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Showing posts with label Community Engagement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Community Engagement. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
Sustainability Victoria is coming to #Ballarat : Community Conversation on Climate Change
You are invited by Sustainability Victoria, to‘Community Conversation on Climate Change’.- for community groups,...
Posted by Buninyong Sustainability - at Royal Park on Monday, 12 October 2015
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Thursday, 8 October 2015
Sustainability Victoria community engagement events in the Grampians Region : #Horsham & #Ballarat :
Sustainability Victoria is hosting a series of ‘Community Conversations on Climate Change’ across regional Victoria throughout October and November 2015.
The purpose of these events is to bring together representatives from across the community sector (community groups, not-for-profits, schools, local government) to connect with each other, share lessons and exchange knowledge about leading climate change projects in the region and from across the state, and to inform Sustainability Victoria’s future program design and community engagement offer.
In the Grampians region, there will be 2 events:
Horsham, Thursday 22 October – 9.45am to 1pm (concluding with lunch)
Ballarat, Wednesday 28 October – 9.45am to 1pm (concluding with lunch)
Please put one of these dates in your diary.
An invitation including all the event details with a full agenda will be sent shortly.
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Wednesday, 9 September 2015
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Participatory democracy & the environment : Climate change : Community involvement in environmental law
Friend of The Network, Maria Riedl, has been writing to governments again. What else is new? Here below is the exchange of correspondence;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13:31 (26 minutes ago)
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Thank you very much Rebecca.I have been doing a uni course at UTAS on 'Issues in Environmental Law'
and am referencing the 2009-2010 version. What I have been learning is
very very troubling to me and to the rest of the community, who believes
in public participation to ensure that our environment is not bulldozed
for the sake of development, profits, lobbying by mining companies, all at
the pleasure of local, state and federal governments in their constant
quest for power.
It is time to include a 'Environmental Legacy Act' in Commonwealth
legislation that ensures that future generations are not compromised by
the actions of the present selfish, self-centred generation of
short-sighted, power hungry politicians, miners, foresters, farmers and
others with short-term profits their only driver. Looking around at QLD,
Victoria, NSW, WA, I am seriously concerned about the lack of will by
these specific politically motivated governments to protect or natural
ecosystems and biodiversity dependent upon them in any manner at all. They
give lip service to matters and relegate environmental laws to "green
tape" and constantly change these laws so they no longer can be recognised
as complying with Federal responsibilities under International agreements
as well as the demands by my community of Australians who believe that we
have a right to a healthy and vibrant environment and that this is
supposed to be reflected in laws of the land.
People such as Campbell Newman, Barry O'Farrell, Barnaby Joyce,
Christopher Pyne, Tony Abbott, Bob Katter, Colin Barnett, are short-term,
illogical thinkers, motivated by a self-centred drive to gain power at any
cost and who put in jeopardy what we the people believe to be matters to
be protected, in this case our natural environment and specifically our
biodiversity. Land clearing, water usage, cattle, hunters, miners,
prospectors, loggers, developers in our National Parks is totally
unacceptable and must be stopped immediately.
It is a known and acknowledged fact that Australia has the highest rate of
extinctions in the entire world. Th MDB and the GAB is threatened
continually by vested interests and water laws that fail to meaningfully
address the issues of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss.
Victoria has cleared the most land, there is still logging of old-growth
and regrowth forests instead of recognition of their value as carbon
sinks, there is constant pressure on our catchments both above and below
ground and the related contamination, from unregulated extractions by
mining companies and illegal grab of water when we know full well that
Australia is the driest continent on earth! e.g. Allowing mining water to
be released into the GBR though knowing full well it is ALREADY threatened
is another example of lunacy.
Climate change will impact Australia most out of all the places on earth.
Mismanagement by governments and vested interested politicians, business,
industry, urban areas is a comedy of errors that has disastrous
consequences for the ext generation.
It is time that we take an rigorous accounting of our resources, this
includes our biodiversity, our ecosystems and drawing up three columns in
a book. One column is the amount of resources we have, another is the
amount to be put aside, and another the amount never to be touched.
