"It's not like adding salt and pepper from the top, it's going to be a seed that grows from our island"
Catalysing communities to lead local change
This report is an honest reflection of the Support Teams’ (Fay Fuller Foundation, TACSI, and Clear Horizon) experience of Our Town in 2020. This reflection is intended to inform our own future practice, and to help anyone planning or leading place-based change, especially in the early years of an initiative.
Our Town arose from the findings of the Health Needs and Priorities in South Australia report we commissioned in 2017. This research showed a disconnect between the intentions of health policy in South Australia and the experiences of those navigating the health system. It also evidenced that mental health challenges were more prevalent in rural and remote areas, and that people within those communities were less likely than their metropolitan counterparts to seek help.
Our Town was designed to demonstrate how powerful community’s role in responding to mental health and wellbeing can be. Our Town communities are actively showing how change is possible when you work at the level of local cultures, mindsets and economies.
With policy, funding and investment decisions that impact regional communities predominantly determined from urban centres of Australia regional communities regularly experience the unintended consequences of decisions made about or for them. Our Town demonstrates the potential for rural and regional communities to lead local change based on a deep and holistic understanding of their local challenges and aspirations.
Models mentally healthy practice
Community led & owned
Learning our way through change
Seeing & acting on the big picture
Our Town Principles
Improving and repairing relationships between people and communities
Applying prevention principles e.g. regular/early debriefs, self-care, healthy habits, maintaining connections with others, practising kindness/gratitude/respect with ourselves and others
Just listening can be enough
Working in ways that anticipate and are sensitive to people’s lived experiences and trauma
Seeing ourselves and other people as more than one thing and part of a bigger story
Being comfortable to step-in and step-out as we need to
Focussing on the potential and capabilities in our community, not just on the problems
Using strength-based language and approaches
Our Town Principles
Improving and repairing relationships between people and communities
Applying prevention principles e.g. regular/early debriefs, self-care, healthy habits, maintaining connections with others, practising kindness/gratitude/respect with ourselves and others
Just listening can be enough
Working in ways that anticipate and are sensitive to people’s lived experiences and trauma
Seeing ourselves and other people as more than one thing and part of a bigger story
Being comfortable to step-in and step-out as we need to
Focussing on the potential and capabilities in our community, not just on the problems
Using strength-based language and approaches
Being led by experiences and perspectives from diverse voices in our community
Ensuring data gathered in our community, belongs to our community and must only be used in ways our community has consented to
Surfacing hard truths and fully addressing deep problems
Ensuring decisions about the community are made by the community
Building community members' capability and knowledge to improve their contribution to and buy-in for decision making processes
Starting with, and building on, existing strengths and assets in the community
Working together to drive innovation and contribute resources (unique knowledge, people, skills, relationships, money etc.)
Continuing to share and check with the community regularly
Building lasting capabilities and changing behaviour as we go
Drawing upon diverse community voices, perspectives and experiences to make sense of data/evidence
Looking at local data, national trends and learning from examples of good practice in other places
Assuming nothing, testing everything, watching what happens and revisiting our assumptions as things change
Being brave, taking risks and trying new things while being kind to ourselves when things don’t work
Not being discouraged by failure — it's part of the Our Town process and our greatest learning opportunity
Openly sharing and learning together, working beyond regional, competitive, ideological and social divisions
Working in our own ways towards a shared purpose and refining it as required
Thinking long term — resourcing/learning/adapting what we deliver beyond this initiative and investment
Seeing the web of structures (from policies to providers), relationships and mindsets that create the big picture
Considering the ripple effect of our decisions on the bigger picture and related issues
Demonstrating robust alternatives to services-as-usual
Amplifying and sharing what works, adapting as needed for our context
Influencing wider cultural norms, attitudes, mindsets, policy and funding
Working with a cross-section of organisations as relevant (business, Government, not-for-profit, philanthropic and community)
Meet the Towns