Community Infrastructure Needs Audit

Neighbourhood Renewal Community Infrastructure Needs Audit 

The Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (NRU) within the Department of Human Services seeks to narrow the gap between disadvantaged communities in Victoria and the rest of the State. Community infrastructure plays an important role in the development of social capital, which is disproportionately significant in areas with limited financial capital. However, there were no straightforward methodologies for identifying gaps in Community Infrastructure in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

The NRU commisoned SGS to provide a tool to identify outstanding community infrastructure requirements in Neighbourhood Renewal sites and using the tool, to audit the unmet community infrastructure requirements for five Neighbourhood Renewal areas. SGS reviewed relevant published literature and surveyed Neighbourhood Renewal Place Managers to identify the community infrastructure requirements of disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the Victorian context. A range of beneficial activities was identified and host facilities for each of the beneficial activities were then audited in a process which included community consultation.

SGS then applied the methodology to audit the unmet the community infrastructure requirements for the selected Neighbourhood Renewal areas. The audit reports identified deficiencies in the provision of community infrastructure, as well as providing the basis for detailed discussions with stakeholders about priorities and remedial action to overcome any gaps. The Audit tool is also flexible enough to be effective both at the formulative stages of a Neighbourhood Renewal initiative and as a planning review check.