With partnerships between Councils and communities rapidly gaining momentum in the field of community development, Brisbane City Council has taken this idea one step further with the creation of multidisciplinary regional Community Development Teams.
An initiative of the Council’s Department of Recreation and Health, the Teams are based in four suburban locations throughout Brisbane and represent staff from the Department’s sections of Parks, Cultural Services, Recreation and Sport, Community Health and Community Services.
It is this successful combination of expertise which enables the Teams to achieve positive results and function as a single point of contact for a broad range of community issues.
Community Development Committee Chairman, Cr David Hinchliffe describes the Community Development Teams as primarily about action, change and achievable outcomes.
“Our Teams are able to deliver timely, visible results,” Cr Hinchliffe said. “Team officers work with various community groups and individuals in forming creative solutions to problems and capitalising on existing resources.
“Alongside Brisbane City Council’s commitment to enhancing Brisbane’s livability is its commitment to quality of life for all residents, through the inclusion of social justice principles in all policy making areas of the Council.”
Partnerships between Brisbane City Council and the community are particularly evident in the various grants programs administered by the Community Development Branch. These grants cover local sport development, culture and performing arts, community development and target groups, such as senior citizens.
The ‘Green Corner’ project in the Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove brought together, with the help of a Community Development Assistance Grant, three community groups with previous tenuous links to create a community garden and nursery.
Members of all four Community Development Teams have been involved in gathering and compiling information for the Council’s Community Profiles, which detail qualitative and quantitative statistics for each of the City’s 26 wards.
The scope of Community Development Team activities is extremely broad, covering projects such as park masterplans, leasing, recreation planning, community arts, streetscapes, and quality of life issues, such as safety planning and domestic violence prevention strategies.
“Overall, our Teams are highly effective in meeting the social, cultural and community demands of residents all over the City and, in the process, they manage to shift our focus away from bureaucracy and towards communities and local places,” Cr Hinchliffe concluded.
For further information contact Harriett Fussell, telephone (07) 3403 5614.
