SHOALHAVEN 2020: SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS Dennis Argall 30 June 2008 A fuel and food summit While the Mayor and a Nowra elite this weekend celebrate the opening of the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre many families in the region are sinking under pressure of fuel and food costs. There is an approaching social crisis, which local government must provide leadership to address. No level of government can prevent this situation getting worse. We have to engage with community leaders and get communities to work on how in their own places they can work together to survive: as localities, as communities as families, as individuals, as workers and businesses. I will, when elected in September, hold a conference of community consultative bodies, welfare organisations, small business people, students and business chambers to find ways which work locally to enable people to survive - and thrive. I urge all the Community Consultative Bodies recognised by the council to get stuck into this process now. Start now. The best ideas for success come from community, not from government. This is your time, this is your chance to build community. And it doesn't require leadership or direction from outside, it has to start locally, with you. Questions and issues - some start points: [1] will it help in the crisis if communities build collaborative spirit? [2] How do we do that? [3] How can we ease cost of travel to shop, to seek work, to quote for jobs, to get to TAFE, uni, etc? How do we get business to come to you locally, if you are in business? [4] Just how many people are at risk in isolation, especially in communities further from town? What are their situations? What do these people need? Human company, companionship, transport assistance, activities, help in their homes with simple things... the crisis may help us focus on things we should be doing in community anyway. [5] How can we add value to services like the home delivery of books from the Shoalhaven Library (55,000 a year)? Can this be used as contact for other purposes? Volunteer involvement? Do the people getting those books have skills, not least reading, of community value? How to connect to everything in simple ways, without lots of organisation? [6] Seniors: Meals on Wheels travel money no longer covers volunteers' petrol costs. What do we need to do to fix this problem? What other initiatives? [7] Can we help people establish community gardens? No, I don't think that we will feed everyone that way but we might get people outside and talking to each other and variously supporting each other as well as growing, cooking and eating good food together. [8] what other joint community endeavours can we energise? Think wide.... e.g. Helping people insulate homes and use power more efficiently? We need to bring tradespeople into these discussions. [9] and when we get the ideas together, who will form a working group to get the plan into local, federal and state government programs? This is all about Shoalhaven 2009 and Shoalhaven 2020. We can't wait for some trickle down from Kevin Rudd's 2020 Summit. We have to build from communities. We have to end the "sit-down, wait for government" mindset, as well as the "I'm Ok, doesn't hurt me" mindset. Close this window to return to previous document |