Armstrong, Anona and Francis, Ronald (2004) The role of community governance in public sector programs and initiatives. In: Integrated Governance: Linking up Government, Business & Civil Society, 25-26 October 2004, Prato, Italy. (Unpublished)

Abstract

Government programs are increasingly targeting community support to build cohesive communities and reduce inequalities These programs support organizations which develop partnerships with local government, business and other government agencies, joined up government (which is the sharing of data, information and knowledge across government agencies and community groups), and promotion of community ownership of and capacity to address local community problems. Encouragement of partnerships across agencies is termed a 'Whole of Government' initiative. The whole of government approach brings together different government departments to address community problems which are seen as having multiple causes, effects and remedies. Community governance is concerned with the structures and processes for decision making at a community level. It is concerned with the capacity to function well, that is, the interaction of the human capital, organizational resources and social capital that can be leveraged to solve collective problems or maintain the well-being of a community. The purpose of this paper is to describe a study of community governance in six local government areas where safety committees were established to provide a community focus to crime prevention initiatives. The study addressed the questions: What evidence was there of 'whole of government', 'joined up government', and community ownership'? To what extent do partnerships strengthen community building and capacity to prevent crime? What roles do the local stakeholders play in decision making? What factors inhibit or promote successful community governance?

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