• NATIONAL

The Adelaide Statement – Foster Collaboration

  • January 18, 2024

Adelaide Statement Pledge – Foster Collaboration
By Dr John Tower, Honorary Research Fellow, Victoria University

The Adelaide Statement listed six Pledges to guide the park and leisure industry as it strives to address the challenges facing our industry. The PLA News will focus on one Pledge each month to help guide how we can fulfill the pledge. The first pledge is to Foster Collaboration.

We recognise that addressing park and leisure challenges requires collective action and we need to seek partnerships and collaboration across disciplines, cultures, and sectors. However, there is little guidance about how to manage collaboration.

Eight principles to guide successful collaboration are:

  1. Having good communication at formal and informal levels,
  2. Building trust so there is confidence that partners will make decisions in the interest of the collaboration,
  3. Having appropriate equipment and facilities (this is particularly relevant for park and leisure venues, and the groups that use them)
  4. Providing leadership that is motivating and enthusiastic,
  5. Developing and understanding shared goals / values,
  6. Cooperating through coordinated actions,
  7. Making a commitment of resources, effort and time, and
  8. Delivering quality outcomes through quality processes.

These principles can be applied in many park and leisure settings. Park, leisure and sport organisations that successfully apply the eight principles are able to achieve more positive economic and community outcomes. (Tower, Jago & Deery, 2010).

More information about building successful partnerships is provided in a document by Tower, Jago and Deery (2010) via PaRC – https://parksleisure.com.au/parc-library/strategies-for-managing-partnerships-in-community-sport-and-recreation-services/ .

Adelaide Statement