IN THIS ISSUE – Feedback from Community
Outcomes Workshops held on 4 April 2005
Service directions
Results
Draft indicators
Next steps
Background
In 2004, the
Redfern-Waterloo Partnership Project (RWPP) commissioned a Review of Human
Services within the Redfern and Waterloo
areas. The main findings of the review where that:
- the human services system
needs to be reformed and reshaped at the local level to achieve improved
outcomes for the community and clients - changes must be made to
build a more integrated service system and more collaborative approaches to
service provision - significant improvements
are required in relationships between services.
One of the recommendations
of the review was that the RWPP facilitate the development of a human services
plan 2005-06 and, subsequently, the human services advisory committee has been
established with representatives from government, non-government, community and
service users.
To commence the planning
process, two community workshops were held. The aims of the workshops
were to:
- identify human service
outcomes for Redfern-Waterloo - develop draft quality
of life indicators, which will form the basis for ongoing evaluation of the
human services plan.
The two outcomes workshops
were held on 4 April 2005 at Redfern PCYC, from 10.00am – 1.00pm and 6.00pm –
9.00pm, respectively. The workshop agenda comprised:
- an introduction by the
senior project manager of the RWPP to provide a context and background to the
workshop
- small group and
plenary discussions to identify what results, or outcomes, were to be achieved
for children, families and the Redfern-Waterloo community over the next three
to five years - small group and plenary
discussions to develop a ‘scorecard’ that could be used to monitor progress
toward the desired results.
Service
directions
The human services
system is aimed at securing community-wide results or outcomes. For this
reason, the two workshops looked at how community well-being or how the
community would benefit from the human services system, rather than attempting
to define the attributes of a successful human services system.
Nevertheless a set of
directions did emerge from the discussions that could feed into the planning
process and be further refined and elaborated. In summary, the workshop
participants expressed a desire for:
- greater community involvement
in planning and decision-making about local services
increased
accountability and reporting to the community from all human services,
government and non-government
- equity of access to
services
- improved coordination
among the local services
- politicians and senior
managers with responsibility for services experiencing local issues by coming
to Redfern-Waterloo - community meetings to be
widely promoted (through letter drops and word-of-mouth) and held in accessible
venues (such as schools).
Results
The two workshops
considered three sets of results for:
- children and young
people - families
- the community.
This section summarises key
themes that emerged from the two workshops – it does not purport to provide a
full listing of all small group suggestions. Further, for the reason
described above, those characteristics of the service system (eg, ‘better
communication between services’) and proposal for service implementation
(eg, ‘extended hours of youth services’) are excluded from this analysis.
3.1
Results for children and young people
Healthy, well educated
children and young people who have a positive outlook.
More specifically, the
participants wanted children and young people who:
- are respected
(‘allowed to be children’) - are healthy and active
(‘drug-clean’, involved in sports, participating in associations, clubs and
community activities) - have a positive, confident
outlook on life (trusting, happy, ‘open to the opportunities available to
them’, prepared to work, respectful of their parents, ‘set their own goals’) - are well educated and have
the skills to gain employment (‘job ready’, computer literate).
3.2
Results for families
Safe families that are
supportive, self-sustaining and participating actively in the community.
More specifically, the
participants wanted families that are:
- safe and happy
- diverse (age,
background, race, culture, socio-economic status, language) - supportive and stable
(ie have access to extended families, networks and neighbours) - inclusive and open to
others - community-minded
- self-sustaining rather
than welfare-dependent.
3.3
Results for the Community
Diverse, safe
Redfern-Waterloo community that is positive and welcoming.
More specifically, the
participants wanted a community that:
- is safe and welcoming
(‘less fearful’) - provides a sense of
community (‘easier to be good’, ‘stable and united’, self-sustaining) - is drug and crime-free
- provides opportunities
for people to move around and interact - has a positive image
(‘not of interest to the media!’) - is accepting of
diversity (‘not just tolerant of diversity’).
There was limited time
available at the two workshops for a detailed consideration of ‘quality of life
indicators’ that could be used to track progress toward the community results
outlined above. Nevertheless, there was general, but by no means
unanimous, support for the concept of a set of indicators through which the
human services system would be accountable to the Redfern-Waterloo Community.
The Human Services Advisory
Committee and the cluster groups are developing possible indicators to measure
the results identified at the workshops.
If you would like to
propose indicators to measure the results listed above, please send your
suggestions through to the Redfern-Waterloo Partnership Project on
redfern-waterloo@premiers.nsw.gov.au or by mail to Redfern-Waterloo Partnership
Project, level 9, Tower 2, TNT
Towers, 1 Lawson Street,
Redfern 2016. Suggestions will be received until close of business on
Friday 6 May 2005.
The Human Services
Advisory Committee and the cluster groups will incorporate the input from the
workshops into the Human Services Plan for Redfern-Waterloo. Service
providers will then develop options for achieving community outcomes.
Service users are invited to discuss those options with service providers on
the following dates:
- 3 May – health services:
1pm, Level 11, Tower 2, TNT Towers, 1 Lawson Street, Redfern
- 5 May -youth services:
4pm, PCYC, 638 Elizabeth Street, Redfern
- 6 May – services for
families and children: 1pm, Level 11, Tower 2, TNT Towers, 1 Lawson Street,
Redfern - 12 May – services for
Aboriginal people: 1pm, Redfern Community Centre, 29-53 Hugo Street,
Redfern.