Welfare Reform on the Web (December 2003): Community Regeneration and Development - Overseas

COMMUNITY CAPACITY BUILDING: STARTING WITH PEOPLE NOT PROJECTS

L. Simpson, L. Wood and L. Daws

Community Development Journal, vol.38, 2003, p.277-286

Paper explores the impact of a community development initiative based on community empowerment and capacity building on a small town in remote Western Queensland. Suggests that significant pressures, such as limitations in available time, money and energy, influence the ability of rural communities to take control of, and accept responsibility for, their own futures to the extent currently considered appropriate by the government. The challenge for government is how to enable processes of capacity building, consultation and community ownership without placing unreasonable pressures on residents of rural communities.