REDWatch
Community Participation Principles
The
Legislative Council Social Issues Inquiry into Redfern Waterloo in late 2004
was very critical of the community engagement strategy used by the Government
in their work in Redfern Waterloo and it recommended that the NSW Government “develops
and implements a comprehensive strategy to ensure there is effective consultation
and communication with the Redfern Waterloo communities”. The Committee also
recommended that the Government take all possible steps to achieve genuine
partnership including with the local community.
So
far “community consultation” on the future of Redfern, Eveleigh, Darlington and
Waterloo has
seen a lot of frustration generated and not much real community-owned planning.
This needs to change!
To
achieve this, REDWatch asks RWA to adopt the following principles:
Respect us!
- Take us
seriously - Give us
opportunities to be involved in making decisions - Show a
spirit of genuine goodwill - Value the
existing, diverse indigenous and immigrant community and heritage
including the local and national status of ‘The Block’ and extensive
public housing communities - Don’t
play us off against each other - Respect
community knowledge about problems AND solutions eg Pemulwuy – remember we
have the most to win and lose - Listen as
well as talk - Work with
us to actually achieve specific things
Trust us!
- Resource
and provide funding for real participation opportunities
- Build on
existing information provided from the community - Work with
networks we know and have – involve everyone - Let our
community leaders take lead roles in meetings - Make meeting
outcomes publicly available - Be open
with us and tell us what’s happening
– no secrets - Make
meetings friendly for us to go to - Tea,
coffee and chocolate biscuits at all meetings – RWA Board Quality!
Communicate with us!
- Talk in
language we understand use plain English and translate information into
community languages - Use
community notice boards - Keep a
webpage that is regularly updated and easy to use - Keep us
notified of opportunities to participate, with enough time for us to turn
up - Send us
agendas and pre-meeting info in advance so that we can give a considered
response to the issues being discussed
Respond to us!
- Regularly
provide us with information on how RWA is performing and meeting project
timelines - Reply to
inquiries from individuals and groups in a timely manner with real answers - Appreciate
the importance of the RWA Annual Report
Don’t confuse us!
- Make sure
everyone in RWA and Council know their role – and then explain it to us –
we do not like the blame game. - Talk to
each other then tell us what’s happening – avoid left hand not knowing
what the right hand is doing - Give us a
timeline for creating a community-owned plan and explain the steps we need
to take to get there
REDWatch
looks forward to being part of the community building that the Redfern Waterloo
Plan can achieve by genuinely involving our community from the beginning!