Mission Australia

The spiritual journey of the joining of two spirits, 2007
By Jade Rose, Mirri Mirri Design

This painting tells the story of the joining of two spirits. They are the spirits of the Indigenous and non-indigenous people, walking together and then joining to form a great respect and strong friendship. These two spirits share and value each others culture throughout their spiritual journey in life. The spirit creatures within this painting represent communications around a spiritual meeting place. It is a place where great decisions are made and information is shared. The meeting place and the figures are protected by the mighty rainbow serpent, who is a spiritual creator and protector of Aboriginal culture. The joining of hands between the spirit figures show that there is understanding and respect between all peoples and communities. Throughout this spiritual journey a strong bond has been formed, creating a strong and everlasting friendship, caring and sharing with each other, together forever.

This is a visual representation of Mission Australia's Statement of Principles for working with Indigenous Australians and this artwork was commissioned by Mission Australia from the artist, Jade Rose.

Mission Australia Submission to the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review

1. Mission Australia

Mission Australia is a national non-profit organisation that each year supports thousands of Indigenous Australians from a diversity of communities across Australia. We have been active within the Northern Territory for many years, across the community, employment and training sectors.

2. A framework for change: Asset based community development

Mission Australia acknowledges the intent of the Northern Territory Emergency Response and the significant and entrenched level of disadvantage being experienced by many Indigenous individuals, families and communities in the Northern Territory. It would argue however, that without a clear framework which is founded on a long term community development approach, sustainable positive change for children, families and communities will not be achieved.

The experience of organisations such as Mission Australia and many others both within Australia and overseas suggests that solutions to the complex needs of communities within the NT need to be developed and implemented within a comprehensive asset-based community development framework. This approach rests on the principle that the recognition of the strengths, resources and assets of individuals, families and communities is more likely to inspire positive action for change than an exclusive focus on needs and problems. It does not deny the real problems many Indigenous communities face but focuses on and harnesses the energy of how all community members can contribute in meaningful ways to community development (Mathie, 2002). This approach takes the premise that communities can and must take a key role in driving the development process by identifying and mobilising existing but often unrecognized assets, and respond to and create local opportunities.

Asset based community development also acknowledges that Indigenous knowledge is an integral part of the culture and history of a local community and as James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank noted 'we need to learn from local communities to enrich the development process' (cited in Gorjestani, 2000). The World Bank's experience trying to achieve sustainable community development has been that to pursue approaches which fail to integrate and value local community knowledge and assets is fundamentally flawed with the ultimate result being severe limitations on both social and economic development.

There is now international evidence that an asset based community development approach pioneered by Kretzmann, McKnight and many others has the capacity to bring about significant community change in highly disadvantaged communities, but there are two important provisos - if sufficient and appropriate resources and the required timeframes are provided. There has been a general failure to ensure these two conditions with the consequence being a lack of sustained change for individuals and communities. If fully implemented this approach provides a 'new lens' for looking at the community - a lens that focuses on opportunities and strengths, rather than deficits and a pre-determined and negative future.

The steps involved in asset based community development are well documented and there are a number of organisations, particularly those in the international aid area as well as local NGOs who have been working with communities over many years, with experience in implementing this approach. Critical steps, refined to reflect individual community situations, include:

Building engagement, relationships and trust within the community and with key organisation(s), including about the process - this is a critical and time consuming task, without which the subsequent steps will fail
Reviewing and mapping the assets of the community (economic, social, cultural, environmental etc)
Mobilising the community's assets and creating a community vision and plan which integrates social, economic, environmental and cultural priorities and initiatives and builds on what is currently being done in the community.
Establishing the ongoing governance and funding structure(s) to carry the plan forward
Implementing, monitoring and reviewing plan and outcomes achieved.

Mission Australia is not under-estimating the challenges involved in this approach and critical to the effectiveness of this process is establishing and maintaining respectful and reciprocal relationships within the community and with key stakeholders. As Sherwood (1999) argues, Indigenous people in Australia have participated in community development for thousands of years, yet they have been forced to adapt to a non-Indigenous community development model for several decades. She emphasises the importance of community development processes being 'initiated by the community and not put upon the community'. Previous efforts in this area, such as Shared Responsibility Agreements, have had mixed results because of this.

Lodder (2003) notes an 'inside-out' and 'outside-in' dynamic is needed, where contact with others helps spark new ideas, understandings and gives access to learning from others' experiences. 'Top-down' support is also needed from bureaucracies able to work flexibly and responsively with communities. Flexibility will also be critical to ensure responsiveness to the particular situation of communities. As the 2006 review of the COAG trials noted 'flexible approaches need to be applied which reflect the individual circumstances of communities, the nature of the issues facing communities, and the developmental status of intergovernmental and cross sectoral relationships. There cannot be a one size fits all approach' (Morgan Disney et al, 2006).

