Regional and Remote Grants Round - Support available for the 100 Events for 100 Years Initiative

UNIFEM Australia will run an open grant round for events held in regional and remote Australia between November 10th 2010 - December 1st 2010. Successful grant applicants will receive up to $1000 to support their event. Grants will be determined based on the selection criteria.

For more information, please email julia.bowes@unifem.org.au
or visit: http://www.internationalwomensday.org.au/

RAS Foundation Grant for all under 35

The RAS Foundation is again offering young people in rural and regional NSW the opportunity to secure $25,000 to deliver a new and innovative community project.
 
Applications for The $25,000 Question are now open. To enter, simply tell us how you would use $25,000 to address a need in your local community. 

For the first time, this year’s grant will be open to all young people under 35 years.  (In the past it has been limited to The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl or Rural Achiever entrants.)
 
As an applicant you must identify a need in your local rural or regional community, come up with an idea to address this need, and partner with a community organisation to create a project plan.
 
It is easy to apply. See the website for details: www.rasf.org.au 

Applications close on 14 January 2011.
 
Please contact the RAS Foundation on 02 9704 1234 or foundation@rasf.org.au with any questions.
 
An advert promoting this exciting opportunity is attached. I would be grateful if you could pass this information to anyone you know who may be interested in applying.

The Beanstalk Organic Food

The Beanstalk is yet another amazing Newcastle/Hunter community initiative involving 150 residents. The Beanstalk was established in 2004 by three friends who were concerned at the lack of access to healthy and safe food for the community. Most people they knew cited affordability as the reason they could not eat organically. There was also very little support given to farmers practicing environmentally sound agriculture in the Hunter region, with certification and transportation costs the main issues for small farm businesses. A dialogue began with a farmer and The Beanstalk was established. From its humble beginnings on a veranda to its current location in East Newcastle, the organisation has flourished. Members now have access to affordable, healthy and local produce and it supports at least four local and sustainable farmers each week. In their words – “This benefits the Hunter Valley farmers, our urban community and ultimately, our earth”.

The objectives of the Beanstalk are:

1. To develop direct links between the sustainable organic farming communities and the urban communities of the Hunter Valley
2. To offer farmers fair prices and support them through difficult periods
3. To build consumer awareness of sustainable agriculture and empower the community to consume ethically
4. To minimise resource consumption and packaging
5. To foster community skill sharing
6. To create a viable and sustainable community organisation.

For more information, visit their great website - The Beanstalk Organic Food is an initiative that could happen anywhere!

Big Help Mob

this youth initiative of Youth Tree, an organisation based in Perth. Big Help Mob is a 100-strong rent-a-crowd of young people who get together to do superhuman acts of awesomeness for non-profits and communities in Perth. In their words -"One day it's planting 10 000 trees in a few hours, the next it's renovating a community centre or cleaning up a place that's been forgotten and trashed. Nothing is too big for Big Help Mob and we're not afraid to get our hands dirty... all 200 of them. Once the hands-on mission is accomplished with near-lightning speed, we celebrate with enormous, ridiculous flash mobs in public, using our superpowers to draw attention to good causes that need it."
For more information, check out the following websites Big Mob Help  and Youth Tree.

Tinghar Doing it Tough

The NSW town of Tingha has a very colourful history, but today faces many socio economic challenges. Once supporting 8000 residents, the town’s population is less than 1000. Statistics show it is the third most disadvantaged town in Australia, and it experiences three times the national unemployment rate. BUT this is a town focused on implementing the most successful regeneration model in Australia. Its renewal efforts is driven by Tingha Regeneration Incorporated.

To discover more of their interesting approach Click Here. In particular, discover more of their unique Code of Common Unity which ensures all community meetings are focused and productive .

Inspiration, Collaboration and Community Revitalisation

This was the theme of a great two day youth/community development worker training course organised by Michelle Baden from Berri Barmera Council on behalf of the Riverland and Mallee Youth Sector Network in South Australia. Facilitated by Peter Kenyon from the Bank of I.D.E.A.S., 40 workers spent two days exploring innovative and fresh ways to a collaborative approach to rural community revitalisation.

