FAQs for Clarity
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Futures We Make is a community practice that works alongside communities, organisations and governments to navigate complex change, strengthen local systems and enable the conditions for more resilient, equitable and regenerative futures.
We bring together participatory practice, knowledge exchange and advisory support to build on the strengths and capabilities that already exist within communities and organisations.
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Futures We Make supports communities, organisations and institutions to work differently in the face of climate change, disruption and uncertainty.
We facilitate processes that create the foundations for connection, learning and collective action within living, community systems.
Our work includes support offers, advisory services and knowledge exchange opportunities. We design and facilitate participatory workshops across climate adaptation, preparedness, disaster recovery and renewal alongside communities. See our Offerings.
We also offer a range of advisory services working to embed lived experience into organisation and government strategies, principles, policies and frameworks. We advocate for shared power and decision-making, community-led governance and improved engagement and organisational practice.
Rather than starting with a predetermined solution or program, we work with people to understand what is already present, what is needed and what might become possible.
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No. While disaster recovery and renewal are an important part of our practice, our work extends well beyond disaster to just, resilient and thriving communities.
We are interested in supporting communities, organisations and systems to navigate complexity and uncertainty - whether that relates to climate adaptation, preparedness, recovery, renewal or other community challenges.
Our disaster work has shaped how we understand the importance of relationships, local knowledge, lived experience and community capability. We bring these learnings into our broader practice.
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We work alongside:
Communities
Community organisations and NGO’s
Local and state governments
Organisations and groups working in climate adaptation and disaster
Research and academic institutions
Philanthropic organisations
Organisations seeking to strengthen local systems and community-led approaches
We work across the spaces between community, organisations and systems, helping knowledge, relationships and capabilities move between them.
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Our practice has a particular focus on:
Climate adaptation
Supporting communities and organisations to navigate uncertainty and build locally grounded approaches to adaptation.
Preparedness
Strengthening the relationships, knowledge, networks and capabilities that support communities before disruption occurs.
Disaster recovery and renewal
Working alongside communities to support learning, connection and locally led processes following disaster.
Local systems and networks
Building stronger connections between people, organisations, knowledge and resources so that local systems can work more effectively over time.
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Complex challenges rarely have a single solution that can simply be delivered to a community.
Sometimes the most useful contribution is to create the conditions for people to connect, listen to learn, understand their broader context, identify existing strengths and skills and work together on what comes next. We find that ways forward are revealed through the process.
Our role is often to support that process rather than arrive with the answer.
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Participatory practice brings people together into the work as active contributors, drawing on their knowledge, experience and ideas to shape priorities, decisions and action.
We draw on a range of approaches from community conversations and storytelling to mapping, research, sensemaking and co-creation. We create spaces for people to make sense of complexity, explore possibilities and shape action.
Our approach is adaptive, flexible and emergent.
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Relationships are the most foundational part of the social infrastructure of a community.
Trust, connection and reciprocity influence how knowledge moves, how people respond to change, how resources are shared and how collective action becomes possible.
We focus on building strong relationships, trusted partnerships and localised networks because these create foundations for preparedness, adaptation and collective action.
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We are interested in outcomes that last beyond a project.
Depending on the work, this might include stronger relationships and connections, strengthened local capabilities through adaptation plans or established processes that enable ongoing learning and action.
We focus on building foundations for sustainable outcomes, rather than measuring success through short-term outputs.
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Yes. Futures We Make is based in Victoria, on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nations. We work alongside communities and organisations across Australia.
Our approach is always grounded in the local context. We don't assume that a model developed in one place will work somewhere else. We take the time to understand the people, relationships, stories, strengths and systems that shape each place.
We can work through a combination of in-person and remote approaches, depending on the ask and on what works best for the community and context.
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Yes we have. We recognise that First Nations communities hold deep knowledge, relationships and connection to Country, and that this knowledge is respected with care and recognition of sovereignty.
Our approach is grounded in listening, relationship-building and working in ways that respect local knowledges and authority. We do not assume that a single approach to community engagement is appropriate across different communities or contexts.
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Our work starts with listening. We acknowledge the strengths, relationships and existing capabilities in community.
We take a holistic view of community contexts and recognise that sustainable change is rarely created through a single program or intervention. It grows through relationships, local knowledge, connection and the ability of people and organisations to listen, learn and act together.
We support communities through a process of listening, learning and planning together, building localised plans for the futures they want to make.
We are interested in strengthening the conditions that enable communities and local systems to work well over time.
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A strength-based approach starts by asking what’s already here?
Every community has knowledge, relationships, skills, resources, histories and capabilities. These are often overlooked when external organisations enter with a focus on delivering programs or solutions.
We work to understand and build on these existing strengths, while also recognising the structural and systemic conditions that shape (and limit) what communities can achieve together.
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Community-led practice means that communities themselves shape the processes, priorities and decisions that affect their futures.
At its heart, community-led practice is about power and decision-making. It asks who gets to define the problem, whose knowledge counts and who has influence over what happens next.
At Futures We Make, we believe people closest to an issue should have meaningful power to shape the decisions that affect their lives, places and futures.
For us, it is not simply about asking communities what they think. It is about creating the conditions for local knowledge, experience and capability to shape what happens next.
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Both — and often with the relationships between them.
We work directly alongside communities, as well as with organisations and governments seeking to strengthen how they work with communities.
Our role may be to facilitate or co-design a community process, support an organisation to rethink its approach, build connections between locals and organisations, or advocate for community knowledge to inform wider systems and decision-making.
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Communities are not static systems. They are constantly changing through relationships between people, places, organisations, lived experiences, knowledges, resources and the influence of wider systems.
We work with this complexity rather than trying to impose a fixed model of change.
Our aim is to strengthen what is already alive within a community - the things that make the community unique - supporting connection, learning and capability in ways that can adapt and evolve over time.
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There is no single way to work with us.
Our support offers, advisory services and knowledge exchange can be shaped around the needs and context of your organisation or community.
It starts with a conversation.
Our support might include: facilitating a participatory process, supporting community-led adaptation planning or disaster recovery, strengthening local networks and weaving connections, advising on engagement approaches for local government or translating knowledge into practice.
We begin with the context rather than a predetermined program or product.
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That's a good place to start.
If you're navigating complexity and know that something needs to change but aren't sure what the right approach is, we can work with you to explore the context, understand what is already happening and identify where there may be opportunities to strengthen existing processes, capabilities and connections.
It starts with a conversation.
Reach out Monika and Kate at hello@futureswemake.com
