Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment

An organisation supporting and enabling place-based change. It creates and sustains the conditions for place-based initiatives to thrive.

About PLACE

Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) was announced on 30 October 2024. PLACE is a joint initiative of the:

  • Australian Government
  • Minderoo Foundation
  • Paul Ramsay Foundation
  • Bryan Foundation
  • Dusseldorp Forum
  • Ian Potter Foundation.

PLACE supports communities across the country, to build local partnerships and strengthen place-based capabilities. It supports place-based ways of working, to address social and economic challenges in communities and disrupt entrenched disadvantage.

The organisation works towards the following purposes:

  • build skills and capability of the workforce involved in delivering place-based approaches
  • promote the exchange of research, tools and practices relating to place-based approaches
  • support collaborative solutions
  • help stakeholders find and resolve systemic challenges with a significant or national impact
  • improve how place-based initiatives use data to make an impact
  • promote policy and funding approaches that support place-based approaches
  • enable communities to use place-based approaches to speed up progress on things that matter most.

The Australian Government is contributing $19.31 million over 5 years to support the initiative, and philanthropic partners are contributing a combined $19.31 million.

The establishment of PLACE

Stakeholders recognised the need for a national entity to help place-based collaboration in communities. The Government undertook preliminary consultations on this concept in 2022. We did this with:

  • communities
  • philanthropic experts
  • the Australian Government
  • state and territory governments.

We developed a discussion paper based on these consultations. It outlined the requirements for a grants process to engage a foundation partner.

In March 2023, we engaged a foundation partner to further explore the concept. This was a consortium including the:

  • University of Queensland (primary grantee)
  • Australia and New Zealand School of Government
  • Collaboration for Impact (not-for-profit).

As foundation partner, they undertook a design and consultation process from April to September 2023. This determined the value and need for a national identity for place-based change. A prospectus delivered to government discussed how to fund a national entity.

This process involved more than 200 consultations via a range of opportunities, including:

  • one-on-one interview style conversations
  • larger group meetings and workshops
  • written submissions.

Consultations involved a range of stakeholders with an interest or stake in place-based change including:

  • community representatives
  • people with lived experience
  • backbone teams
  • First Nations representatives
  • Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations
  • community organisations
  • non-government organisations
  • philanthropic foundations
  • peak bodies
  • service providers
  • place-based change practitioners and intermediaries
  • Australian, state, territory and local government representatives
  • corporate sector organisations
  • academics and researchers.

More information

For more information, tools and resources, visit the PLACE(Opens in a new tab/window) website.

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