NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet
Partnering with local government to strengthen social cohesion
Social cohesion is at the heart of strong, resilient communities. However, maintaining social cohesion can be a challenge as communities across NSW continue to grow and change and experience crises such as bushfires, flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic. With deep knowledge and existing connections to their communities, local governments are well placed to deliver place-based initiatives that address local challenges and build more socially cohesive communities.
The NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, in partnership with Resilient Sydney, engaged Cred Consulting to design and deliver a pilot program to support local governments across NSW to strengthen social cohesion in their local communities, resulting in the ‘Building social cohesion: a resource for local government’.
This groundbreaking resource was developed through a collaborative co-design process with representatives from more than 100 local governments across NSW, and provides information, inspiration and tools for NSW local governments to understand their roles in strengthening social cohesion, assess and monitor social cohesion outcomes within their LGA, and learn from global best practice local social cohesion initiatives.
The process involved:
- extensive research into global social cohesion frameworks and best practices
- collaboration with an expert working group consisting of Department of Premier and Cabinet, Resilient Sydney, LGNSW, OLG and Multicultural NSW, and
- three online workshops attended by representatives from more than 100 councils, with the aim to build a community of practice and to co-design and test draft tools and frameworks for inclusion in the final resource.
This project received a Commendation for ‘Community Wellbeing & Diversity’ at the Planning Institute of Australia’s 2022 NSW Awards for Planning Excellence.
View the resource here:
Building social cohesion – A resource for local government
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