We need to return to proper, rigorous community involvement in our
environmental laws, we need open and transparent discussions, we need
information that is out there, we need properly funded scientific info to
inform us all and not rely solely on computer generated figures or
scenarios, we need to be able to hear what other people say because that
is how we learn!
I am very very angry about governments, specifically politicians and
administrators' lack of will to protect our environment.I am getting tired
of vested interest groups continually branding anyone who wants to protect
our forests, rivers, GBR, Tarkine, whales, marine areas, etc as radicals
and lunatics, and them getting a pat on the back from decision-makers who
obviously only care about the next election result! I am sick to death of
them changing laws when challenged in court then going back to challenge a
decision that was right the first time.that should never be allowed.
Plenty of examples of law altering going on at this very instance in
nearly every state and even the Commonwealth which wants to pass off its
obligations regarding the administration of the EPBC Act back to lazy,
self-serving states who just want development at any cost. e.g. GRB and
all the proposed coal terminals and shipping increase of more than 11,000
thru the GBR World Heritage Area, complete lack of will to protect the
Tarkine Wilderness, gas hubs along WA's pristine coast, CSG mining on all
lands in ALL states no matter the impact on people and water, the
continued logging of old-growth forests by calling it "thinning",
prospecting which is another name for mining. EG Wielangta case, Gunn's
pulp mill case, dredging of Gladstone harbour, dam building on the Mary
river, the Burnett River, proposals to pipe water from one catchment to
another, build yet another dam, draining of wetlands, inability of
government to protect Ramsar wetlands from vested interests. The worst is
government's inability to address the very real terrors of global warming
which is already on its unstoppable way to 2% warming.
So you can see why I am interested in the report!
Kindest regards
Maria Riedl
On 16/07/13 11:53 AM, "SCEW Secretariat" <SCEW@environment.gov.au> wrote:
>Thanks for your email Maria.
>
>We have posted a hardcopy version of the NEPC 2011-12 Annual Report as
>requested by you.
>
>Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
>
>Kind Regards,
>Rebecca Gillett
>Secretariat | COAG Standing Council on Environment and Water (SCEW)
>Phone: (02) 6274 1819 | Email: SCEW.Secretariat@environment.
>Website: www.scew.gov.au
>Please consider the environment before printing emails and attachments
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Maria Riedl
>Sent: Monday, 15 July 2013 9:40 PM
>To: SCEW Secretariat
>Subject: May I please have the 2011-2012 NEPC annual report in hard copy
>
>
>15 July 2013
>
>Dear Sir/Madam,
>
>May I please ask for a hard copy of the 2011-2012 NEPC Annual Report? I
>am studying environmental law and it would be of assistance.
>
>Thank you
>
>
>Regards
>
>Maria Riedl
>
>"Democracy is not a spectator sport"
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Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Older adults, volunteering and health. Down, down, the blood pressure's down when you volunteer.
Are you an Elder yet? If you are in your senior years, I highly commend Ronni Bennett's blog, Time Goes By, to you. I was so taken with this post of Ronni's that I have to snitch it to ensure that Networkers get a look at it.
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Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Volunteering Linked to Reduced Risk of Hypertension
”New research from Carnegie Mellon University shows that older adults who volunteer for at least 200 hours per year decrease their risk of hypertension, or high blood pressure, by 40 percent.
Hypertension is estimated to affect 65 million Americans. It leads to cardiovascular disease which is the number one killer in the United States. So this is fascinating news for elders who are physically able to contribute.
As reported at ScienceDaily, 1,164 adults age 51 to 91 from across the United States were interviewed in 2006 and 2010. All participants registered normal blood pressure levels in the first interview and each time, volunteering along with social and psychological factors were measured. (Emphasis is mine)
”...showed that those who reported at least 200 hours [per year] of volunteer work during the initial interview were 40 percent less likely to develop hypertension than those who did not volunteer when evaluated four years later.
“The specific type of volunteer activity was not a factor - only the amount of time spent volunteering led to increased protection from hypertension."
Isn't that the most terrific thing? Just helping others goes a long way to reducing the risk of high blood pressure. And the amount of time isn't much. There are approximately 250 business days per year which is equal to 2,000 hours. So only one-tenth of the time we spent employed, on average, is effective.
