Capacity Building through Community and Government Collaboration

Norris A¹*

1. Department of Education Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Tasmanian Communities Online is a network of 64 State Government sponsored, community focused online access centres across rural and regional Tasmania. The network was first established to provide low cost access to computers and the internet as well as 1:1 assistance and training in their use for those most at risk of being disadvantaged by the digital divide.

With strong community ownership and input into the strategic direction along with effective central support and significant financial assistance from the State Government, the role of the online access centres has grown to meet the changing needs of each community. Over 40,000 patrons regularly use their local online access centre making them the social hub of many small communities helping to build and extend social networks across the generations.

The friendly, informal environment of the online access centres make them important sources of “second-chance” education and training opportunities in many small rural communities as well providing access to government and other online information and support for community capacity building initiatives.

With an average of five volunteers serving on each Centre committee, a major challenge for the network is building their knowledge and understanding of modern governance practices and management skills in an environment where individuals are increasingly faced with competing priorities.

Click here to view the full paper