Good Community Development must include Economic Development.....One practical way: the Women in Business Micro-credit Program
If you've had the misfortune to converse with me lately on what makes good community development and I've bored you with the observation that effective community development must include economic development (through community-business partnerships, social enterprises and microbusinesses), I apologise. It's not an original thought, but one I endorse through experience. Only additional income through real jobs or profitable self employment can alleviate poverty and its debilitating consequences [Full Stop]
Knowing it, and achieving it in a practical sense on any meaningful scale, are two completely different things of course. Especially in a regional market the size of Launceston with our relative lack of social entrepreneurial skills and start up resources. Even then, I've yet to find too many examples of so called successful social enterprises in major cities that really generate that much employment without some level of grant input or cross subsidisation from other activities.
So I'm excited to have found out about DED & DPAC's Women in Business Micro-Credit Programbecause it's has real promise to improve people's lives. Extending micro-credit to women has proven to have been extremely beneficial to whole communities in the majority world, so there's no reason why it shouldn't be equally beneficial here. Whatsmore I know that there is no shortage of creativity, artistry and skills in the community which could be funnelled into worthwhile microbusiness endeavours.
For all I know I'm the last person of either gender in creation to discover the existence of this program. If not, check please check it out and send the information on to women whom you believe can benefit from this scheme.
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Northern NEWPIN - 2 years old & just going along beautifully
On Tuesday 24 October Northern NEWPIN celebrated its second anniversary with an at times emotional Open Day.
Existing and former members who have completed the program, spoke powerfully about the way the NEWPIN program and its amazing staff have helped change their, and their childrens lives, for the better over these first two years.
NEWPIN is clearly something special.
With the end of the first funding period approaching the wider commmunity needs to stand with members to ensure the program receives the recurrent funding that its success warrants.
Congratulations & happy birthday Northern NEWPIN & may there be many more to come.
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Tree of Hope
I feel the need for something upbeat & motivational & this is certainly that!
The Tree of Hope project was a collaboration between the University of Tasmania and the Launceston City Council to give primary school children in Launceston the opportunity to celebrate their hopes and dreams for the future.
Approximately 1070 Launceston students from grades 1 to 6 in 45 classes and 15 schools participated in the project. Researchers facilitated class discussions during which students explored ideas of hope and the future. Students discussed the extent to which their hopes and wishes represent personal, local, national or global wishes (or a combination of these).
They then individually wrote about their hope for the future on the "leaf" and decorated their leaf ready for display on the Tree of Hope. The completed leaves were then displayed on the Tree of Hope at an exhibition at the QVMAG between June & July this year.
The content was so inspiring that it's prompted the compilation of a book which is available for free download from the Tree of Hope website. I guarantee that it'll cheer up the saddest sack and soften the most cynical heart.
Here's the briefest of tasters from the section entitled Social Justice:
* That poverty will end so everyone can be happy. Ray (5/6 Norwood)
* My hope for the future is that people can afford to live well. Gabriel (3/4 West Launceston)
* In the future I wish no one is poor. Sam (3/4 Youngtown)
* I wish in the future that in other countries that they get more money. That there are more jobs. Ezra (3/4 Youngtown)
* So we all have jobs. Eddie (2/3 Glen Dhu)
* For poor countries and people to be happy and eat a good meal every night and day. Elsa (5/6 Youngtown)
* For everyone to have food and water. Abbey (3/4 Norwood)
* Food and water for the world. Alana (1 St Anthonys)
* That everyone has food and water. Make poverty history. That I always have friends and family. World peace. Jack (5/6 Norwood)
* Raise money for clean water for poor people and animals. Hannah (4 Summerdale)
* Everyone in the world has money. Harry (1 St Anthonys)
* That everyone will have enough money to buy food. Anna (1 St Anthonys)
* I want the world’s petrol price to go down. Kayla (4 Summerdale)
* I want to be rich and give money to the poor and victims of tsunamis, cyclones, etc. So they are happy. Jackson (6 Trevallyn)
* That people will go to Uganda to build some houses for poor people. Zak (4 Summerdale)
* To have more happy faces in the community. And to have more schools in other countries that need them. Zac Sh (3/4 Riverside)
Enjoy.
