Strengthening aboriginal community wellbeing

The NSW Government has begun to utilise the concept of 'wellbeing' in relation to Aboriginal communities. This has involved delving into questions about what makes communities strong, and what factors are necessary and/or unique to creating strong Aboriginal communities. This paper provides an insider's view of the government's journey into wellbeing to date, detailing the positions and assumptions that the work began with and, in particular, outlining the process of the creation of the Strengthening Aboriginal Community Wellbeing Framework (the policy context) and the development of a resource for Aboriginal communities - a user friendly software program for communities wishing to holistically assess and plan for strengthening their wellbeing (the 'Strengthening Aboriginal Community Wellbeing Toolkit'). The paper does not delve into critical literature on community engagement and devolution of community control, but rather provides an overview of why and how a particular policy approach was developed which, in the authors' view, will increase community control and power in local decision making and local planning processes.