PWF, technology & having a go
Treehugger & facts on biofuels
July 13, 2006Have a go at leaving a comment
July 17, 2006A giant grassroots whiteboard?
The PWF concept has come from recognising the potential magnitude of the small business and community group sector, with its enormous creativity, energy and concern for passing on to the next generation all the good things we enjoy today.
This sector’s interests cover a wide spectrum and are often interdependent eg small tourism businesses often work closely with environmental and cultural heritage groups, and adult learning organisations.
The term ‘engineroom of the economy’ refers to the small business sector. Add the community sector to this and you have a grassroots force whose combined and diverse efforts appear to drive a balanced approach to environmental, socio-cultural AND economic issues – ecologically sustainable development (ESD).
If the sector had a voice it could wield considerable power, but mainstream media irregularly reports on grassroots issues and successes, the result being people and policymakers do not identify it as one discrete group.
Self-help, avoiding re-inventing the wheel, and info about grassroots successes and pitfalls from around Australia are not readily available from one source. PWF believes such a service could help drive ESD and at the same time relieve
- alienation
- apathy
- burnout
The PWF blog, jobs list & fortnightly headlines work to get wide-ranging, timely, and often inspiring info out to the sector. We see it is a giant whiteboard – work in progress!
DO info-share with us!
Have a go at the technology
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Food for thought
“The principle of ecological sustainability is sound but its implementation is often fraught with practical difficulties and difficult choices…at the end of the day the limiting factor will be the willingness of the community to forgo what can be short-term material advantage, in return for longer term environmental benefits for themselves and future generations
(Industry Commission 1997 – A Full Repairing Lease: Inquiry into Ecologically Sustainable Land Management).
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4 Comments
Why this will not happen will be because we live in a society that only lives for the minute and who wants everything to be disposable.
Technology can be used by small organisations to efficiently communicate with a broad audience. Organisations no longer have to be isolated local groups – they can share information, knowledge and energy with a huge network of similar interest groups.
Sites like PWF can act as a hub to spread information into the community, to educate and inform, so that people don\’t make disposable decisions.
Sorry Andrew, I’ve recently made a disposable decison – after 21 and a half years in Kinglake, I’m giving up and moving to a town – errrk! I’m 65, I’m sick of trying to change the system and I guess I’m just not up to it any more. I’ll just have to leave it to some younger, fitter, saner people to carry on.
I have seen people burnout – just read Roma’s post! There are heaps of volunteers and small businesspeople working ‘in a pea soup fog’ and heading for burnout.
I don’t agree with Donna that we as a people just want a disposable society. I think we are alienated by politics and apathetic because the system is all too hard…..policy/decisioinmakers appear NOT to listen, we are battering our heads against the proverbial!
It IS possible that we often don’t hear about GOOD policies. eg Area Consultative Committees (link between the federal government and grassroots communities) I find are very well informed and very helpful BUT hardly anyone knows who or what they are! As Helen Sheil from the Centre for Rural Communities says, “People can’t respond to policies if they don’t know they exist”.
Don’t you think the basic problem is lousy communication between policy/decisionmakers and people who the decisions/policies affect? Mainstream media covers virtually zip about grassroots issues and projects – so how is communication meant to happen? I am fairly reliably informed that large amounts of grant money are not allocated every year – particularly from the National Heritage Trust (NHT) – because people don’t know about the money, the system etc etc.
IF, IF, IF (!!!) PWF could get people communicating, spilling out their gripes AND their successes, what works, what doesn’t work….a chorus of voices working for sustainability… I believe this would be helpful for individual projects and a strong voice to policymakers about our future direction.