Accountability mechanisms, funding levels, timeframes and outcome measures also need to reflect this flexibility. Whole of government(s) community funding responses are critical in this as is long term and sustained funding (5 to 10 year minimum). The complex intersection of issues facing many communities will not be 'solved' in the short term nor by one agency or level of government. In more recent years a regularly shifting policy and programmatic environment has only added to the challenges communities face.

Ensuring ongoing community capacity to implement the community plan(s) is also critical. International experience with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has indicated that 'adequate (country) capacity is one of the critical missing factors in current efforts to meet the MDGs. Development efforts in many of the poorest countries will fail, even if they are supported with substantially increased funding if the development of sustainable capacity is not given greater and more careful attention. This is now widely recognised...as articulated in the 2005 Paris Declaration' (OECD, 2006). This learning is relevant in the Australian context, particularly in highly disadvantaged communities.

Mission Australia is able to provide further information on an effective community development approach if required. There are also a range of programs run by organisations such as Mission Australia in other parts of Australia, that could be part of a community development response in some communities in the NT. These include for example, Pathways to prevention, an early intervention and prevention initiative working with children, families, institutions and communities, in the most disadvantaged urban community in Queensland. A significant proportion of the program's clients are Indigenous and a range of well documented outcomes are being achieved. There are a range of other children, youth and family programs which organisations like Mission Australia and others run which could well fit within a community development framework within the NT context.

National and international evidence shows that this approach is not a 'feel-good' but ineffective response; rather evidence confirms that without such a comprehensive and relationally based response, no matter what the quantum of investment, sustainable social and economic change will not be achieved. Only an integrated, comprehensive and transformational approach will bring about the significant change in social and economic outcomes for Indigenous Australians which the Federal and State/Territory Governments through COAG have set out to achieve.

Mission Australia would argue that the overall approach to addressing Indigenous disadvantage in the Australian context, both through responses such as the Emergency Response in the NT and more broadly across government, has generally not been based on a form of asset based community development articulated above.

3. Implementing asset based community development

In implementing such a comprehensive, but we would argue fundamentally more effective approach, a very deliberate and sequenced approach will be necessary. The depth of work required within communities suggests that working across all communities simultaneously is unlikely to be effective. A more sustainable response would be identifying a small number of communities (say 5) and then charging particular agencies to undertake the asset based community development approach identified above. Some non-government agencies would be able to make a significant contribution in implementing an asset based community development approach. The implementation of the Commonwealth's Communities for Children model, through the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, would provide some useful learnings of how this approach could work in practice. Critical to pursuing this type of approach would be appropriate resourcing and timeframes and flexibility in designing and implementing the response on a community by community basis.

4. Learnings from implementing a range of community, employment and training services in the NT

a. Northern Territory Integrated Youth Services project (NTIYS)

In 2007 Mission Australia was awarded a $7.97 million Federal Government contract (through three government departments) to provide integrated youth services over a 3-year period to the four communities of Aputula (Finke), Imanpa, Mutitjulu and Kaltukatjara (Docker River) - the Northern Territory Integrated Youth Services Project. The initiative was aimed principally at providing alternative activities for young people (aged 5 to 25 years) to combat petrol sniffing in Central Australia. The initiative reflected an understanding that a new and innovative model was needed in order to achieve more effective services to the client group within these communities. Mission Australia's data collection shows that over June and July 2008 close to 8,000 occasions of service were provided to children and young people from across four communities by NTIYS. The innovative and challenging nature of this model and the environment in which it was to be delivered created a situation in which there would need to be significant flexibility and in which new knowledge about service provision would be generated.

Mission Australia's experience with establishing and delivering this initiative highlights the following:

Relationships: The significant time needed to develop strong relationships within a community and the foundational role that such relationships play in delivering any effective service/initiative. The NTIYS has a Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) which meets monthly and its membership has been significantly expanded during the early months of the initiative to include all key stakeholders present on the community. YACs determine the activities to be conducted on the community. The face-to-face meetings encourage information sharing on issues affecting youth on the community, encourage coordinated responses to those issues and provide opportunity for community input and ownership.
Recruiting and retaining staff: This is a significant challenge as is providing the appropriate support and accountability mechanisms, particularly given the significant isolation and distance of the communities from larger centres such as Darwin and Alice Springs. Over the first few months of implementing the initiative a new staffing structure was developed which: identified a team leader on each of the four communities whose responsibilities include organising activities and assigning staff to activities; split oversight of the projects on communities between two management staff who each attend to two communities; appointed an Operations Manager to oversee service quality, reporting and planning. The movement of outreach staff and service managers is now coordinated so that in the normal course of events community-based staff are assisted by at least one Alice-based staff member. As a consequence staff feel more supported and less isolated. The improved level of interaction allows management to become aware of and address problems early.
Benefits of infrastructure: Delivering services such as the NTIYS requires a complex set of expertise, systems support and infrastructure. As a national community service provider, with a strong and well established corporate infrastructure (including HR, IT, finance and so on) Mission Australia was able to provide the range of supports required to give the project stability. It is clear that in implementing the new NTIYS model, these supports have not always guaranteed the provision of quality services and satisfaction of contractual obligations, but when difficulties arose, the organisation had the know-how, determination, experience and resources to find and apply solutions and re-build its relationships with communities and funding agencies. Whilst new to these communities, Mission Australia was able to bring resources from across the country to bear on delivering this new initiative. Many programs in remote communities are staffed by a single worker who is often inadequately housed and who struggles to find resources and funding for basic equipment and supplies to conduct activities. Funds are often channelled through a small community-based NGO or community council. While many organisations struggle to deliver services on remote communities, Mission Australia suggests that service models reliant on the efforts of an individual and/or small organisation are unlikely to survive their struggle and provide service continuity.
Funding and resource levels: The level of funding of the NTIYS acknowledges the true cost of providing sustainable services in remote communities. Our experience in providing the NTIYS has demonstrated that a high level of financial resources is required in order to properly fund the provision of services that will have a sustainable impact on the lives of young people in the remote communities of Central Australia. Our experience with this initiative also highlights that contractual arrangements for many of the programs delivered in the NT should be 5 to 10 years, rather than annual or even three year funding. The timeframes required for change, coupled with the necessary investment in staff and infrastructure requires such an approach.

b. Employment initiatives

Critical to enhancing the wellbeing of individuals and communities in the Northern Territory is increased economic participation. As with the asset based community development approach, general employment services for Indigenous Australians need to take a holistic and multi-level response. The complexity of issues facing many Indigenous clients means that simply dealing with one presenting issue, will not bring about positive sustainable change. Further, a response which works with family, extended family and community may be required, particularly but not only for young Indigenous Australians.

Good practice principles

Mission Australia has previously articulated good practice models for Indigenous employment including:

Holistic and strengths based responses which help build a strong sense of cultural awareness.
Program flexibility as local input is needed to ensure appropriateness.
Relationships at the individual and organisational level to achieve real and sustainable outcomes.
Partnerships with a range of organisations, government agencies and businesses.
Mentoring and access to ongoing support - mentoring should be viewed as 'mainstream' with all employees potentially benefiting from it (Mission Australia, 2005).

Acknowledging and reinforcing the importance of Indigenous culture is a fundamental principle underlying good practice. The experience of Mission Australia is that Indigenous clients are often dealing with low self-esteem and in some cases, limited or no knowledge of their culture, history and heritage. There is clear evidence that strong cultural identity/pride is a 'protective factor' for individual wellbeing (Attorney General's Department, 1999), yet for some Indigenous Australians this is not (yet) the case. Building a strong and positive sense of cultural awareness is an important factor in the personal development of many Indigenous clients.

Particular efforts are required to support the needs of young Indigenous Australians, both to complete higher levels of education and in the transition from school to work. Mission Australia's Youth Employment Strategy (2006) identifies nine foundations for social and economic participation, including employability skills, connectedness (to family, peers, and community), appropriate education and training, and aspirations/goals. Responses are needed which ensure the development of all nine foundations in an integrated way. In particular, it can be difficult for young people to develop aspirations/goals beyond their own family/community experience. Responses which support young Indigenous Australians to explore a broad range of possibilities and opportunities, including work experience, are required.

Social enterprises and transitional labour markets
Mission Australia also notes the current and untapped potential of social enterprises and transitional/intermediate labour market programs can have on disadvantaged jobseekers. Policies and programs that explicitly support the development of social enterprises and transitional/intermediate labour market programs can play a role in enhancing the employment of Indigenous Australians, across a range of labour markets. Mission Australia would be able to provide additional information on its work in this area if required.

Mining opportunities

The landscape of significant parts of remote/regional Australia is currently being transformed by existing and new resource initiatives, at a scale previously unknown in Australia's history. There is significant potential for these developments to make a major positive economic and social contribution on the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, however a range of sophisticated and inter-related strategies will be required to realise this.

Some companies such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have developed effective Indigenous employment strategies, however across the resources sector these companies tend to be the exception rather than the rule, with many companies poorly-placed to work successfully with a (potential) Indigenous workforce. Mission Australia is supporting work in this area, including at the MacArthur River Mine in the Northern Territory.

