It’s an important week for community wealth building in Australia

There’s a new group of people turning their heads towards community wealth building and we’re really looking forward to being part of the conversation.?

The reason we think community wealth building is so important for an Australia that is equitable and bountiful is the way it opens up all sorts of new possibilities for the resources that already exist to grow thriving local economies. At the heart of inequality in Australia is the uneven distribution of opportunity and power. Community wealth building offers a way forward on both of these and support the rising interest in place based approaches.

It’s been 5 years in the making for Ethical Fields. During this time we’ve played a catalytic role, training over 200 people, partnering with a range of enterprises, community collaborations, regional development authorities, local governments, capacity builders and movement leaders across Australia.

In the last year, this has scaled to another level with the year long National Community Wealth Building Tour where we’ve met with and explored what community wealth building might mean for scores of communities from one side of Australia to the other.

What we heard from local people again and again is that capital is one of the most significant barriers to realising their aspirations for vibrant local economies where people have jobs and business opportunities. In response, we launched the Place Based Capital Program with 20 groups of local leaders from around the country and a handful of impactful strategic partners (we’d like more). This network of people represent a cross section of the different types of Australians stepping up to fundamentally change how we approach resourcing local outcomes and opportunities. We have community leaders, economic and community development professionals, community bankers, economists, people leading energy transitions, others wanting to disrupt inequality and all of them coming together to unleash the untapped resources in their own communities and to manage those available from outside better. From small towns to capital cities people are beginning to see community wealth building as an important strategy, and place based capital is an essential part of that.?

In the start we looked to Europe and North America where community wealth building is well established. More recently we have been working with others here in Australia to explore what is unique locally about how community wealth building? and place based capital unfolds and how we ensure these transformative frameworks? are well embedded in Australia’s approach to place based change making.?

There is a huge amount of value from the experiences internationally and we thank the Centre for Local Economic Strategies for their leadership and advice. We are affirmed in our commitment by the appointment of a Minister for Community Wealth Building in Scotland and the future influence of their policies under development. And, we are truly grateful for the opportunities opening up for us and others to collaborate internationally (this is a recent example - waving to our Canadian peers).?

So watch this space… community wealth building might just be about to ramp up a little in Australia.??