Collaboration for Impact

📣 Community foundations are vital infrastructures for local decision-making and agency. Capital that is governed locally, with equity and wellbeing at its heart, is a powerful force for community-led change. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing movement for fairness and wellbeing in our communities!

Join our CEO, Anna Powell, and Janine Dureau, CEO at Kimberly Aboriginal Women’s Council, at the Advancing Equity Summit on 17 & 18 October on Kabi Kabi Country, Noosa Queensland.   In their plenary session, Anna and Janine will discuss what it takes to build the conditions in Australia for community-led systems change for a vision of peace, healing and equity.  When there is equity, there is wholeness. Our oldest surviving culture on earth is valued. Our communities thrive. We make better decisions because more voices are heard and elevated. Our institutions are more accountable, and our democracy works for all, not just a few. Register now for this event (https://lnkd.in/eMDJCsTS) and join the conversation.  

On the anniversary of the Voice Referendum, many of us are reflecting and speculating on what it was, what it meant, and where to from here.  Last year, we reflected with partners on what collaboration for peace-building and healing might look like after the Referendum, knowing that the work would continue, regardless of the post-Referendum scenario.  According to the scenario work done by CFI, the 2023 Referendum results fall between Scenario #1, Stabilising the Base, and Scenario #4, Narrow Escape. Strikingly, the 2023 results and the 1999 results on the question of First Nations acknowledgement in the Australian Constitution are extremely similar. Overall percentages were close to identical: 60% NO and 40% YES.  There were some shifts in the electorate-level analysis, but the pattern remained largely similar. This means that while there are many indicators of change in the Australian relationships with First Nations, the Referendum results remained fixed for a generation between 1999 to 2023. Today, as a diverse team, composed of First Nations leadership, coloniser and convict descendants, and multi-generation migrants, we acknowledged we live and work on unceded Aboriginal lands. We reflected together on what we are seeing in the national, state, regional, community and individual work for collaboration for peace-building and healing on the anniversary of the Referendum vote. One year on, we see a lot of Both/And. The Referendum result was sweet (unprecedented support for self-determination, among Yes and some No voters) and sour (the fight for justice and truth-telling, and against racism, continues). We feel peace and fire, hope and fear, inspiration and frustration.  One year on, we hear calls for unity, but these can disguise calls for assimilation. What is needed is more collaboration that values differences of culture and knowledges. This means working together in the messy middle spaces shared by First Nations and other multicultural Australians, centring equity and justice. This work ebbs and flows and calls for courage and truth-telling. Across Australia, we see communities and networks continue to advance this work. We recognise the uneven load in the fight for justice and self-determination that is carried by First Nations peoples in Australia, especially women, in the aftermath of the Referendum. Yet there is love and strength, as our collaborative work for peace-building and collective healing continues. Anna Powell Mark Yettica-Paulson Sarah Callaghan Susan Yazbeck Min Wah Voon Angela Rutter John Hibble Bec Fry @rodney green Caroline Aow Muktasree Chakma Monique Lerchner Laura Barnes

🍵 Don't forget to register for next Tuesday 15 October (12.30-2pm AEST)! ChangeFest is delighted to host the next Learning Network lunchtime session with the Barkly Backbone Community Researchers, “Working in the Middle Space: Our way of understanding, measuring, evaluating and learning in the Barkly”. You will hear directly from the Community Researchers about bringing together Wumpurani (Aboriginal) and Papulanji (Non-Aboriginal) into the Middle Space - a shared way of working. This means walking together on one path to better understand, measure, evaluate, learn and improve things for people in the Barkly. Whether you work in community, government, the wider social sector, or business, you will have a chance to pause, reflect, connect with, and learn from peers and leaders. With the purpose of building connection and dialogue, this session will not be recorded. 👉 Register here (https://lnkd.in/gqQJPMwh). 📣 Subscribe to ChangeFest updates (https://lnkd.in/gimyJzvz)

📣Are you, or do you know, an early childhood development professional who wants to work systemically and collectively to transform our early learning system, so all children thrive?   We love partnering with The Front Project on the Apiary Fellowship to help build participants’ capabilities for collective leadership. From understanding power and agency, through to building a collective agenda, Apiary Fellows learn and connect with peers from across Australia. Together they build collective leadership capacity and collaborate to create change for the benefit of children, families and communities, now and for the future. 

