Mainstreaming change: learning from community strengthening in Victoria

This paper considers the lessons from community strengthening projects instigated under the Victorian State Government's Community Building Initiative and considers the implications of these lessons for future community strengthening policy and practice in Victoria. The first section of the paper explores the rise of more 'community' focused policy and practice in Australia, the drivers behind this approach, and the tensions and issues along the way. This is followed by an outline of the specific policy context of community strengthening in Victoria and the approach by the Victorian State Government since 1999. The paper suggests that the policy direction in Victoria has moved from a projects based approach to looking at ways of 'mainstreaming' community strengthening. The paper then considers the findings of a research project which sought to understand, from a practice perspective, what factors have contributed to successful community strengthening. It is suggested that a community centred approach to community strengthening is what works best. The final section of the paper considers what these findings mean in the context of a search for more 'mainstreamed' approaches to community strengthening and a number of key strategies are identified. The paper concludes with some comments about the implications of the lessons from the 'experimenting' phase for alternative public policy ideas.