Engaging with rural and regional communities: community capacity building online toolkit

Summary

Welcome to the Get involved community capacity building toolkit. This toolkit aims to support rural and regional Queenslanders as they work towards increasingly sustainable, liveable and prosperous rural communities.

The toolkit provides practical, easy to read information and resources that will be useful whether you are a community development worker, a state or local government officer working with communities, or an individual with a passion for a project that will benefit your community.

The toolkit includes many suggestions for effective ways to work with communities, links to extra resources, funding sources, tips on helpful contacts, and stories from people who have worked together to improve their community in both large and small ways. Most of the material has been drawn from Australian research and experiences, although there are also links to particularly useful international resources.

The toolkit has been developed by the Queensland Department of Communities in response to conversations with people in rural and regional communities through the Blueprint for the Bush. It also has links with the Strengthening NGOs project, particularly the Community Door website — a 'one-stop shop' for information, tools and resources to support community-based organisations in Queensland.

Contents

• Introduction
• Building strong local communities
• Using your community's strengths
• Making local connections
• Identifying opportunities
• Effective community organisations
• Community leadership
• Community brokerage
• Maintaining the momentum
• Who can help
• Building strong local economy
• Understanding the local economy
• Establishing new businesses
• Attracting dollars to the community
• Helping local businesses to grow
• Making money work locally
• Maintaining infrastructure
• Getting skills and training
• Connecting with your community
• Encouraging People to be Involved
• Knowing who to contact
• Getting everyone invovled
• Working with volunteers
• Making connections outside your community
• Programs and projects
• Funding options
• Useful resources