The purpose
This project aims to create meaningful opportunities for people with lived experience to shape policies, services, and outcomes of the Wyndham H3 Alliance. By embedding community voice, the Alliance seeks to build a more responsive, accountable, and inclusive system that delivers better housing and support solutions for those who need them most.
Our approach
Our approach followed a staged and collaborative process designed to build on existing strengths while identifying opportunities for deeper engagement.
We began with a context-setting and familiarisation phase, reviewing key documents and holding conversations with both the Strategic and Operations Committees. This helped us understand the different functions of the Alliance and how a new framework could meaningfully support and strengthen their work.
Next, we worked closely with Alliance members to map current engagement practices across their organisations. This phase involved identifying how client and community voices were already being incorporated, as well as where gaps and opportunities existed.
Drawing on these insights, we co-developed the Client and Community Voice Framework, beginning with draft principles and a collaborative workshop to test and refine ideas. A draft framework was presented to the Alliance and further developed through workshops and continued feedback.
Finally, we provided support for early implementation, identifying ways the framework could be embedded into existing processes and decision-making. As the H3 Alliance began developing its new Strategic Plan, we created a Practitioner Note to support this next step. The Note outlines how client and community voices were included in the planning process, why specific approaches were used, and key learnings for future initiatives. In this way, the Public Value Studio worked with the Alliance to ensure the Framework was not only ambitious but also practical and grounded in day-to-day realities.
Throughout the process, we focused on building alignment, clarity, and ownership; ensuring the Framework was shaped by the people and organisations who would be using it.
Outcomes
Unlike frameworks developed within a single organisation, this one had to navigate the complexity of aligning 11 different organisations, each with their own structures, cultures, and constraints, around a shared commitment to embedding voice in their collective work. As such, the Framework needed to consider how responsibility for implementation was distributed across the Alliance.
Crucially, rather than imposing a new layer of work, the Framework development was grounded in what was already happening across the Alliance. By mapping existing practices and engaging people across different levels of the member organisations, the work built a strong sense of shared ownership and reinforced that engagement is most sustainable when it builds from within.
Another important outcome was the development of a Practitioner Note to support the Framework’s first year of implementation. Unlike many consulting projects where a framework is delivered and the project ends, we remained involved during this transition phase, working alongside Alliance members to shape the first collective actions around client voice. This note not only captured the rationale behind the chosen approaches but also provided a resource to inform and strengthen future client and community voice initiatives across the Alliance.
Other frameworks
Public Value Studio has been involved in a number of projects that require coordinated effort across multiple organisations working toward collective action. These projects often involve building a shared understanding of purpose, surfacing existing strengths, and identifying common principles and priorities that can guide action across diverse partners.
Whether developing frameworks, strategies, or governance tools, our focus is on creating processes that foster ownership, build alignment, and support sustainable collaboration, particularly in complex systems where no single organisation holds all the levers.
Other projects include:
Volunteering for All
Client: Hume City Council
Maribyrnong People and Participation Strategy
Client: Maribyrnong City Council
Wyndham Community Managed Centres Framework
Client: Wyndham City Council
