The following describes the ways in which we bring value:

1. Enabling and empowering community self-determination is the most valuable thing we can do for our communities. The by-line “describe your vision, determine your future” is an incredibly positive aspirational statement. In an age where many feel overwhelmed, bringing a focus back to the things we can control, consider and affect is incredibly healing.
2. The independence of Sof is greatly valued by the communities that we work with. Engagement is more open and constructive if there are no perceived pre-determined outcomes.



3. Because SoF is constantly engaging with our local community, it is sensitive and alert to emerging issues that impact community wellbeing. The Lightfoot Initiative explains “Shaping Our Future has a full view over what is happening in the district. Increasingly, they’re acting to create a cohesive vision by connecting with other organisations.”
4. The visioning process helps unite divided communities and can repair relationships between the community and other stakeholders because it turns entrenched positions of opposition towards a focus of positively improving outcomes. As a third party working between the Hawea Community and QLDC we can promote constructive dialogue.
5. Because the output from our processes is led by the community and is for the community, it has longevity and continued relevance – unlike other plans that are produced and forgotten about. Actions such as the 2022 building of the Glenorchy Community native Plant Nursery only happened because of the 2015 visioning process.
6. Because SoF has a funded exec support role it can help communities achieve things that they didn’t have the ability to achieve alone. We act as a catalyst. We helped the Arrowtown community to draw up their respected community plan and are now providing the resource for them to update it 5 years on.
7. Because SoF has completed a wide range of workstreams in the past, it is exceptionally well placed to identify commonalities, pose the right questions, and share learnings.
8. The skillset and life experience of the volunteer SoF Board Members enable the organisation to produce well-informed, robust, and credible submissions to decision-makers on behalf of the community.
9. The work we undertake will often add to and support (not duplicate) the workstreams of others as we look to collaborate with stakeholders. The workshops we held on Community Wellbeing have allowed us to provide constructive input into and collaborate with QLDC community capability and connecting communities’ workstreams.
10. Shaping our Future is a lean organisation where every $ received is magnified in value by the contribution of our volunteer board and others in the community that we work with and as a small organisation we can be nimble and rapidly respond to issues in a way that large organisations can’t.