In the context of community-led change, how do we create governance that centres equity and shifts power to diverse perspectives, while meeting current realities of risk and compliance?    Here in Australia, more than 90 communities are organising social infrastructure for decision-making that centres community leadership, a shared vision and community-identified priorities.    For community-led systems change to be effective and equitable, we need innovations in models for governance. This is because more of the status quo of decision-making is not enough to shift power.     We are delighted to share learning and emerging innovations in how governance models can centre equity and be fit-for-purpose at the Advancing Equity Summit on 17 & 18 October on Kabi Kabi Country, Noosa Queensland.    Sarah Callaghan, who leads CFI’s work on Equitable Democracies, will speak on addressing inequity through new forms of governance, that build agency and accountability to community, including with First Nations peoples.     “I’m really looking forward to being part of this conversation because equity in governance is essential to community-led change,” says Sarah. “It’s about rebuilding our sense of agency and strengthening fairness, democracy and wellbeing in our communities.”    Learn more and register here (https://lnkd.in/eMDJCsTS) Olivia Naughtin Marion Wands Thalep Ahmat Liz Mackinlay

🍵 ChangeFest is delighted to host the next Learning Network lunchtime session on Tuesday 15 October with the Barkly Backbone Community Researchers, “Working in the Middle Space: Our way of understanding, measuring, evaluating and learning in the Barkly”.    You will hear directly from the Community Researchers about bringing together Wumpurani (Aboriginal) and Papulanji (Non-Aboriginal) into the Middle Space - a shared way of working. This means walking together on one path to better understand, measure, evaluate, learn and improve things for people in the Barkly.     Whether you work in community, government, the wider social sector, or business, you will have a chance to pause, reflect, connect with, and learn from peers and leaders. With the purpose of building connection and dialogue, this session will not be recorded.    👉 Register here (https://lnkd.in/gqQJPMwh).      📣 Subscribe to ChangeFest updates (https://lnkd.in/gMjPRSzP) 

Join our CEO, Anna Powell, and Janine Dureau, CEO at Kimberly Aboriginal Women’s Council, at the Advancing Equity Summit on 17 & 18 October on Kabi Kabi Country, Noosa Queensland. In their plenary session, Anna and Janine will discuss what it takes to build the conditions in Australia for community-led systems change for a vision of peace, healing and equity.  As First Nations peoples and other multicultural Australians, we all have a role to play to re-pattern power, relationships and structures to be more equitable and do our part of this inter-generational work of transforming systems.  Register now (https://lnkd.in/eMDJCsTS) and join the conversation.

As the case for investing in systems change builds momentum, one area needs strengthening: how the strategy, practice and evaluation of systems change come together. This is why we’re delighted to invite you to join our CEO, Anna Powell, and Jess Dart, CEO at Clear Horizon on this unique course.    If you want to deepen your knowledge and expand your networks to design and evaluate system changing initiatives, then this course is for you. Over 6 weeks, we bring together theory and practice in a way you can apply to your context – whether that is a cross-sector collaboration, a community or national strategy, or your organisation. This course is a great entry point into systems change for practitioners and evaluators.     Learn more and register here: https://lnkd.in/gd6bgMVy

Thank you Social Impact in the Regions Conference on Dunghutti Country! We loved connecting with changemakers on three dimensions of regional governance for community-led change: 📍Equity 📍Boundaries📍Accountability    We began by sharing what we and our brilliant partners at #Rockhampton, Western Downs Futures and Kimberley Aboriginal Women's Council (https://lnkd.in/gMGfff8E) are learning in our work together. We then opened it up for a buzzing and insightful dialogue. Our reflections and explorations included:     📍Equity  ▪ To move from equality to equity, we need to create safe spaces to listen to under-represented perspectives and elevate the voices of people with lived experience.   ▪ Natural (and other) disruptions provide an opportunity for reimagining governance models that centre equity.   ▪ Collectives and organisations like Kimberly Aboriginal Women’s Council are creating and testing new approaches for equity in governance. KAWC is supporting Aboriginal women to influence and complement traditional Aboriginal and Western structures that are male dominated. This involves working with men and women, Aboriginal women and allies, at a local, regional and state level.    📍Boundaries  ▪ Boundaries shape the purpose of our collaborations, how we think about community, who we need to engage, and who makes decisions about what.   Local government areas are not always helpful when thinking about boundaries; rather, where and how do people live, work and connect?   ▪ Boundaries are not fixed and are multi-layered. They are cultural, generational, and geographical (bioregional), and more.    ▪ Understanding boundaries and their fluidity is key to systems change. Boundaries shape power, purpose and identity. They hold us (sometimes helpfully, sometimes not) and we need to navigate and challenge them for community-led change.     📍Accountability  ▪ Community members are often disconnected from decision-making and accountability.   ▪ How can we build our collective leadership and understand our own power, so we can engage in mutual accountability with others (e.g. government, service providers)?    ▪ We can learn from other models of governance and what others are trying. For example, Western Down Futures is testing and developing different community-based working groups.      What’s next?  There's a strong appetite to continue to hear good news stories and share knowledge.  One place is the new ChangeFest Learning Network, where you can connect with peers and leaders – year-round - on how communities are leading systems change.  Register here (https://lnkd.in/gqQJPMwh)