Our Community Services department provide services that meet a broad range of needs. We aim to promote physical, social, emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing. Community development is a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems. Community wellbeing (economic, social, environmental and cultural) often evolves from this type of collective action being taken at a grassroots level.
Groups in the community who are marginalised or disadvantaged, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) families and people with a disability, are supported by government and non-government providers of community services within the Tablelands region.
We are committed to working with community and sporting groups, local committees and organisations to develop solutions and to build capacity of our local community.
The Tablelands Interagency Group (TIG) is a collection of local community service organisations and government agencies working in partnership to strengthen communities, and to address key social issues in our region.
TIG was formed as a result of survey feedback from community and government organisations attending a Regional Round Table event in March 2017. Local and regional agencies considered how our local and regional organisations could work together strategically to engage with external decision-makers, and tackle complex problems in the region.
Several subgroups — including Domestic and Family Violence, Housing and Homelessness, Health, and Communities — operate within TIG, where local agencies have the capacity to lead and collaborate on key issues.
Our Youth Advisory Committee (formerly Mind Pod Tablelands Youth) is consists of youth and youth sector workers. They developed and launched the Tablelands Youth Strategic Plan in 2019. The overall objective of the strategy is to identify opportunities for building economic and social capacity, growing youth services and engaging youth as key stakeholders in their future.
The strategy collated information from the Youth Sector Symposium in 2017, the Youth Forum in 2018 and Mind Pod workshops in 2019, and gives a voice to youth about their future in our region and a path for their future.
The key priorities are:
- youth participation and development
- achieving Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander youth equity
- active social connection
- pathways to independence
- youth health and wellbeing
- enabling access.
This project received funding from the Australian Government’s Building Better Regions Fund and Northern Queensland Primary Health Network through the Australian Government’s PHN Program.
