Local government
Local government plays a key role in providing sport and recreation facilities for their communities. Councils are responsible for caring for and maintaining lakes, rivers, beaches, parks, camping grounds, sports fields, stadiums, swimming pools, recreation centres, gymnasiums, cycle-ways, walkways, playgrounds, picnic areas and botanic gardens.
Facility partnerships can be an efficient and cost-effective way to meet the varied sport and recreation needs of communities and school students. A recent study explored the potential for partnerships between councils, schools and community organisations and resulted in this best practice guide Territorial Authority / School Partnerships: A Guide (DOC, 5.43 Mb).
The guide:
- identifies common partnership opportunities (from gaining access to strategic sites, mixed use of existing facilities to developing larger/ more complex facilities)
- outlines processes and steps in developing a partnership, and potential challenges (complexity and time, alignment of partner goals, and costs of pursuing potential partnerships) and, most importantly, advice on how to overcome these challenges to maximise the possibilities
- emphasises the need for strong alignment of goals between potential partners and early engagement with the Ministry of Education where the partnership involves state-owned land and schools.