What is community capacity?

The well-being of a community involves more than education, employment and other static measures of individual well-being. Well-being is also influenced by opportunities available to residents and individuals successfully taking advantage of them. The opportunities that community residents have are shaped by personal conditions and their community. As a general rule, for example, one who is in poverty will have fewer opportunities than one who is not. But support services and networks available for those in poverty in one community are likely to lead to more opportunities than those in poverty in another community without such services and networks will have. All else being equal, the person in poverty with these additional opportunities has a greater likelihood of improved well-being.

Community capacity is the collective ability of residents in a community to respond to external and internal stresses, to create and take advantage of opportunities, and to meet the needs of residents, diversely defined.

Director of Gunya Tourism Pty Limited, David Liddiard has a decade of experience of building Community Capacity. As founder and current CEO of the National Aboriginal Sports Corporation (NASCA), David Liddiard has used Athletes as Role Models, ARMtour and various other sporting programs to send healthy lifestyle messages to the youth living in Indigenous Communities.

Please explore NASCA website http://www.nasca.com.au/