Be Inspired by Everything

At this time of the year in Australia, I am really inspired by the colours of the spring. They are everywhere. Everything seems to bloom. And still, after so many years of living in Queensland and experiencing it, I get inspired by the idea that long time ago some forward thinking people planted flowering trees around the place in rows so that other people would be able to enjoy and be inspired by them in their unforeseen future. I also get inspired by the fact that everything that in my birth country is grown inside in pots here grows into trees and flowers as well.

I get inspired by little things. People who smile and say hello even though they do not know you. They are in the act of spreading goodwill and sharing their positivity. It is invigorating.

I get inspired by art, music and culture. Listening to inspirational music lifts your spirits spreading calmness and good feelings. it contributes to making your day better.
                                    
I get inspired by exhibitions and museums where people have collected inspiring things or ideas. Even after experiencing the Queensland Museum many times, I still think it is cool that the sex of a sea turtle is determined by the temperature of the eggs.

Most of all I get inspired by other people being inspired. The look of rapture, passion and enthusiasm when they talk about things that inspire them. It can be anything.

Recently, I was inspired by Yvette Adams at the Westside Business Women's breakfast. She inspired us by likening marketing to eating ice-cream. I can just see the visual image of a child enjoying the ice-cream and this inspires me further to try everything she suggested we try on the net.

Just couple days ago, I was inspired by a conversation about light bulbs. It is incredible how the technology and science of producing electricity has changed in the recent times. It is inspiring to understand that the little halogen light that previously did not light much has become so powerful as a light source that it can now light a whole stage.

Last night, I was inspired by the calming music at a friend's house. Listening to the clever piano player being inspired by a long passed composer made my day.

Today, I am looking forward to much more inspiration. My eyes will see things, my primary visual cortex will transport the images to 30 other processing centers of my brain. This process will create meaning for me. My limbic system will recognise the feelings that come to me and I'll be once again inspired by everything I see, do and think.

It is a viscous circle but someone has to be inspired, so why not you and me?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Contemplating How to Build Strong Partnerships in the Community; Caddies and the James Homes Services organised the James Family Fun Day at Jimboomba Park

A few months ago two people representing the James Family Home Services came to my office. Their intention was to organise a Family Fun Day for the community and at the same time fundraise for our Community Care organisation. 

As a community organisation we would reap the benefits of this collaboration and together we could involve many members of our community in compassionate voluntary action in helping others.  This collaboration proved to be a real boost for building lasting relationships between local businesses and the Caddies Community Care Centre in Jimboomba. 

Organising the Fun Day itself was a huge challenge and the first attempt was cancelled due to weather. However, everyone was determined and the second planned day was a success.

Analysing the community partnership model

After taking part on many workshops on partnership building, attending relevant interagency meetings, local groups, committees and associations that enhance partnership building between the business community and the local nonprofit community organisations, I am left to thinking on what kind of community partnerships would be ideal in creating such a compassionate atmosphere that it would lead to businesses becoming active in voluntary engagement in the local community? 

My experience is that when I am attending meetings that bring together local businesses, such as The Chamber of Commerce or other associations enhancing business networking, everyone will mention their desire to be involved in the community.  The consensus is there. Everyone is interested and basically ready to get involved. How then can this desire be transformed into real action and support?

The Ideal components of local community action initiative

The first component is the human potential. Ideally the business owner is engaged in community participation. I find many women and men who have built a small business very willing to give back to the community in some easy and convenient way.

The second component is convenience. Community engagement must be inbuilt into the business structure. If a business owner is overworked and just involved in making ends meet, who has time for community involvement?  It is a fact that strategic involvement in the community brings in more business.  How, then, can we find a convenient form of partnering for the local community organisation and the local small businesses?

The third component is access to an agreeable community organisation as a partnering platform. This falls on the community organisations willingness to be accessible and involved in the local community social capacity building. Very often it is the struggle to grow and maintain the high quality service standards that prove to be the biggest challenge. Building partnerships with local businesses just is not in the agenda.

What about the image building

Ideally a local community organisation that is accessible to everyone and involved in helping those who are vulnerable in the community will attest to the values of humanity, impartiality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality. This means the drive and willingness to include everybody in the community. It also means providing access to everybody without prejudice on the avenue. 

Still being involved with a particular business brand might be considered problematic. On the other hand, it is a normal practice of most of the large charities to partner with big companies to get more fundraising advantages. Just Google on the internet! Local community organisations can partner as well. The question is who would be an ideal partner?

