Strategic Frameworks of Government-Community Partnerships: Opotiki Development Project - A Case Study

Rose O’Neill

In addition to administering welfare payments, one of the Department of Social Welfare’s explicitly articulated aims is to contribute to containing government expenditure by working to minimise those social conditions that create the need for social support. One such initiative is the Welfare to Well-being framework, which involves working with the community through local government agencies.

A particular focus has been “welfare-dependent communities”, in which a significant proportion of the population rely on the Government to provide their sole source of long-term income. The Opotiki Territorial Local Authority is one such community, and the Opotiki Development Project was initiated in January 1996 to address issues relating to the high level of welfare dependency in the district. An important aim was to organise the local community into creating sustainable employment opportunities for local residents.

This paper looks at three theoretical frameworks, used in the private sector, which were used to inform the project methodology and development: environmental scanning, inter-business networking and negotiation processing.

The paper concludes that the theories contribute to an understanding of the complex range and depth of issues involved in government-community relationships, and that issues such as welfare dependency must be dealt with cautiously and with patience.