Communities 2032
The Queensland Government announced a long-term strategy to improve the lives of Queenslanders and the communities they live in with Minister for Communities and Housing Leeanne Enoch recently launching the Communities 2032 strategy.
“This strategy will guide the actions of the Palaszczuk Government over the next 10 years to help support the sorts of communities that we all want to live in, show to the world through the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and want our future generations to enjoy,” Ms Enoch said.
She also noted that Communities 2032 was a key part of the Government’s response to the serious issues of social isolation and loneliness and recently released grant guidelines for the $4 million ‘Communities Innovation Fund’. “The Communities Innovation Fund will enable a diverse range of projects, programs, services or supports and will be seeking applications for two different grants. Small grants of up to $50,000 will be available for eligible organisations to conduct one-off activities or projects, as well as large, multi-year grants of up to $200,000 per year to trial promising interventions and evaluate them over time. With applications opening in early 2023, now is the perfect time for eligible organisations to start thinking about innovative new ideas that can help to address social isolation and loneliness in their communities.”
The Communities 2032 Action Plan 2022-2025, also sets out government actions over the first three years of the strategy.
Minister Enoch said Communities 2032 is a whole-of-government strategy, with actions across all government departments. “We’ve already demonstrated how serious we are about the actions in Communities 2032 with our 2022-23 State Budget funding boost of $115.8 million over four years for the neighbourhood and community centres sector,” she said.
The strategy includes $51.8 million additional funding over four years to provide neighbourhood and community centres base funding of at least $233,000 per annum. This funding will enable more support workers in neighbourhood and community centres, allowing them to provide more services and supports, including people experiencing homelessness, domestic and family violence, financial stress, housing stress and mental health challenges. The Community Connect workers program has also received a boost with an additional $9.33 million over four years to increase the number of workers across more neighbourhood and community centres.”
Find out more about the Communities 2032 strategy, Communities 2032 Action Plan 2022-2025 and Communities Innovation Fund here
