The local benefit in regional collaboration

Written by Jill Hayes, Coordinator of the Quairading CRC.

Over the last eight or so months, we’ve been working alongside a network of Wheatbelt Community Resource Centres (CRCs) to investigate areas and methods in which we can work collaboratively to deliver greater benefit to our region and our individual communities. We recognise that regional collaboration to deliver even greater value for money is a current priority of the State Government for Community Resource Centres and it was by coming together and advocating for our strengths as a network that ultimately saved our funding being decimated by the new McGowan Government back in 2018.
 
While each individual CRC is contracted by the Department of Primary Industry & Regional Development (DPIRD) to deliver services to their local community, outside of the contract, each individual CRC also delivers and is involved in a range of support, services, activities and initiatives for their local community. There are similarities in the strengths and challenges held by each CRC across the Wheatbelt and state that make them vital for each of their communities. These challenges include often non-existent public transport, a growing digital divide, managing community expectations and constantly pivoting in order to respond to and pre-empt changes in community needs. Our strengths include local knowledge, ability to deliver place-based services, our passion, connectedness and flexibility. As we collaborate we’re also uncovering specific individual skills we can share within the network, such as a background in law, grant writing, graphic design, industrial relations and more.

Participants at a Town Team Movement "Wheatbelt Placemaking & Main Street Revitalisation Workshop" held in Quairading December 2020.

Brought together through a membership for support services with the Wheatbelt Business Network, our Wheatbelt network includes York CRC, Narembeen CRC, Corrigin CRC, Mukinbudin CRC, Dalwallinu CRC, Nungarin CRC, Southern Cross CRC, Toodyay CRC, Koorda CRC, Wyalkatchem CRC, Bencubbin CRC, Westonia CRC and Katanning Hub CRC. We connect through occasional face-to-face workshops and more regular online Zoom video calls. The opportunity for networking, best practice sharing and talking through common issues to find successful solutions had been incredibly valuable.
 
As a group we’ve been on the lookout for collaborative projects to put our combined expertise towards, three of which are on the go at the moment:
 
Mental Health First Aid Training
Sparked by a well-received Mental Health First Aid info session held by the Quairading CRC and delivered by Phillippa Henderson of The Sharing Shed in late 2020 to gauge community interest, it became incredibly evident that all regional communities would benefit from the training of key community members in Mental Health First Aid training.
 
By then collaborating with the wider network, Wheatbelt Business Network submitted a funding application to FRRR and we’ve been able to secure funding to make the delivery of the full two day course possible and affordable to the community of Quairading – plus four other communities in our network.
 
Google Expert Training
With the Wheatbelt Business Network’s assistance, the Quairading CRC applied for funding through DPIRD’s (Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development) Technology and Innovation Grant for our group of CRCs to undertake training to become accredited Google Experts in digital marketing, data and technology. There are currently no Google Experts in regional WA, so any businesses needing assistance must travel to the metro area (or pay travel for an expert to come to them).
 
The funding will help cover the time staff members will spend in training and will help us professionally package and market the new service we will each be able to offer to local and regional businesses.
 
Town Team Movement’s civic place-making conference, the ‘Dowerin Do-Over’
As a way to practice place making activities, learn through collaborating with new people and communities and showcase the work CRCs can do in their communities to external stakeholders – we were invited to both attend and help with some aspects of Town Team Movements (TTM) civic recovery program’s first regional event, the Dowerin Do-Over.
 
The community of Dowerin was selected as the location for this inaugural regional conference following previous “main street audit” work they’d undertaken with the Wheatbelt Business Network. The idea of improving the aesthetic and vibe of a regional main street / down town is not unique to Dowerin and is something many communities are looking for inspiration and assistance on – Quairading included. We’re looking forward to bringing some of our new skills and insight gained from working with TTM to projects in Quairading.

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These collaborative partnerships have been super beneficial to our team in terms of professional development, and have taught us new things in regards to community place-making, consultation and working together – both what to do, and what not to do. They’ve also inspired us to lead other regional collaborations such as putting forward a proposal to the Avon Football Association for the Quairading CRC to compile the weekly football budgets and have them printed locally in each community of the football league. This proposal has been successful and we’re working weekly with the York CRC, Beverley CRC, Cunderdin CRC and Kellerberrin CRC to print the footy budgets locally (instead of them being outsourced to Perth based businesses).
 
WBN will continue to provide networking opportunities along with upskilling and workshop opportunities to our network of CRCs, particularly via video conference so we don’t even need to leave our Centres to grow our abilities, and therefore service offering back to our communities.
 
A regional approach is not always going to be the best approach for our community and this of course is something we’ll always keep in the forefront of our minds.

Jill Hayes
Coordinator, Quairading CRC
Email; [email protected]
Phone: 9645 0096