Sixteen local authorities have submitted entries for the FrankGroup Award for Excellence in Community Engagement, making this the largest category in this year’s LGFA Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards® and the second highest level of entries ever received in an individual category.
The Award recognises projects that demonstrate excellence in community engagement, empowerment, or partnerships.
Taituarā Chief Advisor, Raymond Horan, said that the entries showcase two of the major strengths of local government – the closeness and the knowledge of our communities.
“These two factors make local government a partner in the governance of New Zealand. They also demonstrate examples of co-design from the ground-up, and empowerment of communities to deliver or make decisions for themselves. All public sector agencies can draw lessons from these stories.”
The entries come from across all activities of local government – from an innovative library reading programme to catchment management in the Catlins.
The councils which have entered range in size from Ōtorohanga District Council (population 10,410) to Wellington City Council (population approx. 215,000).
Many of the best examples from this year’s competition will feature in upcoming Taituarā learning and development events. This category also has a great track record in winning the Supreme Award, four of the 10 Supreme Award winners to date have come from this category.
The winner of this Award, the other six category winners and LGFA Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards® will be announced at the Taituarā Awards Dinner and Excellence Awards at Tākina in Wellington on 12 June.
This Award and the Awards Dinner would not be possible without the sponsorship of FrankGroup, joining as an Award sponsor for the first time this year.
“In the years we’ve been working with Taituarā, something’s always stood out to us: the passion of local government professionals for their communities. That’s why when we got the chance to sponsor the Excellence in Community Engagement category at this year’s LGFA Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards, it was an easy yes.” Nicole Howarth, Chief Executive, FrankGroup.
We thank them (and our other sponsors) for their support.
