I wanted to give a brief account of the speech given by the Senator, but instead I found myself blogging furiously to capture her comments in more detail. I'm not sure it was the best approach however, I have little time to rewrite this with a more analytical lens - so I will leave that up to anyone who chooses to comment on the post - get a hot coffee...this is a lengthy post.
Greg Peart- President of ALA, followed the minister with his introduction and the welcome Senator Ursula Stephens - champion, advocate and supporter of Adult Education. Greg's admiration of the senator continued as he acclaimed her work as a 'guide, inspiration and source of intelligent realistic advice.' He called on the community sector to embed the culture of 'learning adults' and provide pathways for the marginalised to participate fully in community and work so they can share in the productivity of community.
Senator Ursula Stephens started by explaining that, the speech written for this occasion will be made available on her
website. She continued by clarifying that this conference is an opportunity for us to do more than engage, connect an share ideas. This time is at a threshold for adult and community education in Australia where there's a confluence of things happening, not just in terms of the economic crisis but also as government is keenly tuning policy directions and political agenda. Social Inclusion (SI) agendas are thinking about nation building and the Australia we want to be.
From here the senators speech started to take a political flavour as she started referencing the 'pressures and legacy left for competitive tendering and efficiency driven reform from the previous government'. Obviously we are living with the consequences of this now, however it is of less interest to us here at the conference to hear her speak of this. People were listening to hear from the senator hat the government plans for the future. We all know and understand that the competitive nature of the process strips the community sector overall of any opportunity for collaboration, innovation, creativity and thought leaders. We are also very clear about our fragile state of survival which leaves little space left to think about vision. The Senator spoke of these points in reference to SI agenda and described these issues as being at the core of reform.
It seemed that the senators speech was preaching to the converted as she continued to tell us things we already know as she explained, civil society is fundamental for re-engaging , connecting, building resilience, personal opportunity and potential. She clearly expressed how we need to think differently about those who don't have, what we may take for granted. Returning to the political angle, she continued by stating, SI is more than welfare to work, it's not about getting a job at any cost. All the information and statistics tell us if you have a job you have so much more; connections, an opportunity to engage - which comes before your ability to be financially independent. This means that the goal of securing a job is to experience dignity of having work and the wide raft of befits this brings. It's also about being able to access services.
The Senator then continued with some deliberately provocative comments, asking why when you go to a volunteer resource sector they are over 60, genuine caring engaged women who are well educated people who understand the benefit of volunteering. Why is it you are least likely to see a homeless person in these roles?. Those most marginalised never see themselves in their own faces in the services we provide to them. It is well documented and known from experience that indigenous people want to see indigenous faces and workers - this is equally true for the other groups of disadvantaged. The senator stated that, in the sector we must start to view experience in working with the barriers and issues the disadvantaged face is comparable to a formal qualification in a relevant disciple from formal education. We must think of it as working with them, not for them - in an inclusive relationship. Every person should be able to share in the value of connectedness.
The Senator is looking towards a community that in the future has the resilience to deal with crisis in their lives -
Life Skills Survey recently released by the ABS revealed the depth of concern we are facing with literacy and numeracy in the country. Of specific concern, is the lack of health literacy skills. The simplest things we have, and take for granted, are then things that exclude people from our community. We shouldn't think that we work for different groups of disadvantaged, but instead we should say we are working for inclusive society where the needs are complex, connected, and consequential. This is the current governments shift in emphasis where every person in an inclusive society has the right to have their voice heard. People who struggle become passive and compliant, the Senator explained, they won't speak up and say that our best interests may be inappropriate - they stop engaging to cope. We need a sense that opinion is worth expressing and worth listening to. That's the challenge - Stop thinking of systems and how poorly funded, but instead, invest energy into putting people at the centre of thinking to transform our organisations to make them sustainable. If people are at the heart of this - the money will flow. The Senator ensured the delegates that there are steps being taken for the sector to access it in this way.
Senator Stephens was clear in acknowledging the amazing work that is happening on the ground, with limited resource and she stressed that whe will defend us to the death - but ask of the group to think about how we can grow and consider where we will they be in 10 years - we need to think differently. Senator Stephens made a point of mentioning that organisations have been trained or tamed to behave in a certain way by previous regime that said don't challenge, rock the boat or speak out. She conducted a brief survey with three questions that produced the following results:
1. Hands up if you are someone who, 10 years ago, was a disengaged person - and see yourself as a target of government programs - 3 hands up of 80 (4%)
2. Hands up if in last 6 months you have had opportunity to stand in a public forum or write publicly about what's happened in life or learning - 10 hands up of 80 (12.5%)
3. Hands up if you have been in a position where you have confidently been able to give feedback to government at any level, contra to policy - over30 hands went up of 80 ( over 37.5%)
The Senator urged, don't sit and wait, be a part of conversation and be committed to it in local and regional areas. ALA are available as thought leaders in how to move society to where we want it to be - part of that is to think about work differently.
The Senator pointed out 3 challenges;
1. look at purpose, not why originally established but now, today
2. define purpose,
3. think about level of proximity to those most at risk and how we measure the impact of our work to people we are seeking to serve. The gov doesn't want to reissue money for sake of it - We still need evidence based outcomes, and to work out how to capture social return on outcomes.
The Senator reflected on recent observations that inter generational joblessness is into the 4th and 5th generation now - 600, 000 people in Australia fall into one of these generations. Vulnerable and most at risk are those kids who come from impoverished environments where, parents are not educated, less likely to have books, don't get early years education, and lack a pattern of working across generations. There are no positive models for them which adds another level of disadvantage. This is especially true in indigenous communities and those postcode pockets in our local areas. There is no social infrastructure, it's gone 'down the gurgler'. After 16 years of affluence most of these people are still in poverty. This is what government is aiming at when they say Social Inclusion - early intervention and prevention.
This is where the community sector comes in stated the Senator, how do we engage these people in client relationships and service planning relationships. How do we not just develop resilience but give people the capacity to make change for themselves. Senator Stephens stressed that this is not just about changing names on policies to something new, but requires a shift in thinking, being proactive not just reactive.
Margaret McHugh put a question to Senator Stephens, asking for her ideas on measurement,particularly how can we measure the impact when currently we use a fairly narrow and reductionist methods? The Senator responded by pointing to the work and thought going into shifting from outputs to outcomes. She explained how a new Adult Literacy framework goes towards that, as well as the increasing transparency of where charity donor dollars go - it's not about the financials, to see where dollars go, but narratives and stories of successes.The government. She agrees that there is nothing more soulless than organisations repeatedly sending numbers, figures and data to the 'black hole' of government and not getting feedback on whether it was useful, used or informed change in someway. As a result of these understandings, government is thinking newly about measuring cost of 'not' taking action. there is work going on about the way investment in every year at school translates to a dollar value - but can we think about that too and help the government think it through. No one owns the expertise, stated the Senator - that's one of the problems in an environment where competitiveness is strong, organisations gets put against each other and best practice becomes competitive advantage - not right. The Senator put it to the room, how can we document, share, explore and celebrate the learning; and share it with government. Presently, people keep this information for themselves, for want of income through commercialisation.
Shirley Smith from postcode 5256, commented how her organisation has received awards recently as a learning community. She invited the Senator and everyone at the conference, to look at models and visit with them in South Australia.
Senator Stephens agreed that the South Australian Australian government is very supportive, and recognised as one of the most progressive in the nation.
