Japan-UK Symposium 2001

CAN the Australian Connection

Presented by Reverend Peter Thom
Thirty years ago in 1972 at the tender age of 36 I went to do some further

Thirty years ago in 1972 at the tender age of 36 I went to do some further study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Quite soon after arriving I met a group of undergraduates who were interested in discussions concerning religion and politics, or what we might call the relationship between values and democracy. One of these undergraduates was the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. He entered enthusiastically into these discussions and thus began a friendship that has lasted thirty years. Following a visit by the Blairs to Australia in 1995, when he had become the Leader of the Labour Party, then in opposition, I returned to England in 1996 to be his friend in the run-up to the General Election of 1997. These were exciting times for many people in the United Kingdom, when hope re-entered the nation's political vocabulary.

It was soon after the General Election that Andrew Mawson invited me to join him in developing the national network of social entrepreneurs that we now know as the Community Action Network, or CAN. We travelled the length and breadth of the United Kingdom discovering social entrepreneurs. The amazing fact was that for every project we saw in those days, there were ten or more others in surrounding areas that demonstrated that the social entrepreneurial approach was well established in British society. Our aim was both to connect these social entrepreneurs with each other, physically and through an information and communication technology (ICT) network, and to understand the characteristics of the work they were doing.

Within two years, we had networked over two hundred members through CAN. IN April 2000, Andrew and I were invited to Australia on a lecture tour to talk about social entrepreneurship. Charles Leadbeater had by then published two books on the subject the first in 1997 called "The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur" and the second in 1998 called "Civic Entrepreneurs".

What we had discovered was new in this form of community development was the connection that was being made between the private sector and the social sector. We were still exploring how we could establish partnerships with central or local government. Giving these lectures in Australia increased our understanding of the uniqueness of this social entrepreneurial culture, and made it all the more important for us to seek to connect these people through an ICT network, so that they could interact with each other irrespective of the distance between them. It was also important to recognise the uniqueness of bringing together the business world and the social sector. Hitherto it was thought for many years that business and social concerns were incompatible. However, from deeper relationships we discovered that we had much in common; that good business requires a network of good relationships with communities. Although there have been moments in history when this seemed a more natural relationship, there has been a long period in the recent past when this was not the case. It is certainly a liberation to discover that not only can we talk, but that we also have much in common and much to offer to each other.

There was considerable interest in our visit to Australia and it seemed likely that Australia would be interested in developing its own network of social entrepreneurs in partnership with CAN. Following our visit and during one of my visits home to Australia, I joined with three of these people to discuss the future of CAN in Australia. Nick Frances had been the Chierf Executive Officer (CEO) of a successful social business in Liverpool In the UK, and was known to CAN members in the UK. Upon coming to Australia to live and work, he became CEO of a large Australian welfare agency called the Brotherhood of Saint Laurence. Also in the group was Vern Hughes, the Executive Officer of the Hothan Mission in Victoria, Australia, and Race Matthews, who was the author of a major work on the Co-operative movement, called "Jobs of Our Own". In my capacity as the international liaison for CAN, I discussed with them the possibility of setting up an organisation like CAN in Australia. As a result of our discussions, we held the first conference of the Social Entrepreneurs' Network, or SEN, as it came to be called, in Sydney in late February 2001. We expected 150 people to attend, but 500 turned up. In light of this response we established a membership base of 300, that included people in New Zealand as well Australia giving birth to SEN Australasia. The ICT connection between SEN Australia members has proved to be extremely important because of the "tyranny of distance" in such a large continent.

There are many wonderful stories to tell from the projects we have seen all over the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Australasia, and I want to tell you some of the stories from Australia.

The indigenous Aboriginal community has been a disadvantaged minority since the founding of Australia 200 years ago. Their way of life and especially their communities have very nearly disintegrated for a range of reasons, not least of which has been the introduction by white settlers of alcohol, particularly to men, resulting in a range of problems including domestic violence. This has led to the loss of the traditional pattern of life. The government has made many attempts to help with this poverty and disadvantage. One such attempt was through welfare payments over the past few decades. This has resulted in a growing dependency on welfare benefits and more money to buy alcohol. Some of the leaders of the aboriginal community have become so concerned about this welfare dependency that they have become interested and desperate for this new cultural change that we call self-help or social entrepreneurship. One of the outstanding stories is in the north-west of Australia at a place called Fitzroy Crossing, where the women of the aboriginal community have taken over the ownership and management of the general store, which involves the purchase of food and other basic living requirements. They overcame the difficulty of developing this new initiative and of transporting food over 2000 miles a day from the nearest city of Perth. It is a thriving business within the aboriginal community because of the deep concern that the women felt for their families and the community in this desperate situation. One of the interesting features of this initiative is that it is driven not by men but by women. Slowly, the men have begun to support the women in the work they initiated. The community has become more enlivened and the children are again beginning to listen to the traditions of the elders.

Another story comes from the east of Australia, in the south of the city of Sydney from a poor, disadvantaged area known as Claymore, in which most of the population were Samoans from the South Pacific. This housing estate was the most run-down, crime-ridden and violent housing estate in Sydney. Although it was not the largest housing estate in the area, it was the one where even the police hesitated to enter. A young man working with the local Housing Trust happened upon the idea of having a street barbecue, having unsuccessfully tried many other ways of becoming part of the community. At first, people were frightened to come out of their homes but when the young children smelled the food cooking they soon gathered around the barbecue and slowly some parents also joined in. After several of these street barbecues, the number of people attending increased to the point where people began to talk together about the estate and its problems and decided to develop a "neighbourhood watch" project that would encourage residents to work together to stop crime on the estate. They also developed, in public space at the back of the estate, a vegetable garden where they could grow Samoan vegetables together. Claymore was a place where nobody wanted to live and that most people wanted to leave. People now want to live there and have to join a twelve month waiting list in order to do so. All this happened through the efforts of this committed person from the Housing Trust and his followers from the estate.

These are two success stories where major problems with the indigenous and immigrant communities, respectively, have been turned into opportunities.

Some of the most disadvantaged people in Australia are white Australians living in rural areas. Their problems have arisen because of the slow-down in agricultural production and the end of a large proportion of logging in old growth forests. The people have needed to look for other opportunities in the midst of their disadvantage. In my travels throughout Australia I have seen a number of very exciting new creative industries emerging. In one town, south west of Perth in Western Australia, they have turned their town into the major centre for traditional marriage services, from the design and making of bridal gowns to the actual ceremony and celebration of this major event in a person's life. The name of the place is Bridgetown, but it is now commonly referred to as Bridal Town. At Bunyup, not far away, the seven logging mills closed and they have now developed a recycling business and, in the one remaining timber mill, they concentrate on adding value to the sawn timber by making high quality furniture.

In a place called Mirboo North, some businessmen and members of the community came together and developed a new style of micro-credit. They have formed a rural bank. In other parts of Australia, community banks, especially the Bendigo Community Bank, have become large banks capable of challenging the less socially concerned major banks. Community banking in Australia is a strong, growing industry. The more I travel around Australia, the more I become excited at the initiative being shown by members of communities working in partnership with businesses to create a deeper understanding of the "common good".

It is in this context that CAN and its Australian offspring SEN seek to add value, by helping people to network and communicate with each other, by providing information and training, and - most important by helping communities and social businesses to do business with each other and with the public and private sector.

Keynote speaker profile

Peter Thomson
Please see http://www.can-online.org.uk/aboutus/biogcvs/biogpt.htm