Community development

Community development has many definitions, some very sweeping, some practical and close to home. All definitions have in common the goal of greater community self-reliance and self-direction at the local, and sometimes regional, level, achieved by people acting together to improve outcomes for their communities. These can be people acting as individual citizens, as members of a community group, as decision-makers and in public and private institutions.

Community development has become a field of recognised professional skill and methodology. As a firm, our expertise is not as community development specialists, but lies rather in helping players identify and apply the tools available for managing community development processes and achieving tangible results for the community concerned.

A tool we are particularly committed to using is the community outcomes process introduced under the New Zealand Local Government Act in 2000. The section of our website on strategy describes this in more detail and illustrates the kind of work we do in this still new and evolving area.

Equally, our work on partnerships and contracting has a strong community development orientation. We believe that the end result of a successful partnership or contract for services delivered through community organisations is strengthened skills in the community to plan, organise and carry out initiatives reflecting that community’s unique needs and aspirations.