One Community Together

One Community Together is a collective impact initiative that is community-focused and driven by the community itself.

It is comprised of residents, groups and organisations in the Clarence Plains area.

To be part of One Community Together is exciting for Linda Nicholson, a community member of Clarence Plains.

“It gives me hope that the community will be a greater one in the future,” she said.

One Community Together was established in 2014. Prior to this, several service providers in Clarence Plains would have network meetings every six to eight weeks.

Suzanne Schulz, who works for Clarence Council, would go to these meetings and talk with the providers about what was happening.

“Then we’d all go back to our organisations and activities, do our own thing, and then on reflection, we’d go, ‘Well, things aren’t changing,’” Schulz explained. “‘What we’re doing is great, the programs we offer are great…but are things really improving for the community’?”

In order to change and improve the Clarence Plains community, community organisations working in the area adopted a framework (the Collective Impact Approach to Working Together) and formed the collective. One Community Together was born.

“We try not to do anything unless we feel like the community are telling us that that’s what they want,” Schulz noted.

“One Community Together plays a facilitator role in a lot of ways,” said Liz Selkirk, who also works at Clarence Council.

“It’s not just about One Community Together coming up with remedies. It’s the community as a whole saying, ‘These are the issues, and this is how we want to address them’.”

It is exciting for Schulz and Selkirk to be part of the collective.

“It’s particularly exciting when we see actions and support for actions,” Selkirk said.

“Like when the community has said, ‘This is what is really needed’, and the organisations and the community have worked together to make it happen. Really good outcomes.”

“It’s rewarding to see things achieved that probably wouldn’t have been without us all working together,” Schulz said.

Community members, organisations, and businesses in the Clarence Plains area are all welcome to join One Community Together.

“There’s a role for everybody,” Selkirk said.

“The more people get involved, the more we can do and the more successful we will be,” Schulz added.

To find out more about One Community Together, click here.