Programs
Sebenza doesn't just advise from the outside. We build the governance, funding and reporting foundations that let community-led programs run — and prove their impact to the government agencies that fund them.
Book a Free 15-Min CallIRAAC is the Aboriginal Community Organisation at the centre of this body of work, and the client Sebenza's IRAAC-facing proposals are built for. It operates under the NSW Local Decision Making framework and is led by a Board, with Geoff Maher as Chairperson and Maria Maher as Secretary. IRAAC runs four community programs — MCC, YouthScape, The Crew and DARC — and is investing in its own governance, reporting and administrative systems so it can demonstrate to funders and regulators that it is well run.
A big part of IRAAC's ambition reaches beyond its own operations: it wants to eventually support other Aboriginal Community Organisations the same way, sharing the systems and training it builds for itself. That ambition is still taking shape — IRAAC is a young, still-forming organisation, and much of its own public-facing story is still being written.
[Prototype note for Simone, to confirm before this goes to the developer: IRAAC's registered legal name, ABN/ICN and current ORIC/ACNC registration status; its operating region or LGA (not yet stated in any source reviewed — please don't assume Illawarra without checking); and up-to-date program details for YouthScape, The Crew and DARC, none of which have public information available yet.]
Each program below is delivered by IRAAC and backed by the governance, funding and reporting systems Sebenza builds alongside it.
MCC is IRAAC's flagship capability program, and in many ways it is the clearest expression of what the whole body of work is for. Having invested in its own governance, administrative and reporting systems — Board reporting frameworks, compliance calendars for ORIC and ACNC, a shared digital office, and hands-on training for staff — IRAAC's next step is to share that same foundation with other Aboriginal Community Organisations. MCC is the vehicle for doing that: an Aboriginal-led, peer-to-peer capability initiative in which the systems and training IRAAC built for itself become a resource for the wider sector, carried between organisations by people who have actually lived the work rather than delivered as an external consulting product.
What makes MCC different from a conventional capability program is how support is offered. It is only ever given at the invitation of the organisation receiving it — relationship comes first, and no organisation is audited, assessed or "fixed" from the outside. That invitation-based model reflects a simple observation from the sector: capability support imposed from above rarely sticks, while support asked for by a Board or a coordinator who trusts the people offering it tends to be adopted and kept. In practical terms, an invited organisation might work alongside IRAAC on its Board reporting, its funding acquittals, its policies and procedures, or its digital office setup, using templates and training that are already proven in daily use.
MCC also carries a deliberate research question inside it: does peer-to-peer capability building genuinely improve governance outcomes across the sector? Because every engagement runs on the same reporting backbone Sebenza maintains with IRAAC, the program can honestly track what was delivered, what changed, and what funders and regulators saw at the other end. If the model works, MCC becomes the template for IRAAC's larger ambition — operating as a capability hub for smaller Aboriginal organisations across NSW, with evidence behind it rather than good intentions alone.
Find out more →YouthScape is IRAAC's program for young people in community, built around connection to culture, opportunity and support. It sits inside the same architecture as everything else IRAAC runs: community voice shapes what the program does, delivery happens through people and relationships the community already trusts, and the governance and reporting foundation underneath it means the program's story can be told credibly to Boards, funders and government. For a youth program in particular that foundation matters — funders rightly hold work with young people to a high standard of accountability, and YouthScape is being built so it can meet that standard from day one rather than retrofitting it later.
YouthScape is an early-stage program, and this page deliberately doesn't overstate it. Its detailed activities, the young people it works with and its outcomes are still being documented in IRAAC's own materials, and as that documentation firms up this page will grow with it — real activities, real stories told with community consent, and real reported outcomes rather than generic youth-program language. What can be said now is how it will be run: designed with community rather than for it, backed by proper funding and acquittal processes, and reported through the same centralised systems as IRAAC's other programs so that what young people and families say they need is what Boards and funders actually see.
Find out more →The Crew is IRAAC's broader community-facing program, focused on building skills, connection and participation across the community rather than within a single age group or cohort. Where MCC works organisation-to-organisation and YouthScape works with young people, The Crew is the program through which community members more widely take part in — and benefit from — the work IRAAC is building. It runs through IRAAC and is supported end-to-end by the funding, reporting and administrative frameworks Sebenza maintains: proposals written to a standard funders trust, delivery tracked consistently, and outcomes reported through the same digital office as every other program.
Like YouthScape, The Crew is still early in its public story, and the specific activities and people it supports are still being fleshed out in IRAAC's own materials — so this page describes the shape of the program honestly rather than dressing it up with invented detail. The shape itself is worth describing, though, because it's the point: a community program whose priorities come from what community members actually said they need, whose delivery is carried by trusted local people, and whose results are captured well enough that continued funding is an evidence-based decision rather than an act of faith. As The Crew's activities are documented, this section will carry the specifics.
