MOVING BEYOND THE GAP
In 2020 Community First Development celebrated 20 years and 1000's of community-led success stories.
As an organisation, we are driven by the vision of a better world for all First Nations people; to work with all cultures for recognition, respect, and the right to be treated and valued with equality.
We connect and collaborate with communities when invited to create opportunity in education, health, business development, economic planning, and cultural preservation.
It is a model built on the principle of self-determination, and it works to create the positive changes communities need for more optimistic futures.
Over the last seven years, we have invested in evaluation capacity building and the design of an inclusive, culturally safe and relevant monitoring and evaluation approach to contribute to stronger outcomes for First Nations peoples.
This report is an outcome of our intentional focus on evaluation capacity building – a snapshot and celebration of our achievements and that of the communities we've been privileged to work alongside.
The macro analysis provides an opportunity to take a step back and see the cumulative effect of our community development activities over the past three years, and how strong and capable communities are addressing the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia. It also illustrates our contribution to the broader landscape of national government programs.
While we work to a strengths-based model, we do not ignore or discount First Nations peoples' significant challenges. This report includes a demographic snapshot that provides a broad overview of the challenges that we see play out first-hand in many of the communities we work with. We stand in solidarity with communities in times of challenge and grief and acknowledge the ongoing impacts of colonisation on our people.
However, we refuse to contribute to our people's narrative that has focused on disadvantage for far too long. The preoccupation with addressing the 'gap' only serves to entrench the divide further. This is why we are intentional about promoting our people and cultures' strength, innovation, and wisdom and elevating the many success stories that remain untold.
We are looking beyond the gap and incremental change and thinking strategically about the next 20 years and how our assets, expertise and intellectual property will be leveraged to support stronger economic, education and social outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.