The experience of partnering between JCCA and the James Family Services

In my experience JCCA’s collaboration with the members of the James Home Services proved to be an ideal partnering opportunity. As a nonprofit community care organisation we provide direct services to vulnerable people in the community. We provide aged care, youth and family support and emergency relief to those in need in our community. We also provide food services; food pantry and meals-on-wheels. 

James Home Services similarly provides direct services to clients in their homes, cleaning, lawn mowing and pet grooming. The small family franchises work their business in the community. While our aim is to involve everyone in voluntary service in helping others, they know everyone that could help.

Due to this our collaboration in organising the James Family Fun Day at Jimboomba Park was a success. The active, involved and compassionate people of the James Home Services were able to mobilise their group and other businesses in the day and at the same time fundraise for Caddies. We were able to use our organisational expertise in helping to organise the event, acquire licences and participation.

All in all this proved to be a wonderful start to successful partnering! I am looking forward to more in the future.

Notes from Partnering - Above and Below the Line – Workshop

Last week, I and 20 others were lucky to spend two fascinating days in a workshop about partnering fascilitated by Ian Dixon (Dixon Partnerships Solutions) and Max Hardy (Twyfords). They are specialists in engaging people in partnerships.

About a year ago they formed a successful trainer partnership and have since trained Primary Health Partnership Council members and their prospective partners around Queensland on how to set up partnerships and engage in meaningful and strategic conversations with each other. Through these conversations the eventual partners gain skills in creating, developing and sustaining productive initiatives that contribute to the health and wellbeing of their communities.

I was astounded that there is so much to learn about this. I found that there actually is a structure to building strong partnerships. The workshop proved to be a very enlightening experience. Until now I have just gone from the assumption that to form relationships and engage in conversations is human nature. But now I know that some are far better at it than others. Not only that but engaging skills can be sharpened and used constructively.



I have always been good at networking and have understood that building and maintaining relationships is a natural part of my work in the community. However, as a skilled engineer, Ian has dissected the process of building relationships. He has made it to a structured process that can be used to form and build strong and healthy partnerships that are productive until it is time to ‘move on’. Ian’s way of structuring the partnering course of action is very useful and practical. I am looking forward to applying the acquired learning to my daily work practices.

Ian and Max work very well together. They have combined their skills in workshop practice and can really engage participants. Max is the social worker of the duo.

In the workshop he facilitated the exercises around the partnership building by introducing us to such very useful relationship creating and building tools as ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ and ‘Strategic Questioning’. “Research shows”, he explained, “that the way surveys and enquiries are laid out affect the results.”

Well, we knew that, but it was a surprise to get to know that the very process of the enquiry affects ‘how we are’. It is better to enquire into positives of experiences than fix the problems with negatives.

We were introduced to David L. Cooperrider (2003) and Fran Peavey (1994) and their thought processes in enquiring about the positive in human experience and putting their questions in such a forward thinking way that it contributes to the desired outcomes. We then practiced our newly acquired skill in groups. It was a well-organised learning curve for us all. In just two days we came out with a highly useful practical skill set. We also met new people and formed new relationships.

For me, this is always the best part of the workshops I participate in, getting to know everybody, sharing experiences and stories. I am looking forward to receiving newsletters and connecting with my new prospective partners through work and through social media.


References:
COOPERRIDER, D. L. & WHITNEY, D. 2003. Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

PEAVEY, F. 1994. By Life's Grace: Musings on the Essence of Social Change, USA: New Society Publishers.

Notes from the ‘Communities in Control Conference' in Melbourne, Part 2

The Main Conference, May 29-30


In hindsight, the first thing I can say about the ‘Communities is Control’ Conference, 2011 is that I am really happy about being able to have taken part in it. ‘My Community’ has done a lot of work in providing the Australian Not-for-Profit (NFP) Sector and particularly the community organisations with a conference that as closely as possibly strives to meet our current needs for networking and updates us about the changing climate on where we work today. Without this conference I would have had to go to great lengths in trying to find out about the burning issues that many organisations are facing today while reviewing the sector or our changing relationship with the different layers of Government.

Sitting two days in a conference with about 1000 other people from all over Australia, often engaged in conversations was not such a hardship at all and I am considered a conference pro.

The second thing I noticed when coming to register was the people who had come to partake in the conference. They seemed to be from all walks of life. So many different kinds of communities were represented. It was easy to start a conversation with anybody and everybody. In fact, one didn’t need to know anybody beforehand to make friends.

For a Queenslander and a student at the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Not-for-Profit Studies at QUT, it is quite interesting that I had to come to Melbourne to listen to Linda Lavarch talking about the Government’s aims in straightening up the tangle of regulations and laws in relation to the Australian Not-for-Profit Sector. She currently is a research fellow at QUT and also is the Chair of the Australian Government Not-for-Profit Sector Reform Council.

