The City of Onkaparinga is seeking community feedback on its draft Community Capacity and Connection Strategy 2026–31.
The new draft strategy provides guidance for the council’s work on strengthening community connections and networks, improving social equity, encouraging healthy active lifestyles, fostering cultural and creative expression, and supporting access to information and technology, to enhance wellbeing and improve quality of life.
For more context about what “community capacity and connection” means, see pages 10–11 of the draft strategy – or a sample below).
The draft strategy identifies 10 focus areas and 30 strategic objectives aligned to the council’s Community Vision 2034 – which was created with input from more than 5,000 local voices – and its themes of community, environment, liveability and leadership.
The draft strategy also contains 4 “streams” – Informed Community, Active Community, Creative Community and Empowered Community – with an implementation plan to be created for each to detail the main actions the council will deliver towards achieving the strategic objectives.
The first of these implementation plans – the Empowered Community Implementation Plan 2026–31 (which covers things such as reconciliation, inclusivity, community development, community engagement, grants and events) – has also been drafted alongside the Community Capacity and Connection Strategy 2026–31 for community input.
Actions relating to the remaining 3 streams – Informed Community, Active Community and Creative Community – will be developed when existing strategies and action plans are reviewed. Implementation plans and any amendments to the strategy will be presented to the community for consultation as they’re developed.
The Community Capacity and Connection Strategy 2026–31 and Empowered Community Implementation Plan have been informed by research, demographic and forecasting data, prior community engagement, staff input, strategic context, contemporary literature, and learnings from delivering the previous Community Capacity Strategic Plan 2021–24.
Head to Your Say Onkaparinga to have your say on the draft strategy and implementation plan by 14 June 2026. Feedback received will be considered in the final Strategy and Plan for approval at Councils August meeting.
What does community capacity and connection mean?
The work of strengthening community capacity and connection is addressing barriers to participating in and shaping community life, such as social isolation, equity of access and cost, and taking deliberate action that supports:
- physical and mental wellbeing, meaningful connection and local belonging
- the development and maintenance of the knowledge, skills, abilities, confidence, networks, and resources a community needs to be well and to participate in and shape local community life
- access to opportunities to make change and achieve community-driven goals through local leadership
- compassionate, effective, integrated and transparent social structures and systems.
Activities integral to the council’s work on strengthening community capacity and connection include:
- facilitating access to timely, accurate, relevant, and interesting information
- encouraging healthy, active lifestyles
- celebrating cultural and creative expression
- acting on the social determinants of health within the core roles of local government
- professional community development practice enhancing innate community assets and strengths
- providing and attracting grants to support community activity
- holding and supporting events
- facilitating public participation in local democratic and decision-making processes
- volunteerism in all its forms
- encouraging and strengthening community leadership
- working with service providers, government agencies and others to coordinate approaches to the provision of social support and opportunities for personal and community development.