Ipswich City Council

Local Area Multicultural Partnership LAMP

The Local Area Multicultural Partnership (LAMP) program is an initiative of the Queensland Government, in partnership with local government. By partnering with local government, the State government is recognising the central role that local authorities play in the construction and maintenance of harmonious and productive communities.

At the broadest level, the LAMP program aims to improve social cohesion within Queensland communities. The achievement of this aim has important social and economic benefits for the State. The LAMP program pursues this aim by encouraging and assisting local government authorities to build positive community relations in their local or regional area.

The LAMP program is an innovative approach to improving social cohesion. One of its most innovative aspects is that the program design does not specify a generic set of strategies or activities that LAMP officers should implement at every Council. Instead it specifies that LAMP officers are to develop and implement a community relations plan containing strategies that are tailored to their particular Council and community.

The first phase of LAMP involved an emphasis on improving targeted audiences' understanding of community relations strategies and activities focused on stimulating attitudinal change. The second phase, LAMP, involves a greater emphasis on structural change, particularly structural change within Councils themselves and the engagement and delivery of services within a multicultural society.

The immediate objectives of LAMP are that:

People from diverse ethnic groups use Council and other local organisations' services; and
People from all backgrounds participate in social and cultural events conducted by the Council.

The intermediate objectives of LAMP are that:

There is an improvement in the local community's understanding and appreciation of the value of cultural diversity; and
People from all backgrounds are enabled to contribute to, and benefit from, community life.

The LAMP officer for Ipswich City Council is Catherine Sweeney Ph: (07) 3810 7989
email: csweeney@ipswich.qld.gov.au

Last Updated 8 Jul 2008 |

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