STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE

Over the past five years, interest in community building has emerged in almost every institution and government in the country. Yet precisely how 'community' is to be built remains an open question. And what the role of governments and large institutions should be in this process has yet to attract any real consensus across the social and political spectrum. 

Informal family and community networks, small voluntary groups and small businesses continue to generate most of the real community building initiatives. 
  
Can governments, large institutions and corporates help in this process - or are they a hindrance? What kind of partnerships are of genuine long-term value in community building? These are two of the critical issues this two day conference will explore.
 
Interest in 'social enterprise' has also emerged rapidly in the past five years - and that, too attracts a wide variety of interpretations. 'Social enterprise' is sometimes used to describe the adoption of 'more business-like' methods in not-for-profits - or it may mean the discovery of collective economic power on the part of a marginalised community. 

Does the 'corporatisation' of not-for-profit organisations enhance community building processes? And if so, in what circumstances? 
 
This conference will provide an opportunity for community and business leaders, social entrepreneurs, policy makers, fundraisers and investors to do a national stocktake on community building, partnerships and social enterprise to determine where we are heading and what we need to do now to produce real impacts.
        
Key Questions