Find out more →DARC is the fourth of IRAAC's programs, working alongside MCC, YouthScape and The Crew to support community outcomes. It is the program with the least public documentation so far — including its full name, which IRAAC is yet to publish — and rather than paper over that, this page treats it the way good governance treats everything: say what is known, be clear about what isn't, and report more as more is confirmed. What is known is where DARC sits: inside IRAAC's program portfolio, under the same Board oversight, funded and acquitted through the same processes, and reported through the same centralised systems as the other three programs.
That shared foundation is not a technicality — it is what allows a still-forming program like DARC to exist responsibly. Because the governance, funding and reporting scaffolding is already in place at the organisational level, DARC can take shape at community pace, guided by what community says it should be, without racing to justify itself or inventing a story before it has one. When IRAAC publishes DARC's full name, purpose and activities, this page will be updated to carry them in full; until then, its presence here reflects a commitment already made — that every program IRAAC runs, from the most established to the newest, stands on the same accountable footing.
Find out more →IRAAC and Sebenza don't operate in isolation — everything sits inside a wider system of government policy, regional participation structures and compliance regulators. Understanding how they connect makes it easier to see why governance, reporting and funding work the way it does.
The NSW Government agency responsible for Aboriginal affairs policy, and the government body IRAAC and Sebenza's reporting ultimately answers to. It oversees the OCHRE policy framework and the Local Decision Making framework, both of which shape how organisations like IRAAC operate — holding Ministerial advice, Treasury accountability, policy leadership, funding assurance and compliance oversight. It's the senior government partner that funds and regulates the whole ecosystem these other entities sit inside, and the agency Sebenza's governance options paper was originally prepared for.
A proposed or potential statewide Aboriginal coordinating structure, sitting somewhere between Aboriginal Affairs NSW and the regional Alliances and Assemblies. Its possible role is to provide coordination, shared learning and a representative voice across the sector, rather than exercising direct control over any single organisation. NCARA's exact function isn't settled yet — one risk worth naming honestly is that it could end up duplicating what Alliances and Assemblies already do if its role isn't clearly defined. Think of it less as an existing agency and more as a structure being floated for how the sector could organise itself in future.
The regional participation structures that sit underneath Aboriginal Affairs NSW within the Local Decision Making framework, rather than single named organisations. Alliances are regional Aboriginal governance structures that support engagement, priority identification and planning; Assemblies are community forums or representative structures that support local participation and legitimacy. Together they form the "participatory architecture" through which Aboriginal communities influence priorities and planning under LDM — and IRAAC works alongside them to progress community priorities.
One of the two regulators IRAAC reports to as a registered Aboriginal Community Organisation, covering the corporate compliance side of things — quarterly reports, annual reports and audits. Every Sebenza proposal that touches governance training or reporting infrastructure explicitly accounts for ORIC's expectations. It's a national-level regulator rather than a state government body, sitting outside the Aboriginal Affairs NSW and Local Decision Making system — one of the compliance boxes IRAAC has to keep ticking to stay in good standing as a corporation.
The other main regulator alongside ORIC, covering the charity side of IRAAC's compliance obligations rather than the corporate side. Like ORIC, it shows up mainly in reporting calendars, training requirements and the governance systems Sebenza builds for IRAAC — the two regulators are almost always mentioned together, since IRAAC needs to satisfy both simultaneously. It's a federal body rather than a NSW one, so it operates independently of the Aboriginal Affairs NSW relationship. Keeping both ORIC and ACNC happy is treated as a basic proof point of good governance for funders.
Not organisations in the traditional sense, but the shared policy backdrop everything else operates inside. OCHRE is Aboriginal Affairs NSW's overarching policy framework for Aboriginal affairs in the state; Local Decision Making is the specific framework intended to give Aboriginal communities a stronger say in decisions that affect them. IRAAC, Aboriginal Affairs NSW, NCARA, the Alliances and Assemblies, and IRAAC's programs all sit inside this framework — which is why Sebenza's governance work spends so much time exploring how much decision-making power should move from the centre out to the regional and community level.
Behind each program sits the same foundation, so growth in one area strengthens the whole organisation.
Program and funding proposals written to a standard government agencies and funders recognise and trust.
Consistent Board reporting frameworks and governance training so every program can demonstrate it is well governed.
A shared digital office and reporting system, so information from every program reaches the right people without getting lost.
Reporting packs and calendars for ORIC, ACNC, Aboriginal Affairs NSW and funders — built once, reused across every program.
A consistent community survey across phone, visit and online channels, consent-first contact, community-controlled data governance, and reporting that carries what community said to Boards, funders and government — accurately, and with permission.
Two short pieces from our Insights on the governance questions these programs sit inside.
Book a call with Simone — we're always glad to talk through how a governance or funding foundation like this could work for your organisation.
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