Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE)

Earlier this year, Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) asked whether collaborative commissioning could offer a better way to fund change. Many of you shared thoughtful questions and reflections. Communities across the 2025 Listening Tour have echoed the need for change, highlighting short-term funding, heavy compliance and siloed service systems that make long-term impact difficult.  Now we invite you to join us to continue the conversation with guest panelists: 👉 Alison Roberts, Commissioner, Productivity Commission 👉 Clayton Noble, CEO, United Way Australia 👉 Luke Craven, CEO, Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) 📅 Wednesday 10 December 2025 🕐 12:30pm to 2:00pm AEDT  🌐 Online via Zoom ➡️ FREE registration here: https://lnkd.in/gbqShi4R Panelists will explore whether collaborative commissioning can help or hinder:  💡 Building trust and including diverse voices  💡Designing services around local needs  💡Reducing duplication and simplifying funding  💡Supporting small and community-led providers  💡Strengthening governance and community capability  💡Community capital building Bring your questions and join the discussion! #collaborativesolutions #collaborativecommissioning #placebasedchange

Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) is working with communities, governments, providers, commissioners and funders to identify opportunities to reshape funding, engagement and shared decision-making approaches. In October, we welcomed several Stronger Places, Stronger People (SPSP) communities to our Brisbane office for a workshop focused on how shared decision-making can drive better outcomes for communities, providers and funders alike. The workshop offered a valuable opportunity to learn from practice and explore what it takes to share power and responsibility in meaningful ways. So, what is shared decision-making? As defined in PLACE’s Listening Tour report: 👉  When communities have real authority over decisions that affect them, not just input or consultation.  👉  This means voting power, control over budgets, and the ability to shape how services are designed and delivered.  👉  Shared decision-making is about sharing power between different groups, and is rooted in the principles of subsidiarity, accountability and partnership. 👉  It is a spectrum, evolving as trust, capability and relationships deepen. At PLACE, we’re committed to continuing this work collaboratively and look forward to continuing to work with the place based initiatives working toward shared decision making with government. Burnie Works Far West Community Partnerships Gladstone Region engaging in action Together (GRT) Hands Up Mallee Logan Together Maranguka Community Hub #shareddecisionmaking #placebased #collaboration #StrongerPlaceStrongerPeople #subsidiarity #accountability #partnership

Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) congratulates Jane McCracken, Executive Officer at Hands Up Mallee, on being recognised as the Loddon Mallee Aboriginal Community Justice Local Hero 2025. Jane’s leadership exemplifies what genuine, respectful, and community-led partnership looks like. Through Hands Up Mallee, she has shown how non-Aboriginal individuals and organisations can walk alongside Aboriginal leaders - listening deeply, acting with humility, and being guided by community knowledge and authority. Congratulations Jane, and all at Hands Up Mallee, on this well-deserved recognition. #CommunityLedChange #PlaceBasedChange #ListeningAndLearning #JusticeOutcomes

Strong communities, strong nation: What the regions teach us On Ngunnawal Country this week, The Hon Andrew Leigh MP reminded the Regional Australia Institute ‘Regions Rising National Summit’ that connection, trust, and local leadership sit at the heart of our national prosperity. From Birdsville to Arlparra, he spoke about the ingenuity and resilience of regional Australia, and of the local people who hold their communities together, often quietly, and often without fanfare. We could not agree more that when locals are trusted to lead, they build futures that last. It was great to see Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) recognised alongside others for helping to scale that work, and for spreading the spark of community-led change more widely. As Dr Leigh put it, community building is what sustains us. That’s what PLACE is here to do - back local leadership, strengthen collaboration, and make sure community voices shape the systems that affect them. 📑 Read Dr Leigh’s full speech here: https://lnkd.in/gMPvGqKF #CommunityBuilding #RegionalAustralia #SystemsChange #PLACEAustralia #RIAA #ConnectedCommunities #LocalLeadership #Resilience #NationalProsperity

📢 PLACE eNews – September edition now live Board Update: Strengthening PLACE’s leadership PLACE is pleased to announce the appointment of Vanessa Elliott AM, Professor Tom Calma AO and Natalie Siegel-Brown to the Board. They join Jane Halton AO PSM FAICD and Sean Gordon AM, bringing deep expertise and commitment to advancing place-based work nationally. At the same time, we extend our sincere thanks to founding directors Hon Fred Chaney AO and Professor Robynne Quiggin AO, whose guidance and leadership have shaped PLACE since its beginning. Our September edition also features updates on PLACE’s work nationally.  📖 Read the PLACE September eNews https://lnkd.in/gmS_Ye4K  👉 Learn more about our Board https://lnkd.in/ghKBFNxf 📝 Stay connected with our work - sign up to receive the PLACE enews https://lnkd.in/gv-wz6dd 📸 Photography by Jillian Mundy, PLACE Listening Tour 2025.

