Helping organisations achieve positive social impact is a key element of all Creating Communities’ community development work.

In 2021, we continued to provide strategic backbone support for two ongoing Collective Impact projects in the Pilbara region of WA – one in Newman and one in Hedland.

Both Newman Futures and Hedland Collective are long-running co-design projects where Creating Communities is collaborating with local organisations to advance community wellbeing.

Our focus is always to create positive impact. To ensure our projects are well targeted we developed a theory of change to frame our monitoring of outputs, outcomes and the broader impact of our work. In this way we ensure our initiatives and activities are evidence-driven to deliver long-term positive change.

In 2021 we also conducted a social needs assessment in the Pilbara town of Onslow on behalf of our client and as a result, Onslow has undergone significant social, economic and demographic change. The social needs assessment aimed to ensure our client’s social investment framework for the community is focused on what is really needed, and that it is being used in a way that supports the entire community, including people facing disadvantage.

The assessment included a focus on local youth, identified gaps and duplications of services, and determined what funding, collaboration and new services are needed.

The insights and recommendations from the social needs assessment will guide our client’s social investment strategy and direct its resources to work collaboratively to develop strong community outcomes in the short and medium term.