How can the work of a project team most effectively lead to outcomes desired through partnership with a community, such as improved livelihoods or reduced conflict?

A test for any team is to visualise the outcomes of a project and then to identify the full range of factors that will have a bearing on the eventual achievements. The assumptions that underlie the development of a project are often the best starting point for challenging our thinking.
  Reaching a tangible result from a planned project can be harder than it seems at first.

During the process ideas can change, differing perspectives might develop and new information may arrive. The most effective approach is to embrace the uncertainty that comes with community-based initiatives, but to keep the eventual result clearly in focus right the way through the process. Project assignments undertaken by Community Works have been diverse, but all have called for similar principles and techniques to arrive at an outcome that is valued by the client and the participants.

Recent project assignments include:

  • Development of a capacity-building program on community engagement for government agencies in India, working with the Queensland University of Technology
  • Research and advice on regional governance models for a project managed by Ninti One Limited
  • Twelve-month action research project for a publication on mediation practice with Aboriginal families in Central Australia for Relationships Australia NT
  • New program development for the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation
  • Training of health professionals from Indonesia for the Nossal Institute for Global Health
  • Facilitation of Proposal Development Workshop for the remoteFOCUS project of Desert Knowledge Australia
  • Research and support for organisational development for the Mental Health Association of Central Australia
  
© Community Works Pty Ltd 2008