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Nil desperandum (or am I chronically deluded)? Is there any hope for civil society in Australia?
Australia is dead.
Apathy and envy killed it.
No, not the land itself, nor the Commonwealth,
just its once generous heart!
I recently arrived home from an overseas vacation. While I'm not unhappy to be home, I certainly didn't experience any sort of seminal moment or epiphany that would lead me to conclude that I lived in the best country on earth. In fact I was struck by how little discernible advantage there is in living in Australia, even in Tasmania, over Europe.
The events of the last few weeks have led me to conclude that we're either on a par with Europe, or in some ways inferior to it, with respect to both lifestyle and social policy. Perhaps not as crowded; but then again more disconnected from each other and a common identity. Certainly no longer an egalitatrian cradle of social democracy; just another modern economy where possessions predominate over people and class is equated with wealth and ostentatious consumption rather than personal values and character. No midday slowdowns and leisurely lunch with family here in the Lucky Country; just over work and unpaid overtime for those in work, and increasing poverty for those without it.
And I haven't had to look far to find evidence of our social decline, our transition to what Latham describes as an intellectual backwater. For example in the couple of weeks I’ve been home I’ve learned that:
1. The ascendency of "downwards envy" continues unabated. ABC radio's AM (Thursday 19th October) reported a survey by research firm The Hanover Group which found that people are now apparently hardened to homelessness and believe that the homeless only have themselves to blame… http://www.abc.net.au/am/indexes/2006/am_20061019.htm
2. Australians are now worth $348,493 per head with Costello crowing that "over the last eight years in Australia the rich have got richer and the poor have got richer." (The Examiner Thursday 19 October). Is this man in a parallel universe?Ironically this statement came in Anti-Poverty Week! I'm sure it'll be of comfort to the many people who aren't holding their share of the wealth! Perhaps he can tell it to the people interviewed by the Social Policy Research Centre for their March 2006 report "Experiencing Poverty: The Voices of Low-Income Australians" or Anglicare for their "Life on a Low Income: 2006 State of the Family"?
3. (Also in Anti-Poverty week) – the changes to Superannuation legislation proposed for July 2007 will make Super an even more "fantastic vehicle for wealth creation." Well yeah, but only if you have a job!
4. The housing crisis continues to deepen in Tasmania in the absence of a multi-faceted, whole-of-system response from State or Federal governments. This has prompted Anglicare Tasmania to lobby the Lennon Government for $100m for new public housing construction over four years in their "Submission to State Budget Consultative Process 2007-2008".
5. Iconic social entrepreneur Project Hahn has gone into administration and will be wound up leaving socially disadvantaged trainees jobless (Mercury Wednesday 18 October).
6. Other effective community organisations that are achieving tangible outcomes are threatened by short grant periods (3 years) and disinterest in social policy issues by a State government that prefers to sponsor football teams.
I don't know whether or not there is hope for civil society in Australia, or even Northern Tasmania? A decade of Howard and his normalisation of wedge politics and governing for the powerful at the expense of the powerless has given life to the phenomenon of "downward envy" and a focus on individual rather than collective wellbeing. Worse still State governments have copied the style where spin is pre-eminent over substance and there is no personal responsibility (unless it's for those at the bottom of the ladder).
The truly relevant question is then, what do I do? Do I give up the struggle as unwinnable or do I continue to devote my energies to a better world? Adopt the attitude of nil desperandum and soldier on; or immerse myself in the politics of self, focussing only on my and my family's own needs?
Psychologically, it'd probably be best to do a Latham. Certainly I wouldn't waste time contributing to formal politics at the expense of my family ever again.
But ultimately I know too many people out in the community who are working hard for others to ever rat on them. They deserve support even if it's tiring; even if its frustrating; even if we take one step forward and two steps back. It'd be a lot easier going though if there were a few more shoulders to the wheel...........
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