In regional and rural communities, good ideas are rarely in short supply.
What is often missing are the conditions that allow those ideas to land, grow and endure.
Readiness is about those conditions.
In the Ready Communities context, readiness refers to the collective state of a community to shape, attract and sustain positive change. It is not a project, a program or a single intervention. It is the underlying capability of a place to work together with clarity, confidence and purpose over time.
Readiness sits upstream of impact. It is the work that happens before initiatives, funding applications, strategies and pilots. When readiness is strong, communities are better positioned to respond to opportunity, navigate disruption and translate effort into meaningful outcomes. When readiness is weak, even well designed and well funded initiatives can struggle to take hold.
Readiness is not built quickly and it cannot be imported. It is developed through relationships, shared understanding and local leadership. It is deeply place-based.
At Ready Communities, readiness is understood and supported through five interconnected indicators.
The five readiness indicators
1. Clarity and understanding
We let the truth get in the way of a good story
Clarity and understanding begins with seeing a place as it actually is, not as we wish it to be or as it has been described before.
In the Ready Communities context, clarity is built through deliberate community mapping. This involves bringing together lived experience, local knowledge and available data to understand what is really happening in a place. Mapping allows patterns, gaps, strengths and tensions to emerge, even when they complicate the story or challenge existing assumptions.
This indicator focuses on:
- Mapping what exists before deciding what is needed
- Letting evidence and lived experience sit alongside each other
- Distinguishing symptoms from underlying conditions
- Naming complexity rather than simplifying it for convenience
- Allowing the truth to shape direction, not the other way around
Clarity does not come from a single plan or voice. It emerges through collective inquiry and a willingness to let reality inform decisions. When communities take the time to map honestly, they are better able to make choices that are grounded, aligned and responsive to place.
2. Connection and connectivity
Connection and connectivity is about the quality of relationships within a place.
Strong communities are not defined by the number of organisations they have, but by how well people and groups are connected to one another. In regional contexts, disconnection can show up as duplication, competition for limited resources, volunteer burnout or a sense that people are working in isolation.
This indicator focuses on:
- Strengthening relationships across sectors, generations and communities of interest
- Improving trust and understanding between people and organisations
- Creating spaces for people to meet, listen and learn from one another
- Making visible the informal networks that already hold communities together
Connectivity is not only about networks, it is about trust. When trust is present, collaboration becomes easier and conflict is easier to navigate. When trust is absent, even small challenges can become barriers.
3. Capability and capacity
Capability and capacity refers to the skills, confidence, time and resourcing available within a community.
Many regional communities have deep expertise and lived experience, but that capability is often stretched thin. The same people are asked to step up repeatedly, while others are unsure how to contribute or where they fit.
This indicator focuses on:
- Identifying and valuing existing skills, experience and leadership
- Supporting local people to step into facilitation and coordination roles
- Building confidence in navigating systems such as funding, governance and partnerships
- Reducing reliance on a small number of individuals
Capability is not just about training. It is also about creating conditions where people feel supported to lead and where leadership is shared. Communities with strong capability and capacity are better able to sustain effort over time rather than relying on short bursts of energy.
4. Collaboration for purpose
Collaboration for purpose is about how people work together towards shared outcomes.
In many places, collaboration is encouraged but not always supported. People are asked to partner without a clear purpose, agreed roles or shared expectations. This can lead to frustration, fatigue and disengagement.
This indicator focuses on:
- Establishing clear intent for collaboration
- Aligning around shared outcomes rather than organisational interests
- Clarifying roles, responsibilities and decision-making
- Designing collaboration that respects local time, energy and capacity
Purposeful collaboration allows communities to move beyond consultation and into co-creation. It helps ensure that effort is additive rather than extractive and that collaboration delivers value for everyone involved.
5. Advocacy and promotion
Advocacy and promotion is about how communities tell their story and influence the systems around them.
Many regional communities are doing remarkable work, but their stories are not always visible to funders, policymakers or potential partners. Without confident advocacy, opportunities can be missed and external decisions may not reflect local realities.
This indicator focuses on:
- Strengthening community confidence to articulate priorities and value
- Supporting communities to share their story in authentic ways
- Building relationships with decision-makers and investors
- Promoting place-based strengths alongside needs
Effective advocacy is grounded in clarity, connection and collaboration. When communities can clearly articulate who they are and what they are working towards, they are better positioned to attract aligned investment and support.
Readiness as an ongoing practice
Readiness is not a box to tick or a stage to complete. It is an ongoing practice that evolves as communities change.
It is built through conversation, reflection, action and learning. It requires patience, humility and a willingness to work with what already exists rather than imposing solutions from outside.
At Ready Communities, we work alongside places to build readiness over time. Not to replace local leadership, but to support it. Not to prescribe answers, but to help create the conditions where answers can emerge from within the community itself.
Because when communities are ready, they are better able to shape their own future.
Get in touch to have a chat about how we can support your regional community to build readiness.
Learn more about Regional Readiness and the Ready Communities programs via our White Paper and Impact Report (2025) here.
