Shared Action

Shared Action is a three year community development project run by St. Luke's and funded by the Potter Foundation. It aimed to promote safety and well-being of children in Long Gully (Bendigo) by working with adults and groups in the community to mobilise resources and undertake community building activities.

A vision of a healthy, safe and pleasant community was developed by reference groups in the community and two projects were selected that would begin progress towards achieving the vision. The projects were chosen because it was seen that they had the potential to promote greater levels of community trust after which all other parts of the vision would be easily achieved.
One project was to build a park and has involved the community researching what people want in the park, negotiating with local government, other funding sources and the architect. Many forms of community participation have been built into the plan for building the park such as the involvement of secondary school students in the building work, community leaders with the student groups and primary school students in building mosaic pavers to place in the park paths.
The second project was to establish a Sport and Recreation Club which assists local people to join existing activities in the wider Bendigo area and supports several activities such as a history group, a walking group, an adult social netball team and an under 12 football team. Participants in the club are involved in ongoing training to ensure their ability to continue with the club when Shared Action finishes up in December 1999.

Ensuring sustainability of initiatives has been a focus from early on and includes the inclusion of the Sport and Recreation Club as a subcommittee of the Long Gully Community House, the establishment of a combined agencies 'community building' group and ongoing support of the Community House by St. Luke's.

Benefits to the Community
While long term change in safety, health and education of children in the community will be measured in years to come, the short term benefits include:

• people have developed new friendships, some of which are very supportive and have alleviated the need for intervention by Child Protection services.
• people have participated in community activities, some for the first time, and there is an overall increased level of participation.
• individuals report positive mental health and social gains as a result of being involved
• individuals report that they believe there is more trust in the community
• a greater sense of shared responsibility for the welfare of children in the community is evident
• confidence in the community that projects are achievable and that individuals can work as a group to achieve a community goal.
• a greater capacity to obtain resources from outside based on a new awareness of who to contact about what, awareness of bureaucratic processes and enhanced communication skills.
• infrastucture has been introduced into the community that facilitates the ongoing development of trust, interaction and social support.

The way Shared Action went about working with the community is integrally related to the outcomes achieved. Important process principles include that:

• community members were consulted about what and how to do things at all stages.
• all action is done with one or more community members
• the role was not to provide the service/do the project but to facilitate community members to achieve their goals.
• action reflected the priorities of community members not workers.
• the focus was on activity that helped to work towards a positive picture of the future rather than maintaining a focus on what was 'wrong' or 'inadequate'.
• the goals of respect and safety were reflected in the relationships established between workers and community members.
• community members were facilitated to reflect on achievements and to evaluate the progress of projects.
• resources were directed towards training of community members to enable them to take on leadership roles.

Shared Action Celebrating Planning

Shared Action Final Report 2000

Sometimes Winning is Losing

Shared Action Evaluation 2002

Contacting Us
Information concerning 'Shared Action' can be obtained from our Bendigo Office