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Community brokerage

Community brokers (or facilitators) work with communities to help identify and develop local strategies to build more sustainable communities. Their role is to facilitate local community coordination and support community members taking practical action on local issues.

Ideally, community brokers are skilled community members, or perhaps a staff member of a local organisation such as:

  • local government;
  • a state government employee such as the Department of Communities’ Rural and Regional Communities Officers or the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries’ regional officers; or
  • a regional development organisation, Chamber of Commerce or not-for-profit organisation.

However, sometimes community brokers need to be engaged from other places.

If you are planning to engage a community broker, it’s important to ensure that he/she has the skills your community needs. You might want to ask questions such as:

  • Which communities have you worked with previously?
  • Who did you work with in that community? (organisations/individuals)
  • How do you get to know and build support in a community?
  • What kinds of projects have you worked with community members on? What was your role in these projects?
  • What external resources and links do you help communities to tap into?

Community brokerage in action

— Miriam Vale—

Miriam Vale Community Development Inc was formed in June 2000. The group saw the value of approaching a community broker to help guide them through a range of capacity building processes that would support their desire to achieve benefits for their community. These processes included:

  • facilitating numerous workshops with local young people, and community members more generally, including Working Towards Success, Belbin, Myers Briggs, Reality Action and Project Planning;
  • introducing the group to networking opportunities, including linking small businesses to the Department of State Development regional officers;
  • encouraging the group to present their achievements in appropriate forums, such as Positive Rural Futures conferences;
  • assisting with successful submissions, in particular funding for the employment of a project coordinator;
  • liaising and supporting the community to participate in the Ian Plowman-led ‘Innovative Communities’ research; and
  • providing guidance and facilitation support for the Miriam Vale Community Expo.

Extra resources

  • Rural and regional communities officers (RRCOs) are the ‘face’ of the Blueprint for the Bush in rural Queensland. RRCOs work closely with rural communities and organisations, providing a link between community groups and government and non-government agencies in their region. They are also able to provide information and advice to communities and organisations wishing to apply for grants available through Blueprint for the Bush programs and initiatives. Five of the RRCOs are profiled in the second edition of the Bush e-Telegraph.
  • The Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries employs approximately 4000 staff located in offices throughout Queensland, shown on this map. Contact details for the main regional offices are available on the DPIF site.

 

Last reviewed
09 June 2011
Last updated
20 June 2011