LG):
• is disengaged from its community;
• needs the community behind it;
• needs to listen and work for the community;
• is aware of an increased localism;
• Democracy is ‘quite sick’: what does the community want?
• often pursues regulation at the expense of community building, which needs to be at the heart of LG’s future;
• needs imaginitive leadership;
• is aware nothing is more empowering/fulfilling than involvement in planning – in the family, in the workplace, in the community;
• must ask if Councils are prepared to ‘let go’ of the control they usually have?

In the UK, the Local Government Authority recommends:

• devolving power to localities to enable services to be more closely tailored to local people;
• steering local public services to meet priorities agreed with local people;
• creating an equal partnership between government and local people.

Future of Local Government Roadshows

In Victoria the MAV is running regional roadshows to discuss this approach, the outcomes of the recent Future of Local Government Summit and the proposed implementation plans with councillors. (MAV Bulletin 646, week ending August 10).

Community Indicators Victoria (CIV) project now live!

This online planning tool is intended to ‘help guide policy direction that enhances community wellbeing’. It is the flagship project of the McCaughey Centre and was launched this week. It is supported by Melbourne Uni and VicHealth.

The free interactive website can produce up-to-date, customised community wellbeing repoprts by local government area and within the context of state and regional results. It broings together existing data from the ABS, government departments, Victoria Police and other organisations, along with newly collected indicators into a centralised source of information. Data for the 80 wellbeing indicators will continue to be updated over time.

A bit more about Seattle

Seattle is now a world leader in community engagement & planning. BALLE Seattle – the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies – works towards connecting, educating and promoting its King County businesses who support the Local Living Economies philosophy. Across the US there are 52 independently operated BALLE local business networks with more than 15,000 members aiming to ‘grow’ sustainable communities.

BALLE and its local networks have brought together thousands of for-profit companies, non-profit organizations, local/state governments, and individual citizens who are initiating a shift toward Local Living Economies. Having reached a certain critical mass these BALLE networks will continue to deepen their impact in communities throughout North America for years to come.