Neighbourhood Houses & Learning Centres

September 28, 2014

A Community Kindness App: ‘Help Me Help You’

The Helpmehelpyou app is ‘a helping hand within arm’s reach’- a great idea, and free. The app allows carers, parents and sick people to stay in touch. It puts out a call to friends or family for help with a […]
May 16, 2014

Interested In Participating In Sydney’s EcoXpo 2014?

Last year Dr. David Suzuki helped the EcoXpo celebrate its 5th anniversary – a great success, by all accounts – and this year the City of Sydney will be a partner, recognising the EcoXpo as the major sustainable event in […]
May 15, 2014

‘The Problem With The Way We Educate Economists’!!

Congrats to Fairfax Media for publishing Dr Tim Thornton’s article on problems with the way we educate economists…the morning after the Coalition’s budget launch! Economics has long been recognised as an ‘inherently precise discipline’ (M A Salinger) and apparently even […]
April 17, 2014

Levelling The Playing Field For Co-ops – ‘Sector In Shadows’

The Business Council for Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) recently announced that the Co-operatives National Law (CNL) has been launched in NSW and in Victoria – a watershed day for ‘Australia’s most under-recognised sector’. “Eight in ten Australians are members of […]
March 7, 2014

Co-Op Workshops For A Fairer More Sustainable Economy

Altin, from Borderlands Cooperative, ran a preliminary ‘co-op conversation’ at the Augustine Centre in Melbourne, late last year. One outcome was a desire to start running short, very low-cost workshops to introduce people in the greater Melbourne area to co-ops […]
February 6, 2014

Unused Land, Temporary Food Gardens – Vancouver, New York, Here?

In inner Melbourne, 3000 Acres, a food activist community group has identified 12 inner city sites to establish small community-led veg, fruit and herb gardens. Vancouver And New York Already Doing This A New York-based project called 596 Acres provided […]
December 1, 2013

Centralised Education NOT The Way To Go?

Amid all the ‘Gonski noise’ about funding, Kevin Donnelly, director of the Melbourne-based Education Standards Institute, writes about the education process saying we need: Greater Autonomy, Flexibility In Schools’ Decision-Making Needed “Students perform better in schools that have autonomy in […]
September 30, 2013

Community Sustainability Effort That Won UN Award

After having lived in Gippsland for 10 years and knowing the small timber town of Heyfield quite well, I was delighted to hear about its remarkable community-based environmental flag system that heaps in the community embraced – young and old! […]
September 29, 2013

Senator Wants To Hear Indigenous Grassroots Ideas, Solutions

This week’s Koori Times front page is reporting ‘Scullion’s Pledge, saying despite initial appearances to the contrary, new federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion is keen to hear from community members. He says: “What’s important is that we listen to […]
August 8, 2013

Awards For Young People Working To Tackle Poverty

The annual Australian Community Sector Survey of over 500 agencies shows that frontline agencies are under enormous strain and unable to meet the growing demand for help. What’s The Greatest Need? Housing availability and affordability is the greatest unmet need […]
July 30, 2013

Central Desert Footy Cards: Teaching Entrepreneurship, With A Health Message

Even in the most remote communities in the Central Western Desert Ngaanyatjarrra Lands footy is greatly loved. Often the dusty oval is a community hub and when the footy season is on, families of cars head off to neighbouring communities […]
July 7, 2013

Broad School Curricula..More Understanding..Less World Conflict?

Some teaching systems – such as Montessori – teach broad concepts to very young students (like my grand-daughter )and I see that ‘Social Economy’ will be part of the school curriculum in France. What if we also taught ‘World Religions […]