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2006 Conference Papers and Speeches

 

'The UNAP model of community engagement'

It gives me great pleasure to speak today on behalf of AUCEA. I will present what UniSA is doing through its Northern Adelaide Partnerships (UNAP) program and in so doing seek to inform the discussion which is taking place around community engagement. See AUCEA website for full speech http://aucea.med.monash.edu.au:8080/traction/permalink/Website52

'New Governance for Sustained Collaboration: The Northern Adelaide Experience'

Mike Elliott and Peter Sandeman

In late 2002 the South Australian Government established the Office of the North to coordinate its activities across the local government areas of Playford, Salisbury and Gawler (northern Adelaide) an area of significant disadvantage.


The University of South Australia at the same time created UniSA Northern Adelaide Partnerships (UNAP) to operate in the same geographical area. This program commenced as a way of coordinating UniSA’s involvement with the community particularly to improve educational and employment outcomes.
The Director of the Office of the North, Peter Sandeman, and the Director of UNAP, Mike Elliott, agreed at the outset that it would be nonsense for them to separately establish partnerships.

The major challenge confronting them was the disparate conversations between various arms of government and community, parts of the university, and the myriad ambitions of the “players” in northern Adelaide, which lead to duplication, unaddressed gaps, missed opportunities for synergy and poor program sustainability.
What the authors felt was necessary was a governance structure which created sustainable collaborations based on common interests/ areas of operating from which would emerge shared visions and agreed planning frameworks that lead to mutual benefits for those involved and particularly the northern community.
They believed that the formation of key strategy groups composed of senior people from relevant agencies could oversee the partnerships.
They foresaw an economic strategy group, a children and families strategy group, and a youth strategy group to underpin joint planning and collaborative action.
The Northern Adelaide Economic Development Alliance, the northern Child and Families Strategy Group and Northern Futures are now carrying out those roles.
This paper analyses the lessons learned in pursing regional governance for sustained collaboration from the perspectives of a state government place manager and a university community engagement facilitator.

(see http://www.public-policy.unimelb.edu.au/conference06/Sandeman.pdf  for complete paper)

 

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