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Paper: COMMUNITY CONSULTATION and FACILITATION

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Community Consultation, Engagement and Facilitation

There are many different ways of undertaking community consultation. We will develop a strategy for identifying and consulting with your target group. We often use focus groups and surveys in collecting views from both small and large groups within the population, but at times other approaches will be more suitable. We will tailor a consultation process that meets your needs and your budget.

Much of the work undertaken by Community Solutions depends to a significant extent on successful community consultation and engagement, and on sound facilitation.

Projects completed include:

Baulkham Hills Shire Council
2007, Jane conducted Facilitation of 'Community Planning and Community Outcomes' meetings.

Department of the Environment and Heritage
During 2006 Community Solutions worked with the Department of the Environment and Heritage to design and conduct a workshop directed to developing a nationally agreed framework for describing wetlands of national and international significance. The workshop, involving national and state agency representatives, wetland scientists and community interests, set the framework for a national approach meeting Australia's obligations under the international Ramsar convention.

Land & Water Australia
Since February 2006 Judy Lambert has served as Research & Development Coordinator to the national Defeating the Weed Menace program funded jointly by the Departments of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Environment and Heritage. Bringing together the diversity of interests who wish to see weed problems addressed at a national level involves significant community consultation and facilitation.

WA Department of Consumer & Employment Protection
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Marrickville Council
Working in collaboration with SGS Economics & Planning Pty Ltd and Architectus, Community Solutions was responsible for community engagement and facilitation of community input to the development of an Urban Strategy for the Marrickville Local Government area. Adopting a Values Mapping approach, Community Solutions assisted the project to identify and prioritise aspects of life in Marrickville then to obtain community feedback on the planning approaches proposed to address those issues.

WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF)
In 2003 Community Solutions worked with WWF Australia to bring together the diversity of interests needed to sustainably manage the Robbins Passage/Boullanger Bay area in the far north-west of Tasmania. That project led, in 2006, to a community-based management planning process for the area led by the Tasmanian Land Conservancy, in which Community Solutions was responsible for the community engagement and facilitation aspects of the work. A similar project resulted in 2006, in a set of interim management guidelines for the Ramsar-listed wetlands of international significance at Roebuck Bay near Broome in north-western Australia.

At various times throughout 2000 and 2001, the partners in Community Solutions worked with WWF to plan and facilitate organisational planning and review sessions. Community Solutions partners also worked with WWF to plan, facilitate and report on a major national workshop focused on setting a vision for the Murray Darling Basin. Among the key elements of this workshop session were the active involvement of a diversity of relevant stakeholders, and the use of a workshop program having sufficient flexibility to identify and build on the expressed needs of the various participants

Total Environment Centre (TEC)
Throughout 2001 Community Solutions completed a series of modules focusing on sustainability on the corporate sector. The TEC project included development of a transparent assessment process for determining the extent to which corporate sector organisations are sustainability-seeking, facilitation of the development of a Statement of Common Purpose among national and state environment groups, and a preliminary investigation of opportunities to bring community-based environmental and social services groups together to work with government agencies and the corporate sector to progress a valid and transparent approach to sustainable development - taking account of the environmental and social aspects of corporate activity, as well as their economic performance.

Office of Women's Affairs (Vic.) - Family Violence Project
In 1999, Community Solutions worked with Phoenix Projects to identify and describe the pathways taken by family members experiencing family violence, and the range of groups outside the home with whom they come into contact. The project was undertaken for the Victorian Office of Women's Affairs, and was part of the Commonwealth Partnerships Against Domestic Violence program. The project involved consultation with service providers and victims/survivors of family violence in both urban and rural Victoria, and an extensive search of and reporting on published and unpublished literature.

NSW Health Consumers Project
Funded by NSW Health and conducted for the NSW Council of Social Services, this project provided health consumers in NSW with an opportunity to make input to a strategy for consumer participation in health policy and planning. The partners in Community Solutions worked with NCOSS consultant Beverly Duffy to plan and conduct public forums in regional and metropolitan NSW during 1997 and provided a report on the consultative process. The final report "Have your say about health" was published in 1998.

Baulkham Hills Project
Community Solutions (in conjunction with Louise Crossley and Jackie Ohlin) worked with the Baulkham Hills Shire Council and the University of Western Sydney 'ecoprofessoriate' to explore opportunities for collaborative projects on integrated social, environmental and economic development in the area. The process involved research on the needs in the area, reporting on the economic activities being undertaken, and extensive community consultation with a variety of interest groups. Liaising with the Council and UWS was a key part of this project.

Additional Projects include:

Incentives for conservation of biodiversity'Missed Opportunities' Women in Australian Agriculture project
Consumers' review of Telstra's consumer consultative process
NSW Women's Centre feasibility study
FNQ 2010 community conservation plan

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