The DIA Award for Excellence in Community Engagement recognises projects that demonstrate excellence community engagement, empowerment, or partnerships.
We received 14 entries for this category this year, the second highest level of entries ever received. The entries come from across all activities of local government – from supporting coastal adaptation in a small community to a spatial plan, to removal of pedestrian level crossings near a railway station. The councils who entered range in size from Hurunui District Council (population 11000) to Auckland Council (population 1.6 million).
The entries in this category 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.
