Building Community Bush

Zarrin Siddiqui

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As more and more migrants and refugees make Australia their home or come to visit as a student or business person they have a need to establsih links with people from similar backgrounds to give them a sense of belonging in a new environment. At the same time there are multiple groups working fo rsimilar cause sometimes totally unaware that there are other groups with similar interests and united they can work better. We proposed to create an interactive forum which provides information and acces to different community organisations and resources available for individuals and communities at state level. Each community is represented by a tree and I am sure in no time we will see forests emerging through all states comprising strong trees with new and emerging communities as seedlings.

Idea # 116Not for Profit PSI, communities

Comments

dj 5 months ago

Hi Zarrin
Interesting idea. Could you add some thoughts about information held by governments would assist in making this a better resource. What information do governments have, or you think they might have, that would be helpful in this area?
Regards
Doug Jacquier
Connecting Up Australia
(Contest facilitators)

Zarrin Siddiqui 5 months ago

Hi Doug
Most of these groups are registered through Associations Incorporated Act 1987 and information can be extracted from that reosurce. Similarly there are major federations who have got numerous affiliated organisations but there are more who are working like student groups etc. not for profit etc.etc and even among NGOs there is sometime lack of awareness on what is happening. This BUSH can be used for creating linkages across groups within state and interstate.disseminating best practices in this sector and sharing news about upcoming events and opportunities for fundings.

jane 5 months ago

There is already a NSW website available which is maintained by a not for profit organisation, TRI Community Exchange, www.tricomm.org.au/communitynet.

communityNet is a news, information and resources website for the community sector to share news and resources as well as information about upcoming events, conferences, seminars and workshops, training, funding, employment vacancies and web links.

Interagencies and other community groups can also store their documents such as minutes and agendas in communityNet's download section.

TRI Community Exchange is currently seeking government funding for this website.

evitaau 5 months ago

Hi Jane
The community net is very much focussed towards NSW and looks this person want it Australiawide

Zarrin Siddiqui 5 months ago

When i thought of this idea my basic assumption was that though we may live within our own community's shell we all are connected somehow though these networks. For example I work with about 5 organisations and am connected to around say 500 members who again are connected through some other networks and this keeps on growing bigger and bigger.

So all these communties and groups at state level share information with each other creating a community bush and then within their own state they use a top down approach which connect their members to each other through collaborations and communication may be I should change the title to Connect Australia or triple C Australia i.e. Connect, Communicate and Collaborate Australia

dj 4 months ago

Hi Zarrin and other contributors
Great to see others building on this idea, including noting other community sources. However, given the nature of this competition, it would be really helpful if people could keep adding to the government information resources that would help make this concept grow.
And regarding your suggestion for a better name for the project, Zarrin, I seem to have seen something like that somewhere else :-)
Regards
Doug Jacquier
Connecting Up Australia
(Contest facilitators)

Zarrin Siddiqui 4 months ago

Hi Doug
Yes it is all about Connecting up Australia and I believe that once we get the ball rolling through we will find that actually we are all connected somehow through our community service contributions.
There are other community networks as well like Ethnic Communities Council of WA had a similar site supported by Office of Multicultural Interests. Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia (NIRWA) also building up a similar resource.
It is time to connect all of these so less duplication of work and effective utilisation of resources.

Reagrds
Zarrin

tmanera 4 months ago

I would like all italian groups to be included in this database please.

Zarrin Siddiqui 4 months ago

I have been working on this idea and found that under National Names Index we can find information about all groups registered under Associations incorporated Act. Howver this governmenet set of data needs a bit of work and can be used to build up to connect communities. Does not tell which groups are active or dormant and some very preliminary details are missing soin conclusion the first block is already laid down in terms of data set.

tmanera 4 months ago

I hope you get through because at least it seems you had a clear idea what you want to do and you also have researched. Inlast three days there have been a number of ideas cropping up with large number of votes but without any thought provoking discussion or focus on use of government data.
Best of luck I can see that thi sidea ha spotential to be a good resource for communities around australia and if linked through migration website we can actually showcase the spirit of multiculturism to the world and those who want to come here.
Good luck

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