Our Governance

Empowerment Ecosystems is led through community-based governance, not organisational control.

The work is driven by Central Community Bodies (CCBs) — locally grounded leadership structures that ensure decisions are shaped by the people most affected. The initiative is legally hosted by the Shoshama Empowerment Fund, which provides the formal structure needed to protect community leadership and ensure long-term integrity.

We currently operate one CCB in Melbourne’s Northwest, which is in its early stages. CCBs in the West and Southeast are planned for establishment in the second half of the year as the model is tested, refined, and strengthened.

Our governance model is built around one core principle: decision-making power must remain accountable to the community, not absorbed by organisations.

To make this real, we deliberately separate representation, management, and legal oversight into distinct roles

Community Representatives

Community Representatives are elected by local community members, including residents, program participants, and non-managerial staff. Their role is to represent community priorities, not organisational interests.

They are not advisory voices. They are the primary source of direction.

What Representatives are responsible for

  • Setting priorities based on community needs and aspirations

  • Testing decisions against lived experience

  • Holding Management accountable to community direction

  • Approving or rejecting major strategic decisions that affect the community

How Representatives are held accountable

Unlike traditional boards, Representatives are explicitly accountable to the community, not inward to the organisation.

This accountability is built into the role through clear expectations, including:

  • Regular and visible community engagement activities

  • Active outreach beyond the most confident or well-connected voices

  • Clear reporting back to the community in plain language

  • Transparency about decisions, trade-offs, and disagreements

  • Defined engagement and participation benchmarks tied to the role

If Representatives lose community trust or fail to meet these expectations, they can be replaced through election. Authority is earned and maintained through relationship, not position.

This outward accountability is what distinguishes Representatives from a conventional board.

2. Governance that builds leadership, not just representation

Management is a paid leadership team responsible for running programs, partnerships, and operations.

Their role is to implement the priorities set by the community, not to define them.

What Management is responsible for

  • Delivering programs and initiatives

  • Managing staff, budgets, and partnerships

  • Translating community priorities into practical action

  • Reporting honestly on progress, risks, and constraints

Management is accountable to the Representatives for direction and to the CEO for performance and delivery.

The CEO is appointed by the Trustees and is responsible for the overall functioning of the organisation.

Their role is to ensure that community direction is not diluted by funding pressures, institutional habits, or operational convenience.

What the CEO is responsible for

  • Ensuring Management delivers on community-set priorities

  • Supporting healthy decision-making across the governance structure

  • Maintaining clear communication between Representatives and Management

  • Managing conflict and protecting the integrity of the model

  • Reporting to Trustees on alignment with mission and values

The CEO does not replace community leadership. Their job is to make sure it can function.

Trustees

Empowerment Ecosystems is legally hosted by the Shoshama Empowerment Fund. Trustees hold legal and fiduciary responsibility so that community leaders are not exposed to legal, financial, or compliance risk.

This separation is intentional.

What Trustees are responsible for

  • Appointing and overseeing the CEO

  • Safeguarding the mission, values, and governance rules

  • Ensuring accountability mechanisms remain intact

  • Intervening only when governance integrity is at risk

  • Absorbing external pressure from funders, politics, or reputational concerns

Trustees do not run programs and do not direct community priorities. Their role is to protect the conditions that allow community leadership to remain real.

Without this layer, community decision-making is often overridden when funding or institutional pressure arises.

How is this different?

In most organisations:

  • Boards are elected internally or appointed

  • Accountability flows upward to funders and regulators

  • Communities are consulted but rarely decisive

In an empowerment ecosystem:

  • Representatives are elected by the community

  • Accountability flows outward to the people affected

  • Legal power is held separately to protect community authority

This structure prevents power from concentrating, reduces conflicts of interest, and creates clear pathways for community members to move from representation into leadership roles over time.

By separating who represents the community, who manages delivery, and who holds legal authority, we create the conditions for communities to lead without being tokenised, overridden, or burned out.

This is how an empowerment ecosystem keeps participation meaningful, leadership accountable, and power where it belongs.