Our capacity building work supports Aboriginal peoples to advocate for their own needs, and be heard, through diverse activities. Initially, our work was based in the community of Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) in Central Australia, but it has since expanded to various sites across the Northern Territory and remote NSW.
Our capacity building work includes:
We work alongside Aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory to:
Our work came about when Eastern and Central Arrernte (pronounced UH-rrahn-da) leaders engaged the local Catholic church network, seeking support to establish a capacity building centre where culturally appropriate responses to contemporary life issues could evolve.
We were approached to assist, and developed our capacity building program in response. Here’s how it works.
We believe Aboriginal peoples should have a real say in what services they need and how they’re delivered.
Our capacity building work applies a sustainable community development approach, which ensures services and activities are community-led.
Our approach aims to:
Our capacity building work with Aboriginal peoples is based on relationships of trust. We work with communities by invitation – we don’t impose ourselves, but rather listen, develop relationships and support community decisions.
Through local family and community meetings, we assess local needs, identify local priorities and support communities to develop plans to address them. We also help to establish and strengthen community governance structures.
We work with communities to identify areas for corporate, philanthropic and government engagement.