Ready Communities
Growing Regional Communities
Ready Communities is an initiative supported by Evolve Network, Â Rural Economies Centre of Excellence at University of Southern Queensland, and GEN Australia.
The initiative is working in ten regional communities over ten years to drive and support deep impact and transformational change, building and enhancing foundations for social and economic prosperity.
Ready Communities was founded by Kerry Grace and Dr. Chad Renando in 2023. Both founding partners have broad experience in regional community and economic development serving in a range of roles across business development, leadership, industry, academia, education and community engagement.
About Ready Communities
While governments strive for place-based approaches to solve endemic problems and realise opportunities, communities rarely have capacity to deliver the principles of a place-based approach. Ready Communities is a catalyst for people to experience place-based community change. It enables change in community and supports the community with further place-based activities.
- Region selection
- Initial engagement
- Mapping
- Community Conversations
- Action planning
- Capability and capacity development
- Activation
- Conference (Social Impact in the Regions)
- Legacy program
Each 10-month project culminates in the delivery of the national Social Impact in the Regions conference showcasing the local community and the preceding and upcoming Ready Communities regions.
Each Ready Communities project includes a 12-month legacy program with outcomes around clarity and understanding; connection and connectivity; capacity and capability; collaboration for purpose; and advocacy and promotion. The program is designed for economic, social, individual, institutional, and environmental impact.
To learn more about the Ready Communities program download our prospectus and information package.
The first Ready Communities Region will be the Macleay Valley, NSW in 2024.
How does it work?
A four-month selection process to identify communities based on impact opportunity and local capability and capacity
Engage initial stakeholders, identify a local champion and commence the ‘train the trainer’ model, develop initial focus areas and opportunities, and co-create the engagement strategy
Map past and current organisations, initiatives, policies, funding streams, and media through a digital platform to effectively identify overlap, gaps, and opportunities.
Engage community across sectors, community functions and institutions, and impact areas to identify shared strengths, challenges, and opportunities. Develop and facilitate clusters around established and emerging focus areas.
Co-create the capability building and activation approach including overall local community development needs, shared state and national challenges, and for each nominated focus area cluster. The action planning phase also includes the development of an operational and evaluation framework including a model of change, measurement dashboard and measurement framework.
Build capability and capacity, develop proposals, attract local, national, and global support.
A three-day conference as the culmination, commencement, and showcase of the prior activities and initiation and commitment for future legacy efforts by both the local community and leaders and agencies outside the region.
Initiation of a 12-month program and connection with conference stakeholders and past and future Ready Communities communities.
