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.
