Parents, Families and Carers
developing a NAtiONAL voice for
families
Wednesday 8 August 2007
Read our Proposal for a National Voice
Register to Attend
Register your Expression
of Interest
Call for Participation
There is no national voice in
Australia for parents, families and carers. Every industry and professional
interest group in the country has a national voice to get in the ears of
government - except families. Yet parents, families and carers are far and away
the largest bloc of citizens, voters and consumers in the country, but have the
weakest voice.
Why? There are many reasons for this. Families are not organised in
the way industry, unions or single issue activists are organised. In the
absence of designated institutions which represent families, governments have
looked to funded service delivery agencies and research institutes for advice on
family matters. Families with members with a disability or a
learning difficulty or chronic or mental illness tend to be pre-occupied with
getting through each day, and have lacked the resources or time or expertise to
allocate to advancing their long term interests. For its part, the media does
not know any household names who speak for families, in the way that a Bob Brown
speaks for environment issues, or a Tim Costello speaks for poverty issues,
or a Bill Shorten speaks for unions.
We aim to change all this.
We invite your participation in a long overdue process to create a national voice for
parents, families and carers.
Below is a statement of purpose to guide this process. We want to facilitate a lot of thinking and discussion
before our formation meeting on 8 August.
STATEMENT OF
PURPOSE
1. Our objective is to find an
appropriate method and structure for developing a national voice in Australia
for parents, families and carers.
2. This voice will incorporate three
functions:
i.
advocacy of the interests of parents, families and carers as interests which are
distinct from those of governments or service providers or charities;
ii. development and promotion of public
policy which enhances the rights, capacities, choices, and dignity of parents,
families and carers;
iii. development and promotion of
innovation in support and service delivery which empowers parents,
families and cares, and builds our capacities and resources.
3. We aim to bring together parents,
families and carers from several different sectors which have previously been
isolated from each other, including education and schools; child care; early intervention
and early years development; disability; mental illness; learning difficulties;
behavioural difficulties; youth support; chronic and acute illness; and senior
years.
4. We aim to develop a voice
that is as broad and inclusive as possible which will not be aligned with any
religious or cultural perspective on family structure or bio-ethical issues.
5. We aim to develop a voice that can attract
significant financial and infrastructure support from public, private,
philanthropic and charitable sources.
6. We welcome the participation in this process
of
i. individuals who are parents, families or carers;
ii. organisations which are advocacy or self-help
groups of parents, families or carers;
iii. individual philanthropists or donors and
philanthropic and private sector organisations who support
our objectives.
OUR PROPOSAL
Read our Proposal for a National Voice
Register to Attend
EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
Register your Expression of Interest Here
Vern Hughes
National Convenor
vern@civilsociety.org.au
PO Box 159 Yarraville Vic 3013
Tel: 0425 722 890
This
process is hosted
by the Centre for Civil Society. The
Centre retains the right to admit
and deny participation in this
process as it sees fit.