According to Linda, this Government, instead of just talking is ready for action in harmonising regulations, striving to cut the red tape and straightening out the prevalent problems of the NFP Sector.

The good news is that the Government has already installed the Office for NFP Sector. It will engage with the Sector as a whole with four working groups and look into:

• National Compact
• Harmonising legislation
• Reducing red tape
• National regulations

There will also be an overview of the definition of charitable organisation.

The other highlights for me on the first day were the Joan Kirner Social Justice Speech delivered to us from Brussels by Sharon Burrow, who is there as the General Secretary of International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). She strongly advocated the international work the unions are doing in highlighting the blight of many nations in their treatment of the workforce, particularly women. The role of ITUC was also highlighted in its role of advancing social justice and equality to the world’s workforce. As a Finn, I was delighted to hear that President Halonen from Finland might have a future leadership role to play in this after she completes her time as President next year.

As a Queenslander it was also interesting to observe the role The Hon. Joan Kirner, the former Victorian Premier and the current Community Sector Ambassador to Australia, plays in the whole conference, not only through the social justice oration but through the warm atmosphere surrounding her and her ease in striking conversations with different members of My Community leading people as well as all the invited speakers.

As a newcomer to the community sector conferencing in Australia, it is interesting to observe that we have here a person who is highly respected and has a huge impact on the way the sector is conducting its business. As a historian, I can only remember similar kinds of conferences that I have participated in where one particular person has had such an impact in the women’s liberation movement during the 1980’s where the huge ‘feminist legends’ were still taking part in the conferences. It is clear from the conference that Joan Kirner is one of the big runner-ups for women’s advocacy in the Australian context.

I also enjoyed Hugh Mackay’s speech on his just published book What Makes Us Tick? It presented 10 social desires that we as human beings are subject to and that affect our community. It caused huge lines afterwards at the stand where his books were sold. It can be said to his credit that he signed every one of them, even though mine was the second last and he was already standing up as the next session was starting.

Miriam Lyons was a little bit fast in her speech pattern for me to catch everything she was saying about the book called More Than Luck but she was very witty and I was absolutely delighted to observe her smile and the first thing for me, when I get home is to download the book as a free eBook on the Website.

The last delight on the first day was the Choir of Hope and Inspiration [previously the Choir of Hard Knocks]. We heard the first ever performance of their first musical which will be performed in September.





The second day went from strength to strength.

Phil Ruthven presented us with a lot of statistics and forecasts for the future. Basically he said that we are now at the height of our lives in what comes to health, life longitude, wealth and wellbeing and it is only getting better. There will be more wealth, longer life expectancy and more health. That is the upside; the downside is that there will be a lot of change.

But we do thrive on change as human beings anyway, so the forecast is good, if we take it as such and apply a healthy ‘grain of salt’ to our expectations.

His speech very much made me to want to live longer in order to see for myself if he is right in his predictions. Living to 100 just might not do it. To succeed, that means that I now have to make sure to apply all the possible new inventions in health and wellbeing which he forecasts to be many.

The absolute highlight of the second day was the launching of Advancing Women: Women and the Order of Australia and the speech made thereafter by Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Commissioner Responsible for Age Discrimination.

What has been the best part in the conference was meeting new friends. Even though we know that all the speeches will be online afterwards and that books can and will be bought the personal dimension of actually being there, participating in the discussions, meeting others, networking and starting to build those important relationships. There is nothing that can take away that.

It proves the point Hugh Mackay said about the desire to be connected. Through participating in this conference, we have strengthened our belief in grass roots communities and our conviction that people have power to influence change.

The conference organisers are very proud of the fact that with the help of Victorian Government funding and other sponsors, this conference has the lowest entrance fee of them all. That actually was reinforced time after time with conversations across the room as many told me that their boards did prefer to send them to Melbourne than pay an entrance fee in the nearer city, as counting together flights, accommodation and food with the entrance fee, the Communities in Control Conference still costs less than other competing conferences available during this month. Interestingly enough I was unable to find it on LinkedIn. Hopefully that will be amended next year.

Our new ties with the original ‘early bird’ group on Sunday held to the second day. It was nice to be able to say ‘good morning’ to people you know already and exchange experiences with them from time to time during the conference.

I also ran into friends from Queensland. There were many as a matter of fact. Observably, judging from the question times and counting the numbers, the Queensland participants to the conference were close to Victorian numbers.

All and all this was a very delightful conference experience, worthy of replay and recommending to others.