Click here to see summary of program. For more details contact Michelle on 0438805759 or youthofficer@berribarmera.sa.gov.au.

Friday Flicks - Building Social Capital

Click here for a great example of building social capital from Townsville, Queensland - Friday Flicks - free community movie nights under the stars with a free barbeque. All about getting to know neighbours.

Beechworth Ghost Tours

One of the best heritage tours discovered lately is Beechworth Ghost Tours created by the youthful Adam Wynne-Jenkins. His historic guided walking tours begin every night after dusk in the former Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum in Beechworth, Victoria.

In the words of Adam – ‘Our ghostly tours will share with you tales of the eerie past, spine tingling stories that will have your imagination working overtime.’ Adam has certainly created an incredible rural enterprise.

Check it out next time in North East Victoria or check out Adam's website.

Click on the following links (1) (2) (3) for three great newspaper stories about Adam.

Kickstarter

Here are details of a great internet site where artists, writing, journalists and entertainers can pitch their ideas and seek investors. Ideas could be replicated in any country or region.

Click here to check it out.

Opotiki Young Person's Mural Project

Thanks to the Newsletter of Inspiring Communities in New Zealand for sharing the wonderful story of a youth Mural project in the the community of Opotiki.

Click here for details on the Project, and a great PowerPoint presentation collection.

Mary Valley Scarecrow Festival

Thanks to Libby Ozinga from the Sunshine Coast Council for alerting us to another great initiative from Mary Valley. Click here to see and read about the finalists in this innovative arts and tourism regional project involving towns in the Mary Valley.

Left Right - Fascinating Youth Organisation

Left Right is Australia's first independent and non-partisan think-tank of young minds. Their vision is for a society that seeks and embraces the ideas of young people. Their mission is to involve young people in public policy.

Click here to discover more about their programs.

To Inspire the Young in your community

Looking for a dynamic young person to address and motivate a group, consider James. Click here to read more about his potential services. Also, click here to check out his inspirational column on two people who inspired him in his life…we need more of these stories.

Click here to view James' bio.

Community Builders Relaunch of Website

communitybuilders.nsw, which has recently been relaunched, is the website for the communities, businesses and Government of NSW to come together and create positive change.

Click here to check out their website.

Heywire 2010 Now Open for Entries

The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s (ABC) Heywire competition gives people aged 16–22 in rural and regional Australia a chance to ‘tell it like it is’ on the ABC. All they have to do is submit a story about life in their neck of the woods, or an issue in their community. Their story might be about something they’d like to see change in their town, or an incident or issue that has had an impact on them, or simply why they like living where they do. Stories can be in text, audio, photo or video formats.

The ABC selects approximately forty winning stories from around Australia to be produced and reworked with the help of ABC staff and they are played on Radio National, ABC Local Radio, triple j and abc.net.au. Winners also score an all-expenses-paid trip to the Heywire Youth Issues Forum in Canberra in February where they learn leadership skills, and stay at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Find more information and upload stories at the ABC Heywire website.

Wind Farm and Health Co Op Helping Communities

Alan Grieg is someone whom we respect greatly for his long commitment and insights to social enterprise and cooperative models in terms of business. Alan recently sent us a great report about Australia’s first community owned wind farm in Daylesford, Victoria, and the reference in the report about a new class of investor, namely the “community social enterprise investor” .

Click here to read the transcript from the ABC TVs “Inside Business” program.

Incidentally, the Daylesford Wind Farm project has mobilised 1200 investors, mainly local people who have averaged $2000- $3000 each. It is a new phenomena in business.

Alan Greig has also shared with us the great social enterprise story of the West Belconnen Health Cooperative – a community owned answer to the corporate "super clinics" currently proposed by the Federal Government. This social enterprise has community owners starting at $10 -$50 able to access a suburban 'super clinic' that they own and operate as a community - the patients own the practice that hires the doctors! It now has 1200 members.

Click here to read more on this health cooperative.

We would like to acknowledge the incredible contribution that Alan Greig has made to the Social Enterprise/Cooperative movement in Australia since the 1980s. To contact Alan email him at ahgreig@bigpond.com.