Stronger Families and Communities Strategy

Lewis E¹*

1. Australian Department of Family and Community Services, Canberra, ACT, Australia

The Australian Government’s $365 million Stronger Families and Communities Strategy 2000–2004 was a new approach, at a national level, in building community capacity to facilitate better outcomes for communities and their members. It recognised that effective support for communities required partnership approaches and ‘bottom-up’ development and delivery, and that community engagement and ownership were critical to achieving sustainable community outcomes.

Continued commitment to the Strategy over 2004–2008 sees a strengthened focus on early childhood and a place-based response to service delivery, with an even greater emphasis on community ownership and participation. Under the Strategy’s Communities for Children initiative, administration of funding is devolved to locally based non-government organisations who have the skills, resources and governance structures to deliver whole-of-community responses aimed at improving outcomes for children aged 0–5 in 35 disadvantaged communities across Australia. This model supports the development of partnerships between multiple stakeholders including local service providers, community leaders, business and other early childhood stakeholders, including parents. It takes a capacity building approach to improving outcomes for young children and their families with a broader focus being the creation of child-friendly communities. Communities for Children activities are grounded in evidence around early childhood development and support marginalised and disadvantaged families within the community.

This paper will discuss progress in implementing the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy 2004–2008, particularly the Communities for Children initiative, building on the learnings from the Strategy over 2000–2004. It will also discuss early learnings from Communities for Children.

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