GOMACFE Regional Conference 2005

Fri, Aug 19, 2005; by Bill Coppinger.

A.C.E. - A Place in the Community

Sunrise over the Valley of a Thousand Hills 18th August 2005

2005 Goulburn Ovens Murray Regional Conference

Since the GOM ACFE Regional Conference in 2003, there have been some major developments in the ACE sector, not least the Ministerial Statement ≥Future Directions for Adult Community Education in Victoria≈.

An important effect of these developments is the broadening of the role of ACE in communities.

This conference aims to provide motivation and support for ACE providers to position themselves as key community points both physically and in how they position themselves within the community, local government, business and other stakeholders.

[Source: GOMACFE Conference Flyer]

Ross Tinkler, Regional Director of the GOM ACFE Council welcomed everyone to the Cumberland Resort, Marysville and introduced Cr. Graeme Brown, Mayor of the Murrindindi Shire, to formally open proceedings.

Mayor Brown highlighted that Murrindindi was a large, sparsely populated shire, at 4000 square Kilometres in area. He indicated that the future health and well-being of communities thorughout Murrindindi relied heavily on education and training. He pointed out the important relationshop the Shire has with the CRLLEN, and also pointed out the important role community houses had in the shire.

The Mayor outlined three key industries in the Murrindindi Shire, these are;

• Farming, pointing out 80% of Trout and Salmon for Australia's tables comes from the shire!
  • Olives, Vines, Green Tea
• Timber,
  • Harvesting, Milling, Flooring
• Tourism
  • Selling an experience
  • Lake Mountain, Lake Eildon, Marysville,

Mayor Brown said the challenge was to draw people in to and participate within the community. He said education was critical to supporting an informed and engaged community. Mayor Brown said the focus for the Council was on a whole-of-community approach.

He said he was very pleased to welcome everyone and offically opened proceedings.

What follows is a series of notes taken over the two days of the conference.

These notes are provided "as is" . We hope to get copies of the presentations made to make available from this site.

 

Community Strengthening and Volunteering, Department of Victorian Communities. [Thursday 18th August 2005]

The first speaker of the morning was Dr Charles Lane, Director, Community Strengthening and Volunteering, Department of Victorian Communities.

Dr. Lane pointed out that he was a resident of the Murrindindi Shire.

He said the challenege for DVC and the Government was to modify beuraucracy to be more amenable to community.

He broke his presentation in to the following sections.

• Context
  • Pursue active, confident and resilient communties
  • Making Govt easier to work with
    • Focus
    • Community Strenghtening
    • Linking Up Services
    • Integrated planning
    • People and Place
• Evidence
  • Safety,Improved Health, Improved sense of control,feeling more valued, more involvement in civic life.
  • Social Capital is positively correlated with
• lower crime rates
• improved health
• higher educational attainment
• increased Govt Efficiency
• higher individual outcome
• improved economic performance
• Looking closely each community and disagregating data to address disadvantage and opportunity
• Data provides basis for local planning
• Beyond outputs measurement to include qualitative data
• Directions
  • New Social Policy
• A fairer Victoria
• 788.2 Million over 4 YEars
• 85 Actions, within 14 Strategies
• Requires new partnerships with communities.
• Where are the partners in Local Govt and Corporate Partners?
• Regional Management Forums
• Funds for Regional Initiatives
• Community Project Teams will be established with Secretary in each region supported by Regional Support Officer
• Opportunities
  • A greater role for Local Government
  • 9mill for new initiatives
  • Micro-credit facilities
  • Business is a critical new player

• Initiatives
  • 21Mill for Volunteering and Community Enterprise Strategy
  • Build CSR
  • encourage entrepreneurial community projects
  • New partners are needed
  • Modernising Neighborhood Houses
  • 12.4 Million over 4 Years
  • 8 Million Capital works to establish 10 new houses, ICT and co-location programmes
  • Hoping to move to a model of POOLED funding

Business in the community: Whose business is it? [Thursday 18th August 2005]

The second keynote speaker of the morning was Dr. John Prince, from Transfield Services.

Transfield Services is a leading provider of operations, maintenance and asset management services with more than 120 contracts across Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, and the Gulf Region.

Operations result from more than 120 contracts across 11 diverse industries.  Clients of Transfield Services include major national and international companies, as well as all levels of government.  Transfield Services operates across a number of industries including mining and process, hydrocarbons, roads, rail and public transport, utilities, facilities management, defence, telecommunications and power.

