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Intern project to improve sustainability of Gingin community organisations

16 April, 2020

Student intern Franklin Powers wrote a research report that identified new business management models for local community group and club facilities during his internship at the Shire of Gingin.

For his 100-hour McCusker Centre for Citizenship internship, the UWA Bachelor of Commerce student researched three local community organisations as case studies to write the report.

Shire of Gingin Community Development and Services Coordinator Jodie Mortadza said the report, which is currently being finalised, would provide examples of business management models that may support the organisations’ “sustainability in the economic environment”.

“As a very small shire with significant resourcing constraints and lots of areas of need, this internship has meant that we have been able to undertake a project that we knew was important but did not have the capacity to complete,” the intern supervisor said.

Ms Mortadza noted that information may be of interest to other WA local governments and their community organisations.

Churchlands resident Mr Powers, 20, said the report suggested alternative sustainable business models for the facilities, which would provide a “social good” to the communities they operate in.

“A project of this specific nature has not yet been carried out in WA,” he said.

“This gave me a great deal of ownership over the project and allowed me to take it in a unique direction.”

Mr Powers said the McCusker Centre for Citizenship internship was an “amazing opportunity to get his foot in the door” in Local Government.

“Local government is certainly an area that I feel that I could make a real positive difference to society through, whilst also having a personally rewarding career,” he said.

“This experience has given me an appreciation of the value good governance brings to a society, the fact that the Shire of Gingin has been proactive in thinking about how it can serve its citizens exemplifies good governance.”