Managing risk in community services. A preliminary study of the impacts of risk management on Victorian services and clients. Most older people and those with a disability or a mental illness now live in the community. They receive help from a vast range of community services, which are also expected to keep them safe, and their workers and the wider community safe. Risk management is now an important part of the work of all services and businesses involved in community care. This project will s ....Managing risk in community services. A preliminary study of the impacts of risk management on Victorian services and clients. Most older people and those with a disability or a mental illness now live in the community. They receive help from a vast range of community services, which are also expected to keep them safe, and their workers and the wider community safe. Risk management is now an important part of the work of all services and businesses involved in community care. This project will study the unforeseen impacts and costs of the new risk management, identify the problems, and explore the ways risk management can achieve its goals without reducing services and limiting the lives of the clients.Read moreRead less
Building communities: managing public assets to provide social value. Local government facilities have a social value for the community beyond the immediate provision of service or amenity. However, this aspect is not generally considered in the formal planning and management of public facilities, which concentrate on economic considerations and community service needs. This project explores the links between public assets, their social value and community well-being. The research will provide a ....Building communities: managing public assets to provide social value. Local government facilities have a social value for the community beyond the immediate provision of service or amenity. However, this aspect is not generally considered in the formal planning and management of public facilities, which concentrate on economic considerations and community service needs. This project explores the links between public assets, their social value and community well-being. The research will provide a rationale, model, and set of indicators to assess social value for facilities, assisting local government decision-making, including regional and rural communities, and contribute to the development of meaningful long-term infrastructure and community plans.Read moreRead less
Creating Collaborative Advantage through Better Network Governance: A Comparative Study of New Institutions and Instruments. By harnessing the embedded resources of different government and service delivery organisations operating at community level, and by removing costly boundary problems between them, governments can address the needs of citizens in a more wholistic and flexible manner. But to do this in a coherent way it is necessary to develop new institutional rules and organisational proc ....Creating Collaborative Advantage through Better Network Governance: A Comparative Study of New Institutions and Instruments. By harnessing the embedded resources of different government and service delivery organisations operating at community level, and by removing costly boundary problems between them, governments can address the needs of citizens in a more wholistic and flexible manner. But to do this in a coherent way it is necessary to develop new institutional rules and organisational processes to allow agencies to collaborate without fear of reduced accountability or syphoning of public funds. The project will examine the structures and processes used in a selection of leading international cases in order to improve Australia's performance in gaining a collaborative advantage for citizens and agencies.Read moreRead less
Public-private partnerships as a solution to housing affordability problems: a case study of an inner urban development. Through a case study of an innovative inner city, medium density, low cost housing project, the characteristics of a public-private partnership will be described and analysed in many contexts. The financial, political and institutional impediments to the development of such ventures will be identified and broadened to a solution for other Australian municipalities. This will ....Public-private partnerships as a solution to housing affordability problems: a case study of an inner urban development. Through a case study of an innovative inner city, medium density, low cost housing project, the characteristics of a public-private partnership will be described and analysed in many contexts. The financial, political and institutional impediments to the development of such ventures will be identified and broadened to a solution for other Australian municipalities. This will be achieved by policy and process recommendations. The model will be used to provide a practical solution to low cost inner city housing, which to date has not been sustainably achieved in Australia.
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Managing medium density development: a municipal case study. There has been no applied, local government-focused research on medium-density residential development. This issue creates the most political and planning problems for many urban local governments in Australia. Using the case study municipality of Boroondara (Melbourne), the aim is to identify, explain and address the many problems associated with such development. This will advance our knowledge about the implications of medium densit ....Managing medium density development: a municipal case study. There has been no applied, local government-focused research on medium-density residential development. This issue creates the most political and planning problems for many urban local governments in Australia. Using the case study municipality of Boroondara (Melbourne), the aim is to identify, explain and address the many problems associated with such development. This will advance our knowledge about the implications of medium density housing for municipalities and thus enable the implementation of better management practices.Read moreRead less
Inner urban public housing redevelopment: a case study of the high rise estate at Kensington, Melbourne. Many of the old public housing estates in Australia require redevelopment, the first of these high rise towers now due for demolition in Melbourne. This project will trace the redevelopment process on one estate from conception to post-occupancy, analysing the financial, organisational, political and construction hurdles that had to be overcome. This analysis will serve as a comprehensive m ....Inner urban public housing redevelopment: a case study of the high rise estate at Kensington, Melbourne. Many of the old public housing estates in Australia require redevelopment, the first of these high rise towers now due for demolition in Melbourne. This project will trace the redevelopment process on one estate from conception to post-occupancy, analysing the financial, organisational, political and construction hurdles that had to be overcome. This analysis will serve as a comprehensive model for other imminent developments, particularly as a model for the incorporation of private sector development interests.