Certainly, regular TGB readers know how I bash on from time to time about how blogging – writing or reading – helps reduce isolation and loneliness at a time in life when we no longer have the camaraderie of the workplace and some other means of social interaction. That appears to also be true for volunteering.
The lead author of this research, Rodlescia S. Sneed, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology in [Carnegie Mellon's] Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Science suggests that this is what is at work in the reduced hypertension risk with volunteering:
"As people get older, social transitions like retirement, bereavement and the departure of children from the home often leave older adults with fewer natural opportunities for social interaction. Participating in volunteer activities may provide older adults with social connections that they might not have otherwise.”
Exercise is good for reducing blood pressure. So is maintaining a reasonable body weight, they tell us, along with eating a healthy diet and cutting back on sodium intake.
Now we know that something as fulfilling as helping out others can give a big boost to our health. It's something anyone can do - even if you cannot get out and about easily, there is plenty of need for people who can contribute via telephone and computer.
In reporting on this research WebMD warns to keep in mind that the study "found an association between time spent volunteering and blood pressure levels, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.”
Okay. But there is at least one other study that seems to agree. Earlier this year, EverydayHealth reported on similar results with volunteer adolescents:
”After ten weeks, researchers found that the students who volunteered had decreased cholesterol, BMI, and inflammation when compared to those who did not get the opportunity to volunteer.
"'The volunteers who reported the greatest increases in empathy, altruistic behaviour and mental health were the ones who also saw the greatest improvements in their cardiovascular health,' study author Hannah Schreier, PhD, said in a press release.”
This news – for young and old - seems to me to be the sort that if you'd ever given it serious thought, you might have deduced it for yourself. It feels intuitively right, don't you think, that doing things that make you feel good, especially while helping others, would be a health-giving activity?
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Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Neighbourhood House Week 6-10 May - discover your local neighbourhood house
As part of Neighbourhood House Week, next week,. Ballarat North Neighbourhood House and Wendouree Neighbourhood Centre are opening their doors wide. Don't miss this opportunity to get to know what the Neighbourhood community can do for you and your neighbourhood.
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Saturday, 2 March 2013
Anthropology, Agriculture, Communities, Engagement and Food
I was quite taken with the concepts in this post which I discovered at Food Anthropology. Anyone in Oz thinking and acting in the way described here?
~~~~~
The Anthronaut Farmer
Session Organizer: Ted Maclin
An increasing number of anthropologists are turning to agriculture as a means of subsistence, a way of living in their communities, and a form of embodied research. Beyond a practice of study, this is a lived anthropology outside of academia: not a research venture bounded by funding cycles, but a journey of engagement with the world. Through their hands-on work, these ”anthronaut” farmers are transforming themselves, their communities and landscapes, and their academic work.
In a recent New York Times article, political scientist James Scott said that his own farming venture has made him a better researcher; but the institutions of farming and the academy conflict and coincide in complex ways. In this interactive session, we will explore how anthropologist-farmers navigate these complexities. We welcome discussions from all theoretical and agricultural perspectives, from apiculture to Actor-Network Theory, from eco-agriculture to ethnobiology, from permaculture to political ecology.
If interested, please submit an abstract (~200 words) to Ted Maclin (tmaclin@uga.edu) by March 1.
~~~~~
For the James Scott article mentioned above, please go to
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Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Neighbour, neighbour - let's share the 'hood
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Sunday, 26 August 2012
Being Bush and Black counted in yesterday's Northern Territory election
Networkers, I am sure you will have tuned in last night or this morning to hear the results of yesterday's Northern Territory election.
Before I go on, let me give some full disclosure. From 1993 to 1997, I was the electorate officer for Maggie Hickey, the then Member for Barkly (ALP) who later became Leader of the Opposition in the NT. The seat of Barkly has two major towns - Tennant Creek and Borroloola. When I went to work for Maggie, she held the seat by 93 votes having won it from a former CLP Chief Minister. In 1997, our teamwork meant that we made Barkly a very safe Labor seat. After fifteen years, it still is and Gerry McCarthy, the current MLA, held on to his seat last night.
