Di Winkler's Blog

Practical application of social inclusion policy

The Australian Public Service Social Inclusion and Policy Design and Delivery Toolkit was launched by the Deputy Prime Minister the Hon Julia Gilliard in August 2009. The purpose of the toolkit is to change the approach to policy design and delivery so that the needs of disadvantaged people are better met. Key priorities include: homeless people; people with disabilities; indigenous Australians; communities experiencing concentrations of disadvantage and exclusion; and jobless families with children.

 

The Summer Foundation is already implementing a range of projects that utilise the principles and methodology from the social inclusion approach. The Government’s principles and methods of social inclusion developed with the advice of the Australian Social Inclusion Board verifies the strategic approach of the Summer Foundation in addressing the needs of disadvantages people i.e. young people in nursing homes. These principles include: building partnerships with key stakeholders; developing tailored services; giving a high priority to early intervention; building joined-up services; using an evidence-based approach; using locational approaches; planning for sustainability and building on individual and community strengths. The Summer Foundation will continue to use a range of innovative approaches to address the multiple barriers to social inclusion experienced by young people in nursing homes.

 

2010 is shaping up to be another exiting year at the Summer Foundation with a range of opportunities related to empowering people with a disability and their families, fostering the development of systemic change to prevent new admissions, research, evaluation of services and working with partner organisations. 

Indigenous Women's Bush Camp

I recently spent an amazing week as a guest at an indigenous women’s bush camp with the women of four language groups near Fitzroy Crossing. The indigenous women of the Fitzroy valley have an annual bush meeting.  There were over 100 women at the camp.

What I loved about my time at this camp was the opportunity to spend time in an indigenous community and listen to women discuss and describe the issues in their lives and the progress they are making to rebuild their families and communities. I also learnt a lot about community building and addressing issues from a grassroots or bottom up approach which appears to be a more logical and effective way of resolving issues related to social injustice.

These women know a lot about community building to address community health issues.  I first met June Oscar and Emily Carter through a film produced by some friends called ‘Yajilarra’.  Yajilarra tells the story of June, Emily and the other women of Fitzroy Crossing who lobbied to restrict the take-away alcohol sold at Fitzroy Crossing.  These women were sick of children, women and older people feeling unsafe in their community. They successfully lobbied so that take away full strength alcohol is no longer sold in their community. This has made a dramatic difference to a whole range of local health issues e.g. less alcohol hospital admissions, dramatic reduction of violence etc. Full strength alcohol is still available within the pub and light beer is available for take-away.

Indigenous communities are losing their culture through grog – they become disconnected with their land, their culture and their family. Substance abuse sometimes means that children and young people do not have the brain function to be able to carry their family’s stories or be leaders in their communities. Programs to address this try to bring young people back to their culture and work with them on other skills such as parenting. One initiative involves a mobile playgroup which includes indigenous songs, stories and looking for bush tucker.

When women thrive all of the community thrives – this is also evident in many developing countries where it is usually the women who make the most of Micro Enterprise Lending opportunities and start their own business so that they can feed and educate their children.

I came away inspired by what a group of women are working together to achieve for their children, their family and their communities. Part of me is also jealous of their strong sense of belonging and connection to extended family and the land. Many of the grandmothers at the camp had little choice but to be the primary carer for their grandchildren because some parents are either not alive or not able to care for their children because of issues related to substance abuse. However, I also got a glimpse of how an indigenous community may have functioned before the scourge of alcohol abuse, with a whole range of relatives providing care for each child e.g. ‘it takes a community to raise a child’. In western culture we tend to be a little isolated in our nuclear families. Indigenous women and communities have a range of strengths that they can use to make a significant difference and rebuild their communities.

I look forward to watching the progress of the women at Fitzroy Crossing, they have a whole range of health, education and economic challenges but they have identified their priorities, are getting organised and working together to create a future for their children and their communities. It is exciting to watch and hopefully will become a model that inspires other indigenous communities to develop a similar approach to their specific issues and challenges.

Here are some of the things that I took away from the 5 days at the camp that I think are also relevant to the marginalised people that we work with - young people in nursing homes and their families.

The first step to resolving a social justice issue and empowering people is to listen to the people at the grassroots and ask:

What are the issues that are real at the moment?
What can we do to support you with the issues that matter to you?

The voices of marginalised people matter and they will be heard.

The people in a marginalised community have the answers to the issues that concern them.

We need to build coalitions to work together – that’s when change happens.

Appreciative inquiry

One of the key goals of the Summer Foundation is to enable young people in nursing homes and their families to be informed, make choices and tell their stories. It is essential that we engage people with disabilities and their families and collaborate with them to resolve the issue of young people in nursing homes. How do we do this in practice?

 Appreciative inquiry is a process I read about recently which is highly relevant to a community buildng approach to resolving social justice issues. This process, developed by David Cooperrider (Case Western Business School) is based on getting all stake-holders together to ask each other meaningful questions.

 It brings together people from all levels of an organisation and pairs up participants, each person interviews his or her partner. Questions are designed to encourage people to open up to each other and, in the process break down any hierarchical differences.

People begin to see each other as individuals. After interviewing each other, participants form circles where they are encouraged to dream and brainstorm. During the brainstorm every idea – regardless of who came up with it – is given credence.

 Appreciative inquiry draws upon knowledge from the edge of the network. Because everyone feels they have been heard, participants become more likely to support a new plan. This approach is based on the assumption that the best knowledge is often at the fringe of an organisation e.g. people with a disability, disability support workers and families.