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Working in Partnership

Practical advice for running effective partnerships

DPCD supports many partnerships that bring government, business and communities together to respond to the complex challenges facing Victorian communities.

These challenges may be related to disadvantage – such as transport issues in isolated communities or the social and economic well-being of Indigenous communities – or may be planning challenges related to growth and demographic change – such as the rapid growth of Melbourne’s outer suburbs.

Partnerships focus on issues that cannot be addressed by one organisation alone. They pool resources, expertise and local knowledge to find responsive and flexible solutions for Victorian communities.Some examples of the Department’s partnerships include:

Shepparton Aboriginal Partnership Working to improve the social and economic well-being of the Aboriginal community in Shepparton.	Dandenong Development Board Working to develop Dandenong into a centre for community, culture, employment and business.	Regional Sports Assemblies (Word 188 kb) Working to increase the capacity of rural and regional sports.
Community Building Initiative Working to revitalise small rural towns.	Community Renewal Working to revitalise urban areas in Melbourne’s outer suburbs.	Transport Connections Working to address transport disadvantage in Victorian communities.

Partnerships are one of the tools the Department uses to support its broader approaches to disadvantage and planning as outlined in the Victorian Governments vision statement Growing Victoria Together, its social policy framework A Fairer Victoria and its planning strategy Melbourne 2030.

This guide has been developed to provide tools and resources for partnerships in community development. It contributes to the existing body of knowledge on partnerships though is by no means exhaustive.

How to use...

DPCD’s research across ten of it’s major partnership initiatives found five key factors for effective partnerships:

a good broker/facilitator to build relationships

the right decision-makers at the table with a commitment to contribute

a clear vision and objectives

good processes

ongoing motivation through evaluation and champions

Source: Pope and Lewis, 2008, “Improving Partnership Governance: Using a Network Approach to Evaluate Partnerships in Victoria”,
The Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 67, no. 4, pp. 443–456. This article is available online at Blackwell Synergy.

These key factors form the basis of this guide.

Under each of these headings you will find a brief overview of DPCD’s findings and a selection of tools and resources to help you strengthen these elements in your own partnerships.

While you may choose to work through the site from start to finish – People through to Performance – you may also find it useful to focus on particular elements that you feel you need development within your partnership.

You can also download the site in the following documents - Working in Partnership (PDF 572 kb) or (Word 1750 kb)






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