The Community Services Directorate is committed to genuine community engagement by working in partnership with community, including through co-design, co-production and collective impact approaches. For example, the Directorate is implementing an innovative collective impact approach to engaging with community, through the West Belconnen Local Services Network.
The Network’s Community Development and Engagement Framework (framework) is based on the Co-production Approach, which can be utilised to create community-driven actions. The Directorate also engages community through extensive partnerships with community groups. For example, the National Multicultural Festival brings together over 150 community groups each year and is overseen by a steering committee involving representatives from around 40 different multicultural groups.
The Directorate further supports a range of constituent-specific councils, such as the Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing (MACA), Veterans Advisory Council (VAC), Ministerial Advisory Council on Women (MACW), LGBTIQ Advisory Council (LGBTIQ AD), and the Youth Advisory Council (YAC). The Directorate supports each council to ensure the views of the community are used to inform government. The Seniors Health Roundtable organised in partnership with the MACA, brought together over 70 participants interested in discussing health issues relevant to local seniors.
The Housing ACT Capital Works Program is another way the Directorate engages with the community. A review into how the community can be best engaged on these projects is underway, with the aim of building stronger, more integrated and diverse neighbourhoods.