Representatives from the Wheatbelt's 40 community resource centres (CRCs) have gathered for their third strategy day, which was started as a response to last year's state government funding cuts.
Although lost funds were reinstated, the groups have vowed to continue to meet to forward plan, connect, discuss opportunities and identify strategic partners.
Shire of Narembeen chief executive Chris Jackson, who was the catalyst for the first two events, said many CRCs were at risk of losing staff if funding cuts went ahead.
In the 2017/18 state budget the government announced a 38.5 per cent cut in allocated funding for CRCs from the 2019/20 budget onwards, dropping from $13 million a year to $8 million a year.
Following a grassroots campaign and review of the CRC system, the funding was reinstated in August 2018.
"Right from the start when we pulled this together it was in relation to the funding that suddenly disappeared but that all changed," Mr Jackson said.
"We are keen to continue exploring additional projects and funding like with Census, the Australian Electoral Commission.
"We'd really like to see some more funding opportunities and activities for CRCs moving forward."
The day-long conference was led by the Wheatbelt Business Network (WBN) - an organisation CRCs were looking to for direction when funds were cut.
WBN chief executive Caroline Robinson said the purpose of the event was to equip centres with tools to continue to evolve.
"Every CRC that is here today are here because they recognise that they need to work together as a group to jointly plan to solve some of their collective challenges," she said.
Census Australia, Linkwest and the Minister for Regional Development Alannah MacTiernan spoke to the CRC representatives.
Minister MacTiernan said although funding has been committed for the next four years, CRCs also need to rely on grant funding for services.
"It is still very important that we get CRCs to develop the value they bring to the community," she said.
"We want them to access other funds to make them stronger so that we can continue to fund them into the future."
Minister MacTiernan said she wants to see CRCs deliver access to government services to those in remote communities.
"We've got a new concept that has been developed - ServiceWA which will be a one stop portal for 85 different state government services and we see CRCs as being a vital part of delivering those services through that portal," she said.