Shaping Change Together: PLACE in Action Over the past month, Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) has been connecting with communities, practitioners, and leaders nationally. With a focus on community-led solutions to complex challenges, we’ve been listening, sharing insights, and engaging in conversations across employment services, cultural understanding, evaluation, and disaster recovery. Here are some highlights 👇 🎤 Joining conversations on tackling long-term unemployment at the National Employment Services Association (NESA) National Conference in Melbourne 📊 Exploring new approaches to commissioning and evaluation at Australian Evaluation Society (AES) 2025 in Canberra 🏥 Learning from community-led innovation at the Primary Health Network (PHN) Innovation Showcase in Newcastle 🏛️ Engaging in people-centred dialogue with local government in Perth 🌱 Attending the launch of Pirie Voices in Port Pirie, amplifying 1,000 community perspectives Port Pirie Regional Council ✨ Deepening cultural understanding on Country with Hands Up Mallee in Mildura ⚡ Participating in dialogue on collaboration and democracy at the Gippsland New Energy Conference Gippsland Climate Change Network Inc. 🌿 Listening to community perspectives on disaster recovery in East Gippsland Monash University 💡 A clear thread emerged: lasting change happens when communities are at the centre shaping, leading, and being heard. 👉 Read the full post here: https://lnkd.in/g_i-t7Jx #PLACE #CommunityLed #ShapingChangeTogether #PlaceBased  Eve Millar Andrew Davitt Jane Anderson Jeanelle Gibson Matt Mulcahy Nicholas Hill Stephanie Tchan Patrick Cooke 📸 Images courtesy of Pirie Voices, Hands Up Mallee, AES and NESA 2025.

🌍 Why short-term funding won’t solve long-term challenges. 💬 Rethinking how we fund change: an invitation to explore collaborative commissioning. 🚩 What communities told us on the 2025 Listening Tour:  🔹 Funding is short-term and rigid  🔹 Compliance is heavy  🔹 Services often work in silos rather than together These challenges are shaped by siloed and fragmented funding models. Traditional purchaser–provider approaches often emphasise compliance, outputs, and competition - making it harder to build trust, foster collaboration and make progress on complex issues like disadvantage. But there’s another way ✨ 👉 Collaborative commissioning puts communities at the centre. It enables trusted regional commissioners to work with communities, pool funding, and design and purchase services that genuinely meet community needs. 👉 This approach makes place-based solutions possible at scale and creates fairer outcomes for those experiencing the greatest disadvantage. 📢 Over the next few weeks, PLACE will share short explainers on what collaborative commissioning means, how it could work in practice, and why it matters. 💬 We want your voice in the conversation: What would you like to know about collaborative commissioning? Do you see it building trust or creating new barriers? 💡 Share your thoughts via the Slido in our PDF here https://lnkd.in/gdyuvQy8 🙌 Add your perspective in the comments below, or tag someone whose insights should be part of this dialogue. 🔗 Read the full blog here https://lnkd.in/gngQ8s8f YouthWorX NT #collaborative #commissioning #funding #place #based #solutions

📢 Opportunity: Children in the North Alliance Evaluation Minderoo Foundation, in collaboration with the South Australian Government, is inviting organisations to engage in the market process for the upcoming evaluation of the Children in the North Alliance (CITN) - a $20M, 10-year partnership driving better outcomes for children in northern South Australia. 📅 Vendor Briefing Webinar – 15 September 2025, 11am AWST  📝 Post-webinar survey to confirm interest & provide feedback  📌 Tender opens 24 Sept 2025, closes 13 Oct 2025, with contracts commencing Feb 2026  🔗 Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/gwddcx65 

✨ Social Impact in the Regions 2025 – Highlights from PLACE Enable ✨ Last week the PLACE Enable team joined 200+ delegates in Grafton, NSW, for Social Impact in the Regions (SIITR). Over 3 days, we explored practical pathways for systemic change in Australia, and hosted a hands-on interactive workshop on “Key Skills for Place-Based Work”. Workshop participants highlighted the value of: ✅ Deep Listening as a top ranked skill  ✅ Communities as the authorising environment  ✅ Funders as key partners in collaboration Top SITTR takeaways for the team: ✨ The innovation and resilience of young people in creating social enterprises that respond directly to community needs  ✨ The need for sustainable funding in workforce planning  ✨ The importance of flexible, real-world learning pathways We are grateful to Kerry Grace, Chad Renando, Ready Communities, and everyone who shared ideas and energy with us. 🔗 Check out our full recap here: https://lnkd.in/gYUVxSG9 #Enable #Regional #Conference #Collaboration #Community  Jane Anderson Susan Kukucka Suji U. Stephanie Tchan Sarah Marlor

✨ Enable in Grafton ✨ The PLACE Enable team has landed in Grafton for the Social Impact in the Regions conference this week, with conversations, sessions and connections already underway. Tomorrow, the team will present and share their work, and we’re looking forward to it. 💬 Reflections from the day: A powerful Welcome to Country from Marc Daley, accompanied by the singing of the Clarence River, set the tone on Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr, and Yaegl lands. 🔹 Natalie Egleton, FRRR (Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal) – on place, power and possibility. A reminder not to replicate old rules and practices.  🔹 Margot Beach, Dusseldorp Forum – “community cannot lead alone without power and authority leaning in.”  🔹 Dr Kim Houghton, Economist – on power, accountability and trust, and how things shift from place to place.  🔹 Elly Bird, Resilient Lismore – on community leadership and governance: “we just want to lead our own futures.”  🔹 Jane Anderson, Enable Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) – introducing PLACE and sharing Listening Tour reflections on capital flows, social capital and community finances. Big thanks to everyone who shared, listened and leaned in. ➡️ Stay tuned for our workshop follow-up. PLACE #ENABLE team: Jane Anderson Suji U. Sarah Marlor Susan Kukucka Stephanie Tchan #RegionalConference #Collaboration #Community