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Connecting Government to Community: A study of social and political connectivity at the municipal level. Facilitating community strengthening by making public institutions more responsive to the needs of citizens is a central policy challenge in the global era. This project will advance theoretical, methodological and practical understandings of this issue by using comparative measures of personal ties and organizational connectedness in four municipalities to explicate the networks linking poli ....Connecting Government to Community: A study of social and political connectivity at the municipal level. Facilitating community strengthening by making public institutions more responsive to the needs of citizens is a central policy challenge in the global era. This project will advance theoretical, methodological and practical understandings of this issue by using comparative measures of personal ties and organizational connectedness in four municipalities to explicate the networks linking politicians, bureaucrats, civic leaders and ordinary citizens. The study will generate new measures of which kinds of connections count most, which ties bring more isolated groups closer to engagement, and which community strengthening strategies are likely to make improved governance outcomes feasible.Read moreRead less
Social Mix and Social Exclusion in Disadvantaged Communities: Clarifying the Links between Policy, Practice and the Evidence Base. The project tackles an important question and one of considerable national policy significance - that of whether social mix, planned for public housing estates to reduce the spatial concentration of disadvantaged households, will result in benefits for low-income residents in those places. The conceptual framework for exploring this central question is the contempora ....Social Mix and Social Exclusion in Disadvantaged Communities: Clarifying the Links between Policy, Practice and the Evidence Base. The project tackles an important question and one of considerable national policy significance - that of whether social mix, planned for public housing estates to reduce the spatial concentration of disadvantaged households, will result in benefits for low-income residents in those places. The conceptual framework for exploring this central question is the contemporary debate about social exclusion and its corollary social inclusion. The results will have important implications for government policy makers, not to mention improving the quality of life for residents in these neighbourhoods. It will also integrate Australian research into the international debate.Read moreRead less
Developing a collaborative approach to ageing well in the community. This project is located within an identified national research priority that of Ageing Well, Ageing Productively. It is also consistent with the goals of the ARC NHMRC Research Network in Ageing Well. While much of the Australian policy debate has previously focused on the negative implications associated with population ageing, it is essential to explore how older people and local communities can age well. The benefit of this ....Developing a collaborative approach to ageing well in the community. This project is located within an identified national research priority that of Ageing Well, Ageing Productively. It is also consistent with the goals of the ARC NHMRC Research Network in Ageing Well. While much of the Australian policy debate has previously focused on the negative implications associated with population ageing, it is essential to explore how older people and local communities can age well. The benefit of this project is that it helps translate national policy directives / goals by offering a framework for action at the local level. Further benefit will derive from the project by enhancing options for community engagement of older people.Read moreRead less
Strengthening the capacity of public health organisations to deliver effective public health services. In an effort to maintain and improve the health of the population Australia has defined the core public health functions that must be carried out. This project will examine public health infrastructure and capacity in three states - mapping the implementation of core functions, assessing current infrastructure, comparing organisational approaches, and developing measures of local public health ....Strengthening the capacity of public health organisations to deliver effective public health services. In an effort to maintain and improve the health of the population Australia has defined the core public health functions that must be carried out. This project will examine public health infrastructure and capacity in three states - mapping the implementation of core functions, assessing current infrastructure, comparing organisational approaches, and developing measures of local public health capacity. These will then become industry benchmarks to guide investment and interventions, and to assess the quality of these. The project will investigate the context in which core public health functions are successfully delivered and develop tools to measure local capacity and delivery functions.Read moreRead less