- Can you see a way to fix a local problem or create an opportunity for your rural community but don’t know where to start?
- Are you hungry to learn from other rural communities who are building a new future from within?
- Do you want to find ways to balance a community and business model?
Welcome to REJUVENATE – a new way of connecting, supporting, and guiding rural people who want to build and sustain community-led initiatives that address a local problem or create an opportunity.
REJUVENATE was designed by ACRE using world-best practice. It brings global and local knowledge, know-how and networks together to walk alongside rural communities determined to find a better way.
Thanks to funding from Emergency Recovery Victoria, REJUVENATE will initially seek to unearth, support and accelerate community-led initiatives across six Local Government Areas: Alpine, East Gippsland, Indigo, Towong, Wangaratta, and Wodonga.
How REJUVENATE works
REJUVENATE is not a course. It is about developing a new mindset, new skills, new behaviour and new trusted networks. At each stage, people will be supported with facilitated discussions, practical resources and offered access to skills, knowledge and know-how to bring community-led initiatives to life.
BE INSPIRED: Join a series of online conversations to meet and hear from rural people who are behind community-led initiatives that are offering employment opportunities for locals, addressing environmental challenges, ensuring ongoing supply of vital services for rural communities, boosting wellbeing for locals and generating tourism revenue.
CONNECT & LEARN: Join a face-to face workshop to meet other people in your community who are also developing initiatives to address a problem or create an opportunity. Explore different models of rural entrepreneurship, including social enterprise and community-asset ownership and start identifying essential foundations needed to bring a community-led initiative to life or take an existing initiative to a new level.
GO DEEPER: Apply to join Australia’s first dedicated accelerator and capacity building program for community-led initiatives, running from September 2023 – May 2024. Up to twelve initiatives will be selected.
RECONNECT & REFLECT: Contribute to benchmarking and mapping that will help build understanding about what resources and assets are available to support community-led initiatives in your Local Government Area and what gaps might need to be addressed.
