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Inner Sydney Empowered Communities co-chairs Shane Phillips (left) and Chris Ingrey
Empowered Communities in Inner Sydney
Inner Sydney is a region where two Indigenous
communities, Redfern and La Perouse, have nurtured
strong collaboration through the Jawun partnership
since 2012. With Empowered Communities, this has
developed further.
By 2015, first priorities around aged care and early
childhood were agreed, and the following year, Inner
Sydney Empowered Communities was established
as the backbone organisation to deliver reform
programming. Funding was secured for a feasibility
study for the first Aboriginal-controlled aged care
centre in the Sydney Basin; family mentoring and
early childhood education and school readiness
initiatives were established; and a Keeping Them
Home regional strategy was developed to strengthen
support for parents and the restoration of children to
families. To date, eight community organisations have
opted in.
In a breakthrough in April 2017, Empowered
Communities leaders presented a development
agenda (‘pathway of empowerment’) to government.
This was the next step after the early wins of first
priority programming brought community and
government together. It provides a new set of
guidelines for government, government-funded and
corporate agencies to do business with the region in
a departure from the ‘deficit approach’ of Closing
the Gap.
To operationalise the Pathway of Empowerment, a
joint decision-making mechanism is being applied
by Inner Sydney Empowered Communities and
government. A radical innovation, this formally
enlists community assessment and Inner Sydney
Empowered Communities’ board approval in
decisions around organisations and contracts in
Indigenous communities, to ensure that
investments align with the region’s Indigenous-led
development agenda.
Inner Sydney Empowered Communities co-chair and
community leader from La Perouse, Chris Ingrey,
says he and other parents in his community apply
the principles of the model to their own families, in
particular creating intergenerational wealth through
reinvestment of human capital and opportunity:
I think of this Pathway of Empowerment model as
I raise my children.
Shane Phillips, Inner Sydney Empowered
Communities co-chair and Chris’s counterpart in
Redfern, agrees that the vision and collaboration
being fostered by Empowered Communities is
transformative, and reaches into the next generation:
I have seen the Redfern Aboriginal community
make so much progress through Inner Sydney
Empowered Communities, by working together
with La Perouse and getting the right things
happening in our communities. Together we
can build safe, strong, grassroots communities
capable of growing and supporting aspirations,
providing opportunities, and creating success for
our future generations.
Around 30 Jawun secondees have supported Inner
Sydney Empowered Communities
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