CommunitiesThrive® sees needs as opportunities, and councils as inseparable from their community. Our Reviews identify opportunities for sustainable local development, organisational and service development, and the alignment thereof.
Having reviewed dozens of needs assessments, organisational reviews, and service delivery reviews as part of our strategic planning work, we have identified many limitations of their design and methods that lead to ill-informed decision-making and resource allocation. To improve community and organisational outcomes, we have developed innovative solutions to these limitations.
The discussion that follows is framed as a response to the requirements of councils; however, our solutions can create value for all organisations seeking to identify local needs and opportunities. Whilst the full benefit of our solutions is delivered through a comprehensive package that is uniquely integrative, we can also provide individual solutions to support your organisation’s existing work.
Aims, Common Limitations and Our Solutions
Through our Local Opportunities Reviews (LORs), we work to: (1) ensure comprehensive needs and opportunities assessment; (2) provide detailed analysis by demographic and suburb; (3) provide options to address the identified issues; (4) ensure good practice centred in relevant contemporary frameworks; and (5) align and unify the council with its community through integrated review.
| # | Aim and Common Limitations | Our Solution |
| 1 | Ensure comprehensive needs and opportunities assessment Commonly limited by not accounting for all types of need and opportunity | We undertake comprehensive assessment of social, environmental, economic and civic leadership needs and opportunities that are: (a) expressed, based on current and previous engagement undertaken at the local, regional and state levels; (b) normative, based on socio-spatial analysis, growth scenarios, and applicable guidelines and regulations; and (c) comparative, based on benchmarking against comparative areas. The resulting completeness of understanding supports effective prioritisation and resource allocation across all issues. |
| 2 | Provide detailed analysis by demographic and suburb Commonly limited by reliance on whole-of-LGA data (e.g. total unemployment rate) | We examine the socio-spatial variability of all issues by demographic and suburb. For example, we examine local labour force participation by age, gender, disability and diversity status, educational attainment, field of study, industry, and occupation; and then we map it by suburb. This might, for example, lead to the finding that residents of non-English-speaking background in a specific township are disadvantaged in respect to certain employment opportunities, and thereby inform strategy for local skills and sector development. |
| 3 | Provide options to address the identified issues Commonly limited by lack of literature review and modelling | Working closely with your council, we select three or more key issues from the findings; and then we undertake a review of relevant scientific literature, reporting on evidence-informed interventions that your council may wish to consider. Additionally, where appropriate we employ deep learning techniques to model the issues using IBM’s Watson® technology, reporting on original prospective solutions. |
| 4 | Ensure good practice centred in relevant contemporary frameworks Commonly limited by the use of arbitrary and non-current frameworks | To ensure good practice in our LORs and the strategic initiatives they inform, we have developed an original framework for local government through the review, synthesis and adaptation of current global frameworks, including the UN’s Needs Analysis Framework (2007) and Sustainable Development Goals (2015), and recent responses to the Sarkozy Commission’s (2009) call for policy use of subjective well-being metrics. |
| 5 | Align and unify the council with its community through integrated review Commonly limited by conducting internal and external reviews separately | We can conduct community, organisational and service delivery reviews in tandem through an integrated process that applies the same methods internally as externally. As part of this, we leverage Census and OLG data to develop an understanding of the comparative composition and over-time changes of your council’s: (a) financials by service area; and (b) workforce by age, gender, disability and diversity status, educational attainment, field of study, functional area, and overall FTE. Then we leverage our Integrated Planning methods to review your strategy, and our Representative Surveys methods to survey your staff on issues such as: (a) individual autonomy, mastery, purpose, satisfaction and well-being; and (b) organisational culture, performance, strategy, structure and systems. Through this combined community-and-council review, we provide new insights into the relative performance of your council and its services and identify opportunities for positive change. |
We’d love to talk to you about how we can help your community and organisation to thrive. Please Contact Us to start the conversation.
© CommunitiesThrive® 2019 | ABN 48 789 494 281
25 King Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
hello@communitiesthrive.com.au