Queenslanders working together

Queensland industries, small businesses, universities, community groups and not-for-profit organisations continued to work together in 2017∇18. Selected examples of community collaboration that aligned to the goals of the Plan include:

Working with traditional owners

• The Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Partnership provides a forum for sharing information and progressing the implementation of policies and programs that aim to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Queensland.
• The QPS ‘Look to the Stars’ artwork project involved collaboration with Elders, community and partner stakeholders, to represent the past, present and future relationships between Queensland police, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people. The project is a world first policing context, by telling the QPS story of history with first Australians and working towards an inclusive future.
• The Queensland Government is working with remote and discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through the work of the Ministerial and Government Champions Program. The program plays an important role in responding to and addressing community priorities to improve service delivery outcomes, driving change in closing the gap in life outcomes, and in reframing the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and government.
• DHPW, through Building and Asset Services, currently holds Partnership Agreements with 16 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Councils across Queensland. These agreements reflect the department’s commitment to developing community capabilities through partnering with the local councils to deliver new builds and maintenance works in the communities.
• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Business and Innovation Reference Group brings together an outstanding group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entrepreneurs, business leaders and researchers to provide strategic advice on matters that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The reference group aims to help increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entrepreneurs and innovators, and support the development of existing businesses across Queensland.
• Deadly Kindies is a collaboration between the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health and the Queensland Government DoE. The program promotes the importance of early childhood education and provides incentives for age appropriate health checks and support for enrolling in kindergarten.
• QFES has partnered with the Carpentaria Land Council to support the accreditation and certification of the Jigija Indigenous Fire Training Program, which is a wholly Indigenous owned business providing wildfire management and mitigation training on the traditional country of the Gangalidda people in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The training program has been very successful and has incorporated teams from other Australian jurisdictions.
• Bleached Arts produced ‘The Spirit of Churaki’, a musical collaboration inspired by the story of Churaki, an Aboriginal man heralded as the Gold Coast’s first surf lifesaver. Working with cultural advisor and musical score co-composer Kyle Slabb, music director Brian Ritchie, and visual artist, Vernon Ah Kee, the production was developed in close collaboration with local Aboriginal groups. It premiered as part of Bleach Festival and Festival 2018 on the Gold Coast and was reprised in the opening season of Home of the Arts (HOTA), Gold Coast.
• During delivery of transport infrastructure projects, TMR collaborates extensively with local traditional owners’ representatives identify potential areas of significance within an infrastructure project footprint. Prior to any ground disturbance, local traditional owner consultants inspect the work area and provide approval for ground works to commence. These inspections help protect cultural heritage. If artefacts are discovered on a project, the local traditional owner consultants work closely with the project team to either allow for further investigation or to manage the relocation of the artefact to another site of cultural significance.

Collaborating in the regions

• The first of five integrated housing and homelessness service hubs identified in the Queensland Housing Strategy 2017–20 Action Plan, will open in Toowoomba in the second half of 2018. The Toowoomba Housing Hub was co-designed in partnership with the Toowoomba community. It co-locates and integrates government and non-government housing, homelessness and other local support services to ensure the most appropriate services are coordinated around individual people’s need.
• The Works for Queensland funding program supported regional local governments across the state to undertake hundreds of infrastructure and maintenance projects in the last year, creating jobs as well as improving the condition of local roads, undertaking renewable energy projects, and upgrading community assets, like water and sewerage infrastructure. The program allows local governments to manage the projects, determining priorities for their own region.
• BUSHkids is a non-government, not for profit community organisation which offers a range of free allied health services to children and families living in rural Queensland. The Queensland Government is working with BUSHkids to facilitate the delivery of ekindy to small groups of children in 15 remote communities in the Darling Downs South West and Central Queensland regions.
• The Queensland Government is working with Dugalunji Aboriginal Corporation in partnership with UQ to support the harvesting and pilot processing of spinifex, to produce a product suitable for a range of uses, including in paper manufacturing or bio-industrial processing. Development of a spinifex industry will generate broader north-west Queensland regional benefits, employment of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples and potentially a model that can be replicated so that other remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can benefit from a spinifex industry.
• Queensland Music Festival, in partnership with Isaac Regional Council, presented The Power Within in Moranbah, attracting 5500 people and the participation of over 250 locals including choirs and schools from Central Queensland mining communities including Clermont, Dysart, Middlemount, Moranbah, Glenden and Nebo.
• In 2017–2018 Opera Queensland toured A Night with Opera Queensland to 10 regional towns engaging with each of the local communities in the months leading up to the tour to develop tailored community engagement activities in each location. These included the community chorus initiative providing local singers the opportunity to audition to perform in local performances alongside principal Opera Queensland artists and musicians from the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Thirteen community engagement activities were delivered engaging 817 participants across regional communities.
• QFES is collaborating with Multicultural Development Australia Ltd (MDA) and volunteers from Toowoomba Refugee and Migrant Support to develop a multi-agency approach to welcoming refugees to Toowoomba from many places, including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Rwanda and Sudan. Initiatives are targeted at building and maintaining relationships between emergency services, multicultural and family support agencies, and multicultural community members.
• NRL Cowboys House in Townsville was established to accommodate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from remote areas of North Queensland while they attend high school in Townsville. The full cohort of 50 young men are now pursuing their high school education. Additionally, construction has commenced on a further 50-bed student accommodation facility adjacent to the existing NRL Cowboys House, to accommodate young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
• DAF established the Rural Economies Centre of Excellence, providing $3 million in funding over three years, with the aim of identifying policies, strategies and outreach programs to drive innovation in Queensland’s rural and regional economies to optimise economic prosperity for rural Queensland. The centre is a collaborative partnership with the University of Southern Queensland, Central Queensland University, James Cook University and UQ. It has a significant regional presence, providing benefits to rural and regional Queensland, and is co-located in seven rural centres.