The challenges which make it difficult for Indigenous people to obtain and sustain employment (particularly in the resources area) are well recognised and include: restricted access to fundamental literacy; education and relevant vocational skills training; restricted exposure to the mainstream resource sector workforce culture; geographical isolation and a lack of infrastructure such as transport and housing; lack of experience and system capacity to balance family and community obligations with the demands of full time work; restricted access to health support and overall health issues (CSRM, 2006; Tiplady and Barclay 2006).

The most significant barrier for the majority of resource companies managing their Indigenous recruitment, pre-employment training and ongoing learning and development initiatives, is that they lack a sustainable capacity to drive the process. This can particularly be the case when there is a disconnect between centralized recruitment processes and site based operations, a lack of investment in the strategy and a failure to recognise that such investment must occur over many years to be effective. For most resource companies, Indigenous recruitment is not their core business, and they often lack the internal expertise to achieve sustainable outcomes.

Mission Australia's work and research has identified the following best practice components for the recruitment and retention of Indigenous employees within the resource sector:

Recognise the complexity and size of the Indigenous labour pool in terms of skilled and unskilled candidates
Develop separate recruitment strategies for skilled and unskilled candidates
Adopt a range of informal and culturally appropriate recruitment strategies
Incorporate literacy and pre-employment training within the recruitment process
Incorporate literacy support, vocational training and mentoring within the workplace
Develop customized training resources which are culturally sensitive and aligned to the workplace
Manage the attraction, recruitment and retention process as a single strategy.

Mission Australia has developed an integrated Indigenous recruitment and work-ready training service model which consists of three inter-related work preparation and training courses specifically for the resources sector. Collectively the courses take jobseeker candidates through a three to seventh month 'pre-employment' process that supports their preparation for employment and provides practical exposure to work practices within the resources sector. This is complemented by a range of on-going initiatives once employment has commenced to ensure sustainability of employment. Mission Australia is able to provide further information on this model, including costings, if required. Such initiatives should be seen as critical components of any 'response' to the significant level of disadvantage in communities in the NT.

Employment service delivery

Our experience delivering Commonwealth employment services in the NT reinforces that a more effective approach would be to work intensively with a small number of communities (5 to 10) rather than attempting to work with significant numbers of sites (eg 50). One of the cornerstones of the employment services strategy in the NT has become Work for the Dole, however our experience has been that it is very difficult to get Work for the Dole sponsors, who are critical to the program model. More fundamentally trying to address 'employment related' needs within a limited and individual definition of need, is not appropriate for some NT communities. Addressing employment/economic participation within a broader asset based community development strategy would be more effective.
Mission Australia's experience in employment services also confirms the challenge of attracting and retaining suitably qualified staff to deliver the range of programs required. This includes, but is not limited to, professions such as literacy and numeracy trainers, Job Network consultants, psychologists and social workers. Particularly in remote and regional areas, creative and flexible employment practices, which also take into account the broader needs of employees, are required. Related to this is the need to find accommodation and related services to support staff delivering programs.

Conclusion

Mission Australia notes the intention of the Emergency Response but its experience on the ground in the NT, as well as in disadvantaged communities across Australia and through its strong research in this area, highlights that addressing the significant and entrenched nature of disadvantage within some NT communities requires a multi-layered, long term, community development approach. Such an approach requires intensive work and partnerships across governments, community and the business sectors if sustainable change is to be achieved. Relationship building and trust are key elements in ensuring collaboration of all stakeholders for the progression of community sustainability and well being.

References

CSRM (2006) Indigenous employment in the Australian Minerals Industry. The Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, University of Queensland.

Gorjestani N (2000) Indigenous knowledge for development: Opportunities and challenges

Lodder S (2003) Working with Indigenous communities, Stronger Families Learning Exchange Bulletin No 4, Australian Institute of Family Studies

Mattie A and Cunningham G (2002) From clients to citizens: Asset-based community development as a strategy for community-driven development, The Coady International Institute

Mission Australia (2005) Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Inquiry on Indigenous employment

Mission Australia (2006) Youth Employment Strategy

Morgan Disney & Associates et al (2006) Synopsis review of the COAG trial evaluations: Report to the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination

National Crime Prevention (1999) Pathways to prevention, Commonwealth Attorney General's Department

OECD (2006) The challenge of capacity development: Working towards good practice, vol. 23, no. 2.

Sherwood J (1999), "What is community development?" Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal

Tiplady T and M A Barclay (2006) Indigenous employment in the Australian Minerals Industry. The Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, University of Queensland.

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