Can you help?
We are ambitious for real change.
Poverty, inequitable funding, and ineffective service delivery models are all modifiable factors that contribute to poor health in rural, remote, Aboriginal and other disadvantaged communities.
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For more than 20 years governments, universities and civil society organisations have talked about the importance of meaningfully engaging communities in designing and transforming the quality and efficiency of our health care system.
The Productivity Commission has argued that to transform health policy and outcomes in Australia we embrace “accountability to the people actually impacted by policy and service delivery, with some ‘letting go’ of power and service specifications”.
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Transforming rural and remote health care, and the provision of care to disadvantaged communities more generally, is less about fixing ‘problems’ with communities, and more about fixing the way we engage with those people with lived experience of challenges to enable us to work together to develop and implement policies and programs that reflect community needs.
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This requires new approaches and models for addressing complex local challenges because the “traditional siloed approach of government service delivery has largely failed to make a dent”.
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According to the Productivity Commission we have to “countenance radical options, including devolving responsibility; parting with top-down power; allowing localised entrepreneurship and giving front-line workers a wide remit for practical problem solving”.
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Our ambition is to help people with lived experience of disadvantage to get a seat at the policy making table. Our job is not to “represent” disadvantaged people, or act as an “expert” voice on their behalf, but to facilitate, enable and support people with lived experience to have their voices heard so that public policy can deliver better, more efficient and high quality health outcomes.
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Do you share our ambition?
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Find out how you can help below.
Community-led health & social research
How you can help
The Healthy Communities Foundation Australia is the only major mainstream health organisation that is headquartered in a remote (MMM6) community. We don’t just believe in improving outcomes for rural, remote and Aboriginal people - we put our money (and people) where they can do the most good!
The Foundation’s Research Plan has been developed through a collaboration with rural, remote and Aboriginal people. Take a look at the Plan, and if you see something that aligns with your research priorities, or a topic you want to pursue, then contact us and let’s talk about applying for a collaborative research grant to design and evaluate new models of care. We have done this with many universities and research organisations including the University of Sydney, Charles Darwin University, Deloitte Social Impact and others. We can provide the industry linkages, and local credibility, while you provide the research expertise and ability to amplify any findings to influence the health of disadvantaged communities for the better. The competitive advantage we offer is that your research will actually lead to good policy and improved health because it is informed by people on the ground.
We have more than 20 years on-the-ground experience working with rural, remote and Aboriginal people to understand their needs, help with community planning and co-designing health care models that reflect local needs. Even better, we have successfully helped more than 17 communities establish and sustain local health care systems in the most difficult to service regions! We have been hired by all tiers of government, Primary Health Networks, Local Health Networks and others to help them to meaningfully engage with local people and deliver solutions that work. Better still, 100% of any money we make goes into delivering health and social care to rural, remote and Aboriginal people!
We have been honoured to become custodians of donations and other forms of economic support on behalf of rural, remote and Aboriginal people to undertake activities and programs that make a meaningful impact on their health and life outcomes.
Partners & Collaborators