While it galls me to have to say that I am thrilled with the election result and the CLP victory, the fact is that I am - for all the reasons that Chris Graham outlines.
After all my years in politics, I don't believe that longstanding safe seats - or taken for granted constituencies - are good things. My favourite political slogan is "Make it marginal". In short, keep politicians on their toes and working for you. It is a shame that it has taken two horrendous pieces of public policy affecting adversely the lives of Aboriginal people to shake Labor to its core in the NT.
While some people whom I don't like may get a seat in the new NT Parliament - Bess Price may win the seat of Stuart and she favours The Intervention, and then there is Alison Anderson who I wouldn't trust from A to B - I am proud of what Aboriginal people have done in this election.
The seat of Barkly was always ignored - the Berrimah line and, in my view, a Mount Nancy line by which Tennant Creek was ignored by Alice Springs as well as Darwin. The northern suburbs of Darwin, until now, had always been the significant political vote changer. Probably for the first time in Australian political history, we have seen the vote of people in remote areas change a government. The remote area voice has triumphed over the urban voice. And not only was that an Outback vote, it was a Black vote. How significant is that!
I found Clare Martin's comments in the wash up last night astounding ... and if that is a true reflection of ALP thinking, then the party has a long way to go in coming to an accurate analysis of what went wrong for them. Martin said that there has been more money than ever before put into Aboriginal communities with The Intervention/Stronger Futures program. Sure, she said, there were some problems in the housing area but there had been a substantial amount of new housing built.
This goes back to what I call the old "achievement by dollars" syndrome. I remember when Bob Hawke was met with ridiculing laughter at a World Council of Churches Congress event in Canberra for a similar statement. The ridicule hit home and after that, attached to information about dollar spending, reports from the Aboriginal portfolio used to speak of outcomes.
Politicians must realise - and I wonder if the major parties will - that it doesn't matter how much money is poured into electorates, whether they are black or white. Unless there is honest consultation with people and people's views are acknowledged and worked with, all that those dollars will deliver is but shifting sand.
The big decider for Aboriginal people was The Shires vote. Out in white Australia most people will not have a clue about this policy area and its significance on the ground. Opinion has been divided in Aboriginal communities with regard to The Intervention. It is my guess that there was no division in relation to The Shires. What the CLP will do with this knowledge remains to be seen. It is almost certain that they will abolish the current Local Government system... and then we will have to see what comes next and what the results of any new policy are.
There is another factor which may be significant. From what I have seen of the new Chief Minister, Terry Mills, he seems a nice man. Now this comment may seem a bit twee in the political context but I have to say that the old CLP which lives on in my memory was horrible: it was corrupt, racist, played the racist card election after election, was riddled with cronyism, and had some very nasty and vicious players. Back in those days, to get anywhere in the NT it was advisable to be a member of the CLP ... and you were assured of preferrment if you were a member of the Silver Circle. I suspect this may have changed and, if it hasn't, it will now with the significant Aboriginal contingent on CLP benches. However, one must not ignore the fact that family relationships (what we whitefellas may call nepotism) plays a significant part in Aboriginal ways of doing things. In fact, these relationships have been discussed in political commentary in relation to Anderson's electorate success.
Lastly, I wonder if this will have any bearing on Federal Labor's ambitions (as well as Fed LibNats ambitions) to establish a radioactive waste site on Muckaty station, north of Tennant Creek and in the seat of Barkly. The majority of the Traditional Owners are against the proposal. However, the Northern Land Council has done a deal with Amy Lauder and her family to establish the dump with the NLC and Lauder set to receive millions of dollars in the deal. Currently, the TOs have a case pending in the High Court.
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Thursday, 23 August 2012
Multicultural Arts Victoria: bringing their Emerge Cultural Hubs Consultation 2012 to Ballarat
Dear Friends,
You are invited to attend a Ballarat Arts community consultation session with Multicultural Arts Victoria on Tuesday 28th August from 6pm – 8pm at the Ballarat Town Hall.
MAV will be seeking community feedback on the following:
1. What are the barriers to participation in the arts for refugee and emerging CALD artists and communities in Ballarat?
2. What can we do to increase opportunities and access for refugee and emerging CALD artists and communities in Ballarat?
