Our Town Our Future

In the last 2 years I have been working on a project called Our Town Our Future – A Revitalisation Strategy for Ingham, Queensland – Australia. It didn’t start with a title that long! But, it did offer the opportunity to push the boundaries of current and often failing practice to find a better way to deliver real outcomes for struggling towns and small communities.

In the last three weeks the project’s award tally has raced to six major awards after receiving four more awards acknowledging its innovation in communication, planning and process. It has been acknowledged that this project may well hold the secrets for places that will thrive in the future.

Using the principle that, “If you want different outcomes have you to do things differently”, this project has been an innovative action learning process.

From the start, it has been effective in challenging old assumptions and confirming better ways to create places that have a sustainable future.

The first bold proposal was to refuse to deliver a streetscape master plan as the catalyst for revitalisation and promote the development of a place-based prospectus. A document built on community vision and delivered through vibrant enterprise outcomes.

This fresh approach has provided the content for various Conference and University presentations on the principles and tools to deliver this integrated and practical grass roots approach.

This project has enabled the clarification of a lot of issues that whisper in back of your mind. The quiet voices that know the old ways aren’t working and we have to be smarter to succeed in the future. The Our Town Our Future project, which is a journey still in progress, has defined the value and effectiveness of Place-based Enterprise as a catalyst tool for creating better places for people and business.

It is an exciting time, when you contribute to the emerging principles and processes that can help deliver public infrastructure as a catalyst for development of more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable towns and communities.

"Place-based Enterprise offers a practical way to integrate various public programs through the delivery of public infrastructure as a catalyst for private sector investment and growth into the future."

Stay tuned for a future article on how local identity and the emergence of regional councils will benefit from a place-based enterprise approach.