Local Heroes? Learning from Recent Community Strengthening Initiatives in Victoria

Wiseman JR¹*

1. Institute for Community Engagement and Policy Alternatives, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

This paper will provide a starting point for discussion about learning from recent State and local government community strengthening initiatives in Victoria. The first section of the paper will locate the Victorian experience in the broader Australian and international context of the renewal of interest in community development policies and strategies. An overview of some of the main elements and features of Victorian community strengthening strategies will be followed by a series of critical reflections about the lessons to be learned from the Victorian experience. The paper will argue that community strengthening is best understood in terms of the development of respectful partnerships with communities to identify and address issues important to them by improving community resources, information, links and capacities. Care needs to be taken not to overstate the significance of community strengthening programs to date, which still largely sit on the margins of decisions about policy priorities, resource allocation and service delivery. Nonetheless, if appropriately scaled up and resourced, community strengthening strategies can provide an important basis for exploring new public policy directions which genuinely and effectively engage and involve citizens and communities.

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