Community Structures to be documented

A Proposal for the Development and Documentation of Structures for Community Working Parties in 16 Communities within the Murdi Paaki Region

ACCORD and Maari Ma Health have won a grant from ATSIC to develop and document structures for Community Working Parties in the communities of:

• Dareton
• Broken Hill
• Menindee
• Wilcannia
• Cobar
• Ivanhoe
• Bourke
• Enngonia
• Weilmoringle
• Goodooga
• Lightning Ridge
• Coonamble
• Gulargambone
• Brewarrina
• Walgett
• Collarenebri

The roles of Community Working Parties in each community are to be defined, as are the functions and activities of Indigenous service providers.

The outcomes of the project are to include, inter alia, the following:

• A Community Working Party structure that meets the needs of the individual communities and that takes into account the dynamics of indigenous service providers;
• The development of an operating/planning manual to assist Community Working Parties in their roles;
• The development of rules and objectives for each Community Working Party; and
• The provision of a structure that will allow the Murdi Paaki Regional Council to better deliver the CDEP program by taking into account the role of the Community Working Parties.

Proposed Methodology

The proposed methodology incorporates a skill-building component that will empower the Community Working Parties for the future. It is proposed that the majority of field-work be carried out by Community Working Party nominees, who will be trained by the consultants to collect information from their community. Central to that information collection will be a very simple process known as Technology of Participation (ToP) that has proven very effective in drawing a range of views into a consensus. The process was developed by the Institute of Cultural Affairs in Chicago during the 1960s to deal successfully with the conflicting parties and issues involved in the redevelopment of some of the less affluent parts of the city.