Author: humansingeelong

‘I remember in the mid 60’s, when Mum, Zillah Crawcour, was the Mayor of the City of Newtown, she was invited to the Geelong State Government Offices opening (hangover house). On entry the officials told her ‘We didn’t realise you were a woman. You will be embarrassed as all the other guests are men.’ My mother very sternly told them she would not be embarrassed as this happened on many occasions! Then later when they offered that she eat her dinner in a separate room, she and her fellow councillor walked out. Since then promoting equality and promoting female councillors has been my life’s work.

‘WILD stands for Women in Local Democracy, we support Women’s participation and leadership in all walks of life. We endorse gender equity, diversity and active citizenship, the three principles of the Victorian Local Government Women’s Charter.’

Continue reading “WILD – Women in Local Democracy, Priscilla” →

 

A Dose of Local Democracy – I run a democratic reform foundation. A lot of people around the world complain about how we do democracy today, so we try new things to see if they earn public trust. The Local Government Minister is making an announcement about the State Government’s response to the Geelong Citizens’ Jury’s recommendations on Saturday morning at 10am (Geelong Library and Heritage Centre ‘The Dome’ if anyone wants to come along!)

When the council here was dismissed by the state parliament we were asked for advice as to what approach to take to restoring democracy in Geelong. We suggested that the best people to decide that were a random sample of local people of all ages given the time and information to see if they could find agreement among themselves. This became the Geelong Citizens’ Jury.

Continue reading “Dose of Local Democracy, Iain” →

‘I lost a relative to heroin. It came with no warning. Bang!  They were gone. That’s why I joined ‘Our Town’s Ice Fight’. After the attack in the Bourke St. Mall, we are all reminded of the heartbreak Ice can cause’. I’m interviewing Ian Campbell, the Geelong Community Drug Action Group’s treasurer and representative from Rotary along with the group’s President, Peter Hester.

‘Our mantra is Prevention through awareness and education. We formed to tackle the crisis around Ice in the Geelong and Barwon region. The group’s aim is to unite the local community to address the impact of substance abuse. We are assisted by police, businesses and employers and see ourselves as ‘enablers’ supporting our local best practise service providers in the provision of drug counselling, rehabilitation and support services.

Continue reading “Our Town’s Ice Fight, Ian and Peter” →

‘My sister Alisha took her own life in 2008, at age 27. She was a bright bubbly person and her death was a massive shock to her friends and family. Nine years later, I’m proud to be fronting the Support After Suicide Service (SAS) Geelong region. The service was formed after a need was seen for suicide specific bereavement support in the Geelong region. Loss as a result of suicide is a unique type of grieving process, there is another layer to the experience when faced with loss due to a sudden death and this is even more so with suicide’.  We’re talking to Melinda Hopper, who has a background in mental health, the group’s newly appointed community development coordinator.

Photo: Annie (on the left) and Melinda

Continue reading “Support After Suicide, Melinda” →

Clean water for a Karen village in Burma is within our reach! I work in Geelong for Diversitat with a group of Karen people, migrants from Burma (the new name ‘Myanmar’ I notice is never used by the Karen). My role is to support them in maintaining their culture of weaving fabric and making baskets. Their weaving skill is phenomenal and is accomplished with minimal equipment, which they often put together themselves using all manner of objects. I have come to know them as warm-hearted, generous, unassuming and gentle, with a strong sense of community and a resourcefulness which we could all learn from.

Recently I travelled to the Thai-Burma border area as a companion to our young interpreter, Mumu. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the Karen. They live mostly in the hills bordering the eastern mountainous region of Burma, an area known as Karen state and a small number in north-western Thailand, the Thai Karen. Those in Burma have been suffering persecution for the past 70 years, with thousands having to flee and seek refuge in temporary camps in Thailand. The people I work with have all spent many years living in refugee camps, just over the border from Burma. Mumu herself lived in Mae La camp from the age of five until she was 22, when she was able to be resettled in Australia. Although born in Burma, she identifies more with Thailand, having spent most of her life there.

Continue reading “Water for a Village, Caroline” →

Is anyone else disgusted by the amount of rubbish littering our beautiful country? Well, let’s take action and Clean Up Australia! This year’s official Clean Up Australia Day is tomorrow, Sunday 5^th of March. There are clean-up sites all over Geelong – you can find your nearest one on the website http://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/  by simply popping in your postcode.

“Clean Up Australia inspires and empowers communities to clean up, fix up and conserve our environment,” explains their website. “In 1989 an ‘average Australian bloke’ had a simple idea to make a difference in his own backyard – Sydney Harbour. This simple idea has now become the nation’s largest community-based environmental event.”

Personally, I’ve been involved in cleaning up Australia all my life. Rubbish lying around was my mum’s pet hate. She’d always pick it up and find the nearest bin. No wonder my sister went on to become a Council Environmental Officer. At Highton Primary school where I teach I help the Environmental Team organise the clean up. It fits in with the inquiry project we do called ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Renew’. The kids are great at helping out and embrace this positive message. I’m proud our small community school is still one that holds family working bees.

Continue reading “Clean Up Australia, Jacqui” →

‘We want to offer a place of belonging so people feel at home.’ We are talking to Jaki Tidmas of Urban Seed, a community development organisation that operates in Norlane. Urban Seed is focused on the idea that everybody needs a place to belong, no matter what their circumstances. It has existed for over 20 years and also operates in Melbourne.

‘A lot of people experience disadvantage in our neighbourhood, but we want to tell the most positive stories to bring hope and transformation. Our staff all live locally, we are part of the community and we share resources with other great organisations in the area. It’s all about working together and connectedness.’

Continue reading “Urban Seed,” →