The South Pacific Centre for School and Community Development was established in 1988 with grants from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation of Flint, Michigan (which partially funds the centre) and the Australian Association for Community Education. The major purpose of the centre is to foster the development of community education in Australia and the South Pacific.
The centre holds a large library of community education and community development resources for student study and research and has been involved in a number of projects in the Pacific and in other parts of the world.
The centre has conducted regional and international conferences (including the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, held at the World Congress Centre in January 1994), and has been funded for research projects on community education and the environment, community education and effective schools, and community education and school charters.
Conference papers have been presented in the US and Canada, the UK and Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and publications related to school effectiveness and community education have been published locally and internationally.
Centre activities have supported community development activities in Fiji, Tonga, Western Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, as well as in Central Australia.
Since its inception, the centre has attracted funds from the International Community Education Association, the Australian International Development and Assistance Bureau, UNESCO and other national and international sources.
Further information about the South Pacific Centre for School and Community Development may be obtained from the director, Mr Tony Townsend, telephone (03) 904 4230 or fax (03) 904 2337.