Transfield Services and the Central Ranges Local and Learning Employment Network (CRLLEN) have developed an agreement to build and contribute to community sustainability for the Seymour district and region through an innovative and ground-breaking partnership for the region. In 2004, the partnership was recognised with a Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership Large Business Encouragement Award.

• Business in the community: Whose business is it?
  • Publicly listed Top 150 Company
  • 1.5 Billion turnover, 40 Million Profit
  • Employ 150 people across 18 Services
  • 10,500 directly employed
  • 5000+ additional sub-contracting
  • 350 Vacancies Nation-wide
  • How can it be that local schools struggle for pathways for students?
  • Different language and different services

• 2002 - Transfield Services Journey into CSR began
  • For employees in many companies, surveys are showing that companies with a positive social responsibility approach is as important or more important than simply salary as a factor that influences any employee's "employer of choice".
  • Contracts should be weighted to reflect CSR
• Found Jenny Oakley at the Puckapunyal Neighborhood Centre
• A positive and constructed relationship with the Community Centre.
• Would Transfield have found a Jenny Oakley if they did not have a Community Partnership Manager?
• The Approach
  • Model developed in one site
  • Community Partnerships Programme
    • Local Economy Investment
      • Build Local Capacity
      • 78% of contract is Local, but we want to build strategies
      • Natural tensions with National agreements and economies of scale.
  • Business Community Partnerships [Very Important]
    • Brokerage of Language, the LLEN has provided a bridge
  • Home Grown
    • Sponsorship -Limited value because it does not often deliver sustainability
    • Is it a Community Programme or PR?
      • Challenges still ahead
  • Business-Community Partnership
• First national MoU with CRLLEN
• Matrix of activity
  • infrastruture
  • employment skills
  • traineeships-industry targeted
  • working towards "demand" model of training and education
  • Can the partnership survive beyond individual relationships to become a more generalised partnership?
• Local Economy Investment
• Milestones
  • Sustainability report for 2005
• Internal Challenges
• Harnessing the enthusiasm
• Controlling the enthusiasm
• Mechanisms for reporting to the business
• Meeting competig demands
• Education of employees to build cultural change

 

• Partnership Challenges
• How do we know it is beneficial
• When should partners move on?
• Is trust more important than Transparency?
• Can we speak a common language?

Day Two August 19th 2005

Victoria's Planning System and Effective Community Engagement

Paul Flint -Senior Planner -Department of Sustainability and the Environment - Benall

• Presentation
• State PLaning Policy Framework
• Strategic Framework
• Minister approves all schemes
• Local Government -Councils -Municipal Planning
• Planning Authority-POwer to prepare and amend a planning scheme
• Municipal Strategic Statement
• Othe Ministers & Govt Depts.
• Communications
• seeking input
• Community Reaction
• Not in my backyard
• Appeal Process
• VCAT
• Judicial
• Costs
• Decision Final
• Panel
• Expert, independent members
• Strategic based
• user friendly
• Decisions are recommendations to Council or Minister.
• DSE on the Web
• www.dse.vic.gov.au/planning
• Planning schemes online
• amendments online
• amendments to planning schemes
• Planning Panel Reports and hearings
• Plannin Practice note

• Anne Barker -Parliamentary Secretary for Training and Higher Education -Member for Oakleigh

• 2004-05 $52.3 Million total investment in ACE
• Additional Million dollars for fee concessions
• 1.2 Mill over 3 three years ito increase average student contact hour
• 1Mill for ICT Infrastructure
• 3 Year funding has been introduced and allows better use of resources
• Ballarat Youth Facilities being established for disengaged young people
• Casterton has old cort-house project and ICT projects via Satellite Networks
• Mornington Peninsula -Digital Message Stick
• 1.2 Million for exploring new approaches to Ed &Training for people on Community Based orders
• Dept of Justice is the partner
• 1500 Trained for community and event volunteering Statewide.
• Community Building Government Hub funded by DVC
• ANZ, Neighborhood renewal and ACE in Community Financial projects
• Building Sustainable Community Businesses
• Currenlty being trialled

Anne's message was that Neighborhood Houses and the Adult and Community Education Sector, has an important role to play in building the capability and resilience of communties across the state.

Conclusion:

Approximately 90 people attended the two days, participating in a large number of workshops, seminars and keynote presentations. A very successful conference!