Multicultural Arts Victoria will undertake a series of 6 consultations over a 2 week period in August to review and inform the development of its Emerge Cultural Hubs program. Emerge Cultural Hubs is a unique model for arts development, programming and capacity building of emerging refugee artists and communities in regional Victoria. Through a partnership approach and ongoing consultation with communities and stakeholders, the program identifies local needs and develops locally based, sustainable arts initiatives that are aimed at increasing refugee and CALD communities’ participation in the arts.
Regards,
Elizabeth Hardiman | Cultural Partnerships Officer
City of Ballarat | PO Box 655, Ballarat, Victoria, 3353
P: 03 5320 5831 | M: 0438 205 620 | http://www.ballarat.vic.gov.au
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Monday, 23 July 2012
Transformative change - ten principles outlined by Mosese Waqa
14 Jul 2012
In a talk during the Caux Forum for Human Security, Fijian development consultant Mosese Waqa, Initiatives of Change Human Security Coordinator in Australia, shared the following principles for effective work to advance human security.
Mosese at the 2012 Caux Forum for Human Security
1. Know yourself. Our identity frames our engagement with the world. With the art of knowing oneself comes the art of listening.
2. Convince yourself that your cause/passion is really necessary. Answer key questions first. Is the cause legitimate? Do we really need to pursue it? If you can’t convince yourself, forget about convincing others.
3. Research an issue before diving into a cause. Dig deep. Get to the facts. What’s happening in your community? With that information, you can justify the cause.
4. If you don’t like hard work, don’t get involved. There is no short cut to achieving one’s vision. It’s mostly perspiration aided by inspiration.
5. Maintain a sense of perspective. Overstating the cause can be damaging. Absence of perspective can lead to narrow-mindedness. A sense of priorities is vital.
6. Reflect your broader ideals in all you do – keep your vision alive. Create within you a space for an evolving reality by engaging in reflection on what you’re doing.
7. Be positive… we are not against, but for a cause. Transformational change is about sustained positive energies that come together, with the outcome bigger than the sum of the parts.
8. Keep your firepower for the real enemy – we do not battle against flesh and blood...Everyone is looking for their own angles, making sense of things. Identify key relationships and key people, beginning with those closest to you.
9. Involve those affected by the problem. When advocating on behalf of others, they know best about the problem. They live with it and can give the cause a sense of urgency and legitimacy.
10. Have faith, hope and love… never let anyone tell you that you don’t matter. We each have our own place to find in life – that gives us a sense of who we are and faith in where we are going.
Visit the new Initiatives of Change Australia Human Security website.
- By Mosese Waqa, Fiji, IofC Australia
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Wednesday, 4 July 2012
Monday, 2 July 2012
Dale Hess Calendar 2012-0702
Tuesday 3 July, 5:30 pm -7 pm: Launch Event at Media House (the Age). OurSay is teaming up with Deakin, Fairfax Media and Google to bring you the biggest most exciting OurSay ever. To kick off the conversation, OurSay and Fairfax are holding a launch event at Media House on the 3rd. This event will bring together crowds of community sector luminaries, change agents and informed question asking citizens as well as familiar faces of the media and business worlds. For your chance to join in the festivities email amelia.kemister@oursay.org
Thursday 5 July, 8.45 pm: Film screening: West Papua: A Journey To Freedom. This is a documentary film that encapsulates the political activism of Herman Wainggai, a young independence leader and mentor of the non-violent student movement in West Papua, as he journeys fromMelbourne , Australia to an isolated refugee camp on the north coast of Papua New Guinea 1 Macarthur St , Melbourne Melbourne Australia Victoria
Wednesday 11 July – Sunday 22 July: Olympic Dam & Lizards Revenge Tour. Anti-nuclear & Clean energy's (ACE) Olympic Dam exposure tour 2012. From the organiser's of the Friends of the Earth radioactive exposure tour, join the ACE crew for this years Olympic Dam & Lizards revenge activists. We will travel from Melbourne along BHP Billiton's proposed path of destruction to the heart of the South Australia Gammon & Flinders Ranges
