Community Engagement

Increasing communities' participation in development processes has been the subject of both policy aspiration and scholarly critique. This paper explores the implications of a critical perspective on the 'elusive goal' of participation for community development practitioners. Drawing on insights from a range of scholars, this paper poses a practi ....

Unconventional natural gas development in deep shale formations forms a major, promising option for energy development. The Marcellus Shale in the northeastern United States is one of the most promising shale natural gas fields in the world with potential to provide energy resources for the nation and needed income for many rural communities. How ....

A small rural health service undertook a major needs analysis in 2008 to identify gaps in service delivery and duplication of services. This exercise was intended to inform strategic direction but the result was consumer and community consultation and outcomes that far exceeded everyone's expectations. Organisations often pay lip s ....

The Linking Rural Older People to Community through Technology project (the project) aims to improve access and connection to the wider community for older Australians in rural and remote locations through the use of new communication technologies. The focus on community connectedness is framed within a demographic and geographical perspective, p ....

Prepared for the Victorian Local Governance Association (VLGA), this discussion document is a review of some critical issues facing local governments in rural and regional areas, and is the result of wide-ranging consultation. The purpose of the document is to create a greater awareness of: the requirements and expectations of rura ....

Two problems exist in rural environments that are of interest to this study. One problem is that citizens in rural communities are uncertain if short-term leadership training programs provide the collaborative attitudes necessary for successful leadership after program completion. A second problem is that rural citizens are uncertain as ....

This paper examines the issues involved with enabling people living in rural and remote Australia who are affected by disasters to recover and rebuild their lives and communities. Because the NRHA’s objective is to improve the health of rural and remote Australians it concentrates on the health aspects of disaster recovery. Report LocationCli ....

The failure of a national rural policy is a complex phenomenon. Suffice to say that such policy never emerged, despite frequent appearances on the presidential agenda. Browne examines the reasons why no sustained rural lobby was ever created independent of farm interests. The circular explanation finds that lobbies fail to develop in th ....

Community participation in planning for health programs and services can be difficult to achieve, in part because community participation is rarely conceived as development of place. This paper explores how and why communities of place become involved in health service development. It looks at research that examined community initi ....

Our vision is to have resilient rural communities across NSW, driving social and economic change. With this goal in mind, over the past year, we have worked with our partner organisations on a variety of programs. Together we have delivered services to build community capacity, assisted communities to prepare for and manage advers ....

Urban and rural areas enjoy different and often complementary assets, and better integration between them is important for socio-economic performance. This report provides a framework to understand the changing relationships between urban and rural areas. It is focused on one approach that can enhance and better manage rural-urban relationships â ....

Successful rural community development efforts focus on harnessing the resources already present to find community solutions to community concerns. For these efforts to be successful, high levels of cooperation, communication and trust need to be built within the community. This paper is based on a pilot study which investigated th ....

Using case studies from seven rural and regional areas, this report examines the impact of schools and vocational education and training (VET) on community capacity. Focusing on successful examples of school- VET partnerships it found that communities have developed at least three different models to organise school- VET partnershi ....

The Inspiring Australia strategy is a high-level national strategy for public engagement with the sciences and a key element of Australia’s innovation agenda. The Australian government believes that, in order to help the nation ‘unlock its full potential’, it is necessary to examine those areas which, due to location, may have been disadvan ....