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Edition 10, Autumn 2018
SURVIVING TO THRIVING: COMMUNITIES BOUNCING BACK Gill McFadyen, CEO of Community Centres SA.
Community Centres SA Board member, Kylie Heneker discussing the campaign with a conference delegate.
In this edition of Stronger Communities we celebrate some of our fantastic and ever evolving partnerships.
We were excited to launch our ‘Surviving to Thriving: Communities Bouncing Back’ proposal at our state conference late last year, which outlines how Community Centres SA wants to partner with state government to meet the economic, social and civic challenges facing South Australian communities.
Working collaboratively and in partnership is a key principle of community development, it is firmly embedded within the fabric and values of our sector, in the understanding that working in isolation will never achieve the positive results we seek. Recognising that we can very rarely ‘do it alone’ allows a true strengths-based approach to working and living. This enables us to leverage experience and skills held within communities, organisations, businesses and government for mutual benefit and innovation. Why wouldn’t we work in partnership! Fantastic examples of this are the ‘People’s Policy’ which brought together a group of 33 randomly selected South Australians, supported by partner organisations, to develop a policy on Child Wellbeing in SA; and the partnership between Lutheran Community Care and several community centres to ensure that newly arrived people in Australia have the community support and services they need. Our ‘Surviving to Thriving: Communities Bouncing Back’ proposal is important too – it’s dependent on strong partnerships. Imagine if the principles of community development underpinned all policies? Gill McFadyen CEO, Community Centres SA Inc
Our strength is that we have unparalleled reach into local communities through our network of over 100 community and neighbourhood centres in SA. More than 35,000 people are in contact with these centres and over 20,000 volunteer hours are contributed every week. Each centre has at least 12 significant partnerships and established connections with business, local government, service providers and community leaders. We have a package of initiatives for $11.04 million investment over three
years that will enable Community Centres SA and community centres to: • Extend community development to areas in need • Support emerging community leaders • Invest in skills programs, in community settings, for greater participation in life and work • Reach vulnerable children, young people and adults who are not connected with the support they need. We were delighted that the Premier of South Australia, the Hon Jay Weatherill MP and the Shadow Minister for Human Services, the Hon Michelle Lensink MLC both spoke and participated in a Q&A session, as an initial response to our proposal, accessible via: www.communitycentressa.asn.au/ membership-information/surviving-tothriving-election-campaign
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT…WHAT IS IT AND WHERE DOES IT FIT IN? Community and neighbourhood centres are founded on the principles of community development – an approach that enables individuals, groups and communities to gain control over the factors that influence their wellbeing (social, economic, political, physical, environmental and cultural). Community development processes are about: • Communities gaining the resources needed to take and maintain control over wellbeing factors
• People working together within their community and for their community • Communities gathering knowledge about their needs and aspirations • Communities collectively making decisions about solving problems and creating opportunities. Within this type of support structure, the community’s knowledge, values and opinions are considered and services or activities are most likely to be what the community wants and needs at that time.
PEOPLE’S POLICY Last year a group of 33 randomly selected South Australians came together in a unique, innovative and democratic process. With coordination by the independent organisation Democracy Co, they formed the People’s Panel on Child Wellbeing to consider the crisis in our child protection system. Recently, the panellists launched their report and are now calling on all political parties to adopt their policy, which outlines the opportunities to support our children to thrive through: • Community awareness and education to grow understanding of what a Child Friendly South Australia looks like, including empowering notifiers to play a bigger role in preventative approaches • A focus on supporting children to thrive in their first 1000 days • Greater coordination of services and support for children and families • New opportunities for community based peer-to-peer supports for families • Exploring a number of additional specific initiatives to build stronger, safe and healthy Aboriginal families. Community Centres SA was delighted to be a partner in this initiative alongside Uniting Communities, SACOSS, The Wyatt Trust, The Smith Family, Aboriginal Family Support Services and the Australian Migrant Resource Centre. Community and neighbourhood centres were involved in the process through providing feedback on the draft during Emma Lawson’s (from Democracy Co) presentation at our Growing Communities Conference and involvement as topic ‘experts’ for the panel. The report is available for download at: www.democracyco.com.au.
During 2016-2017, Community Centres SA ran a Social Cohesion Project with funding support from The Department for Communities and Social Inclusion. We worked with community centres to encourage more connection with emerging multicultural communities through cultural diversity training, cultural inclusivity planning and centres hosting an event or project – aimed at developing relationships with emerging communities or increasing social cohesion and inclusion of these communities. Since the project ended, our focus has turned to “how do we keep building on the momentum generated post funding?” We started late last year by meeting with project steering group members and participating centres to discuss the project outcomes and recommendations. This has since been followed up with a Social Cohesion Forum which used a ‘Turn the Curve’ process to develop an action plan for our future work. 30 people from centres, partners, our Board and steering group focussed on the outcome we seek – that people newly arrived in Australia feel welcome and a sense of belonging in community centres across South Australia.
It was incredibly helpful to have Cassandra Gibson-Pope, Community Wellbeing Unit Manager, from the City of Marion, present the findings of her recently completed Thesis on ‘The Role of Neighbourhood Centres in Supporting New Arrivals to Integrate into Life in South Australia.’ With abundant energy and shared commitment to positive change we developed an action plan which includes: • Coordinating and promoting Harmony Day activities in centres • Promoting network meetings for CALD organisations through our network • Displaying a map in centres indicating which countries participants are from and symbols of culture from their country, e.g. photo, craft item… • Providing cultural awareness training and mentoring across centres. Many of these actions can be achieved at little or no cost through mobilising our networks and partnerships. Everyone agreed that what’s crucial to increasing a sense of belonging is providing the time, informal spaces and welcoming environment – where people can begin fostering relationships, friendships and trust. Watch this space for progress!
AUSTRALIAN NEIGHBOURHOOD HOUSES AND CENTRES ASSOCIATION (ANHCA) NATIONAL GATHERING Community Centres SA was delighted to host the ANHCA national gathering in Adelaide from 12-14 November. ANHCA represents over 1000 community and neighbourhood houses and centres nationally, all working within their local community towards positive change. A comprehensive action plan was developed for the next 12 months with topics including: • ANHCA DGR Fund and the opportunity it provides to seek funding and develop
new partnerships from non-traditional sources • Community and Neighbourhood Centres Week 2018: Theme of Belonging • National data collection, marketing and advocacy. If you haven’t already ‘liked’ ANHCA on Facebook @NeighbourhoodCentreWeek, please do so and help raise the profile of centres nationally…and link into some useful and interesting posts!
Community Centres SA is the peak body for more than 100 community centres in neighbourhoods throughout South Australia. For 34 years we have been a catalyst for community development by building the strength, capacity and influence of our sector – through advocacy, workforce and organisational development. Every week our member centres provide over 35,000 people a place to be...and to become… giving the opportunity to make social connections and participate in health and wellbeing, life skills, education and support activities.