Saturday 14 July – Friday 20 July: The Lizard's Revenge - Olympic Dam expansion music/art/festival/protest. ... Sleeping underneath the ground there is an old lizard, Kalta the sleepy lizard. The lizard ain't so sleepy anymore. BHP is mining right into that Lizards body. The government has just approved an expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium mine, making it the biggest uranium mine in the world. Kalta is angry and wants revenge. Arabana elder Kevin Buzzacott is calling the people of the world to help the lizard shut down the mine. He is calling for people to come and heal the land in the name of peace and justice for the next 10,000 generations to come. The land is being irreversibly poisoned in and around Roxby Downs by the tailings dam causing dust and ground water contamination, and contamination of its workers. Party in a Dangerous Planet with Theatre, Cabaret and Art installations. Over 20 musical acts. Solar Powered sound system extravaganza and wind powered cinema. Location: Olympic Dam, Roxby Downs gates of hell - South Australia
Tuesday 17 July, 6.30 pm for 7.00 pm: Making Peace with the Earth. Dr Vandana Shiva, radical scientist and ecofeminist in conversation with Dr Susan Hawthorne, Publisher, Spinifex Press. In her new book, Making Peace with the Earth, Sydney Peace Prize recipient Vandana Shiva explores the basis of human life on our planet. She finds that a series of wars have been declared against the Earth: wars about land, water, climate, forests and biodiversity. In a searing critique of corporate globalisation, she examines the root causes of these wars against the backdrop of the current crisis in food supply. She imagines a world that could be sustainable; a world in which food security, justice and peace are all aligned. By drawing out the connections between 'growth' and free markets, she argues for a future in which human rights and earth rights become central to the creation of a different kind of wealth, one imbued with democracy and justice. VENUE: The Barn, Montsalvat, Hillcrest Avenue $10.00 waged, $8.00 concession. Inncludes chai and samosas. BOOKINGS essential: Eltham Bookshop Tel: 03 9439 8700. elthambookshop@bigpond.com
Monday 20 August – Friday 14 September: Walking for Country. Walkatjurra Walkabout is a pilgrimage across Wangkatja country in the spirit of our ancestors so together, we as present custodians, can protect our land and our culture for future generations. Walking for Country is to reconnect people with land and culture. My people have resisted destructive mining on our land and our sacred sites for generations. For over forty years we have fought to stop uranium mining at Yeelirrie, we stopped the removal of sacred stones from Weebo and for the last twenty years we have stoped destruction of 200 sites at Yakabindie. We are not opposed to responsible development, but cannot stand wanton destruction of our land, our culture, and our environment. We invite all people, from all places, to come together to walk with us, to send a clear message that we want the environment here, and our sacred places left alone. Kado Muir, Traditional Owner, Yeelirrie. This walk will be lead by the Walkatjurra Rangers, in partnership with Footprints for Peace, Western Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (WANFA), the Anti Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia (ANAWA) and the Conservation Council of Western Australia (CCWA). ALL WELCOME to JOIN for an hour, a day, a few weeks or the whole way. Email: walk4country@gmail.com. Phone: 0421 816 846 (Laura). Website: www.walkingforcountry.com [Position open for Publicity and Communications Intern to work with the Organising Committee in all matters related to media and publicity. The Intern would be responsible for liaising with all media in the lead up, duration and immediate period following the upcoming event Walkatjurra Walkabout – Walking for Country. Any inquiries, 0421 816 846 (Laura)].
Friday 31 August, 7.30 pm: Peace with People, Peace with our Planet A Franciscan Perspective. Joe Rozansky OFM is the head of the OFM Secretariat for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation which co-ordinates and animates the international Franciscan activities for justice and peace. He led the Franciscan delegation at the Rio +20 UN Summit on Sustainable Development this year. Joe is a friar of the Holy Name Province of New York and has worked with the landless of Minais Gerais , Brazil Australia Holy Spirit Province Union - Study Centre, 34 Bedford Street
Sunday 23 September – Thursday 27 September: Swan Island Queenscliff ,Victoria , for a week of learning about and nonviolently resisting the war: nonviolence training, community engagement, peace vigils, blockade the bridge to Swan Island military base where the SAS troops are trained for active combat in Afghanistan
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