Community

• The Queensland Government Celebrating Reconciliation Small Grants Program supported 40 grass roots organisations to hold activities to encourage all Queenslanders to participate in National Reconciliation Week and to commemorate two significant milestones in our national history—the successful 1967 Referendum and the 1992 High Court Mabo decision.
• The Youth Justice Transition 2 Success program works locally with education and training organisations such as Flexi Schools, and non-government organisations such as Save the Children, Red Cross and others to form a community-led response to young people’s educational vocational needs.
• The Logan Together place-based initiative, funded by the Queensland Government, Australian Government and Logan City Council, adopts a collective impact approach to reduce the rates of developmental vulnerability of children aged zero to eight years in Logan. DCDSS, as part of its 2018–20 Strategic Plan, will continue to partner with DoE and other agencies and stakeholders to support communities to deliver place-based and local solutions that provide improved outcomes for children and families in disadvantaged communities.
• The Advancing Queensland: an age-friendly community grants program provides funding for local projects and initiatives to enhance the age-friendliness of communities across Queensland. Over three years from 2017–18, $1 million per annum is available through open funding rounds to seed fund community projects involving partnerships between local government, community and other organisations to co-develop, implement and promote innovative age-friendly projects. Successful applications receive one-off grant funding between $25,000 and $100,000. Transport, housing and outdoor spaces and buildings were the focus of the 2017–18 grants program. These projects will help to support seniors through the development of an age-friendly Queensland.
• The Queensland Government supported GovHack Australia to deliver the 2017 GovHack Hackathon across eight locations in Queensland (Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan, Rockhampton, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba). The Hackathon enabled 307 participants from across the state to propose innovative ways government open data can be re-used to provide benefits and services to the community.
• GIVIT and the Queensland Government are partnering to register and match donations with community need as a result of disaster events. GIVIT is a not-for-profit organisation that connects those who have with those who need, in a private and safe way.
• The Community Justice Group Domestic and Family Violence Enhancement Project worked with nine discreet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to co-design domestic and family violence responses. The project develops capacity building activities to deal with domestic and family violence at a local level.
• The Community Sustainability Action grant program is providing $12 million in grant funding over three years to 2018–19. Funding is provided to eligible applicants for projects which seek to address climate change, conserve Queensland’s natural and built environment and protect the state’s unique wildlife. Eligible applicants include community groups, universities and other clubs and associations. In 2017–18, just over $3.5 million was allocated to 94 environmental and heritage conservation projects.
• The Emergency Services Cadets Program, delivered in partnership with, the Police Citizens Youth Welfare Association (commonly known as PCYC), endeavours to build community resilience through the fostering of the next generation of emergency services personnel. The program is aimed at people aged between 12 to 17 years who want to volunteer, help their community and learn emergency response and leadership skills. Participating emergency services include QFES, QAS, and QPS.
• The QPS implemented a risk assessment tool for use with reportable child sex offenders in collaboration with Griffith University. The SHARP Dynamic Risk Assessment Protocol is designed to quickly and effectively assess the relevant risks posed by child sex offenders residing in the community and to assist in their management.