Community Engagement - Putting People First in Building Sustainable Community Futures - Three Case Studies

Stewart R¹*, Martin A²*

1. Community and Cultural Services, Ipswich City Council, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
2. Leading Innovation, Glenden, Queensland, Australia

One of the most problematic, challenging and frustrating aspects of developing great towns and cities is the need to balance social, cultural, economic, and environmental needs with the appropriate hard and soft infrastructure. Often the “soft” elements of this balancing act, the social and cultural needs of communities are the losers in the balancing act. This case study outlines the strategies used to engage councillors, council staff and the community in building the future of Ipswich City which will double its population size in the next 20 years to accommodate the growth outlined in the South East Queensland Regional Plan.

Key strategies of the case study include:

• the development of a vision for the future that is shared between councillors and senior managers and is communicated through engagement processes with the Ipswich communtiy,
• implementation of joint planning processes as a professional development initiative,
• incorporation of regional, subregional and local planning processes into service delivery frameworks that are aligned across state and local government, and
• establish connections between economic, social and cultural issues across multiple planning levels within local and state government.

The case study also demonstrates the importance of having strong internal systems to support the change process – leadership development, human resource management, budgeting, performance management, and reporting.

The case study highlights ways of ensuring that these change strategies deliver outcomes to the community such as improved social and cultural infrastructure in growth areas and recognition of the benefits of diverse cultures for community well-being. The key to this approach has been to identify very early that the focus should be both on the outcomes sought for the community and on a holistic view of the process as being about change for the individuals involved, for the council, and for the community.

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