Projects

  • Reconciliation action planning

    In this project we explored how reconciliation is viewed and pursued by local government and regional development and Aboriginal peoples who are part of the Yorke Mid North Regional Alliance (including all Legatus Group Councils) in South Australia.

    We interviewed a range of staff from the Regional Development Associations, council staff and elected members, including some Mayors. We also interviewed people from the Landscape Board and Aboriginal representatives. Participants were identified via data bases which included representatives from peak Aboriginal bodies, Native Title groups, stakeholder organisations, NRM, heritage, cultural, health and education organisations.

    We also talked to people who were referred to us by others we had interviewed. People either identified and spoke on behalf of their organisation or on behalf or with relation their country. A few spoke as individuals. We asked representatives of different local councils and Aboriginal groups in the region how they defined reconciliation, what actions they have undertaken, or are undertaking, to build reconciliation, what opportunities they saw for the future and whether they would be interested in developing a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). To answer these questions, we undertook documentary and web site analysis, semi structured interviews and held a workshop.

    Our findings reflected a wide range of views, which supported the idea of reconciliation but also reflected much uncertainty, reticence and lack of information about the process. Importantly though, there was across the board, a strong willingness to enter into further discussions about how to build the reconciliation agenda in the region. People agreed that the region is their home and all live there together.

    This project had immediate policy impact as a number of councils instituted Reconciliation Actions for the first time.

    Read the full reconciliation action planning report.

  • Youth volunteering

    Volunteering is a core part of any community, and in rural communities volunteering makes a vital contribution to rural and local economies.

    This project was delivered with funding from the Australian Government through the Building Better Regions Fund and managed by the Legatus Group. This  project sought to understand the role youth play in volunteering in regional communities. Do they volunteer? What types of volunteering do they do and what motivates and discourages them to do so? Finally, we invited ideas from the community about what they would like to see as future volunteer programs. We used the Goyder, Wakefield and Clare and Gilbert Valleys Councils as the locations for our case studies. We collected the information for the project by conducting semi structured interviews and we ran two surveys – one for volunteers and the other for youth (who may or may not be volunteers). We interviewed over 30 people, and 49 people answered the broader survey, and 36 the youth survey and were guided by a regional working group managed by The Legatus Group. 

    Key findings are: 

    • It is unanimously agreed that volunteering is a really important part of a community. 
    • It is unanimously agreed that youth are poorly represented in volunteer activities and that they could be represented more. 
    • It is not however considered that young people must be involved in volunteering per se – most respondents appeared to feel that volunteering in their community was in a healthy state, notwithstanding. 
    • Statistical analysis showed that while young people have always been less represented in volunteering, the proportion of youth volunteering per se has not declined. 
    • Further, statistical analysis shows that the loss of older volunteers is considerably more expensive than the loss of young volunteer, to local communities, as their voluntary work every year, per volunteer, can be over twice as valuable as the work of the average young volunteer.
    •  There will be a greater burden on local government to provide increased services due to the decreasing involvement in volunteering of those aged 35 to 54 registered by the ABS. Role modelling plays a key role/motivation for why young people volunteer, and feeling part of, and giving back to the community a key motivation for all people. 
    • Two different models of volunteering emerged: (i) Volunteering is an activity involving participation on committees or doing regular group-based work (e.g. emergency services, Rotary, conservation). (ii) Event based, one off, fun activities that require volunteer effort to expedite. 
    • The formal model was largely held by older volunteers and based on a construction of volunteering as ‘public good’ work, whereas the second model was largely ascribed to by young people who see volunteering as more than just work they do that they don’t get paid for, but should be fun and exciting.

    This had immediate regional impact as four youth volunteer projects were funded.

    Read the full youth volunteering report or watch the video on this project.