Western Influences manages small, medium and large projects across any industry sector that requires expertise organising the way that changes are implemented efficiently.  Our work includes initiating, planning, executing, coordinating, controlling, setting up systems for monitoring, closing and reviewing the work to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.

We utilise your team, with their expertise and skills, to manage your project, keeping everything on budget and on time.  We keep the team focused on the common goal, and will deliver the outcomes you desire.

Western Influences has been contracted on some fun contracts over the years.  Whilst it is not an easy job to get everyone working on the team heading in the same direction, we are experts at providing leadership and will ensure everyone involved enjoys the process.

Infrastructure Policy Evaluation Policy Development Social Rebuilding

Infrastructure

Working through the night to get the job done

Western Influences project managed the decommissioning, demolition and replacement of a water tank and tower that services an Indigenous community in the remote Kimberley region in Western Australia.  There were two primary challenges with the project:  Firstly, the logistical requirements to build the new tank and tower several thousand kilometres away from the project site; and, secondly, the cultural implications of non-Indigenous contractors working on Indigenous lands.  Western Influences worked closely with the Indigenous community members and other Indigenous stakeholders to ensure that their needs were met throughout the project.

Policy Evaluation

Northern Territory Emergency Response Evaluation Report 2011

One of Western Influences’ senior consultants project managed the whole-of-government (Australian) evaluation of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), known as the “Intervention,” including all contract negotiation and contract management.  One of the greatest challenges of this project was building and maintaining effective relationships with stakeholders across 17 Federal Government agencies and two jurisdictions, including the management of the NTER Evaluation Board, the NTER Evaluation Advisory Group, FaHCSIA’s NTER Sub-Committee and the Northern Territory State Office.  The diverse stakeholder groups had, at times, conflicting interests in the outcome of the evaluation, which was often the seed for negative and highly political media coverage.  This very controversial matter required stringent control mechanisms for the collection, interpretation, use and reporting of sensitive data.

Policy Development

Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Policy Statement 2011

At the conclusion of the Northern Territory Emergency Response policy evaluation project, the results of the evaluation were used to inform the next ten years of policy for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory – the new National Partnership Agreement for Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory.  This project involved the coordination of a Federal Government taskforce, consisting of 17 different government bodies and with a $3.4-Billion-dollar budget, set up to design policy that would affect Aboriginal people across three states and a territory.

The Australian Government identified three key areas for consultation across the 73 prescribed Aboriginal communities affected by the Northern Territory ‘Intervention’:

–    School attendance and educational achievement — ensuring all children go to school and succeed

–    Economic development and employment — ensuring Indigenous people are part of the Territory’s economy and that people have jobs

–    Tackling alcohol abuse — ensuring people and communities do not go on suffering the devastation caused by too much alcohol.

This role focused heavily on the integrity of the policy design during the project, objectively assessing new policy proposals across the Federal Government departments and agencies delivering services in the Northern Territory.  Again, this project attracted a lot of media attention that had the potential to shift the debate and influence the policy outcomes.

Social Rebuilding

Preparing for the one year anniversary of the flood that destroyed Turkey Creek

Western Influences’ work has required senior consultants to live and work in all manner of places.  This includes living and working in Warmun, a small Aboriginal community located in Western Australia’s beautiful Kimberley region.  This project, known as the Warmun New Start Project was the design and implementation of an ambitious set of social reform measures affecting the 350 residents of Warmun Aboriginal Community.

Warmun was devastated by flood the previous year and the entire Community was being rebuilt.  In addition to the physical reconstruction of the Community, circumstances required the construction of new, healthy social norms to combat the impact of the trauma experienced during and after the flood.

New Start was a comprehensive set of strategies that lead to improved and sustainable outcomes in:

– strengthening and streamlining the community governance role of Council;

– reducing the systemic impact of alcohol and drugs;

– building resilience within families and communities to mitigate destructive behaviours;

– setting and achieving the expectation that all kids should attend school 100 per cent of the time; and,

– setting and achieving the expectation that parents ensure appropriate supervision of kids at all times.

Post-flood, the Community had entirely new infrastructure, three years of strong in-community economic activity, significant public and political attention and support, and a strong feeling in community that there was indeed a “New Start”.