Community Industry Group is calling on candidates for the upcoming NSW election to declare their
support for the ongoing funding of programs delivered by small to medium local, place based
services, including community centres and neighbourhood centres, and recognise their valuable
contribution to the development of engaged, supportive and connected communities.
“Government policy has been changing the way comm unity organisations access the funding they
need to deliver their services,” said Nicky Sloan, CEO of Community Industry Group. “We are
increas ingly seeing small place -based funding contracts being collapsed into large regional or state –
based delivery mode ls. C ommunity services providers are now effectively competing with those
organisations they used to collaborate with, and that can only impact negatively on the people who
desperately need their services. ”
Small and medium place -based community organisations have often grown as a result of local
community need. They are deeply embedded and enjoy relationships of trust with their
communities, have a strong understanding of local needs and issues, and are able to vary their
delivery to respond quic kly to changing community needs. Current policy is putting their existence in
jeopardy. Loss of funding contracts would herald the closure of many of these agencies, and the
forfeiture of many decades of community engagement.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Ms Sloan said. “We recognise and value our large community service
organisations of course, but t he business sector has long recognised the value of small business. Just
like small businesses, local community organisations employ locals, understand their community.
and offer responsive services. We need a rich and diverse community service sector which values
large, medium and small providers – just like the business sector.”
A number of local organisations have already been lost in this region, while others have tu rned to
larger organisations to take over their service delivery. These organisations have often been formed
by the community and governed by community members for many years. We need our candidates
to recognise the value of this social infrastructure, and to fight to suport it, before it is too late.
