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We bring people together in each federal electorate (150 electorates around Australia) to work locally in engaging our communities and our  representatives in a non-party, neither-left-nor-right  agenda of empowerment of ordinary people.
CLICK HERE to join us.

STREET BY STREET

Linking
up people who live in the same street or nearby to build community through practical helping tasks - on a national scale.
CLICK HERE for further information.
AGM SEASON

Making a difference in our not-for-profits.
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for further information.
SELF-DIRECTED
SERVICES AND PERSONAL BUDGETS


You can take charge of your social support, education and health care through a personal budget.
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for further information.
DISABILITY AND MENTAL HEALTH

Charter for National Action

CLICK HERE for details of our National Campaign.

LEFT AND RIGHT?

"The Left and Right have been as bad as each other. The Left has allowed its distrust of markets and endless faith in government to obscure the importance of civil society. The Right has been so focused on replacing the state with markets that it has forgotten how to cultivate a trusting society.

This is the politics of the absurd. The Left identifies with the good society but rarely talks about the mutualism and trust between people. The Right recognises the importance of moral obligation but gives the impression of trusting market transactions more than civil society."

Few things seem to happen anymore without a government law or market transaction to guide them. This is how record levels of GDP in Australia now sit alongside record levels of crime, social stress and family  breakdown. The political balance needs to swing back towards civil society.

This task, in fact, requires a new type of politics."

Mark Latham, Mutualism: A Third Way for Australia," 1999.

CLICK HERE to read more. 

Surveys

If you are the proprietor of a small business, please send us your thoughts on how we can support small businesses through our
SMALL BUSINESS SURVEY

If you are caring for an ill or disabled family member at home, please click here to participate in our

 Family  CarERS  SURVEY


 
 
 


parents, families and carers: our place in the human services, our agenda for change

NAtiONAL conference
University of Sydney
Camperdown Sydney NSW
17-18 March 2008

Register Here

Read the Program Here

Registrations Now Open

The inaugural conference of the National Federation of Parents, Families and Carers will explore the place of families in the human services and social policy, and develop a national agenda for change.

It will bring together parents, families and carers and their advocacy, self-help and support groups, with service providers, governments and researchers who support an agenda of empowerment and person and family-centred practice. It will explore innovative  developments in Australia and overseas, and develop an agenda for policy change, system re-design, and empowerment in fields including early childhood development; child care; education; disability; mental illness; learning, developmental and behavioural challenges; chronic and acute illness; aged care; parental learning and empowerment; and family support.

Proposals are invited for papers, presentations and workshops on the following themes:

- conceptual and foundational perspectives on the place of parents, families and carers in the human services and social policy;
- evaluation of current policies and paradigms, service delivery models and practices, and social outcomes;
- analyses of system failure;
- current innovations in Australia and overseas;
- proposals for system re-design, new service delivery and support models, and new funding models;
- issues and challenges in parenting and family support;
- proposals for strengthening familial relationships and familial social capital in the human services;
- analysis of impediments to change and empowerment of parents, families and carers, and strategies for overcoming these;
- political processes and strategies for change;
- comparative critique of indigenous and non-indigenous approaches in the human services and social policy.

The program outline is available here.

Vern Hughes
Conference Convenor
vern@civilsociety.org.au
PO Box 159 Yarraville Vic 3013
Tel: 0425 722 890

Register Here
 
 

 © Centre for Civil Society 2007

PARENTS
FAMILIES AND CARERS


Second National Conference of Parents, Families and Carers.
Brisbane, 3/4 August.
CLICK HERE
for further information.
 

COMMUNITY BUILDING

Natural Neighbourhoods, Real Communities
National Conference.
Melbourne 22/23 June.
CLICK HERE
for further information.
CORPORATE
WELFARE WATCH


Latest Handout Tally

$6.2b Car manufacturers subsidies
$2b Commercial property construction industry
$3.9b Free emission permits to coal-fired electricity generators
$2b Car dealer finance guarantee
$149m GMH 4 cylinder car
CLICK HERE for further information.
 
THIRD WAY FORUM

Communitarianism,
Mutualism, Third Way Thinking

CLICK HERE to find out more.

MAKING IT PERSONAL

Charlie Leadbeater, Jamie Bartlett and Niamh Gallagher have authored this highly influential Demos Report on Self-Directed Services and Personal Budgets.
CLICK HERE
to read Making It Personal.

RESPECT
EMPOWER
INCLUDE

We bring people together in each federal electorate (150 electorates around Australia) to work locally in engaging our communities and our  representatives in a non-party, neither-left-nor-right  agenda to empower ordinary people.
CLICK HERE to join us and to express an interest in Convening in your electorate.
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Family Carers
There are 2.7million family carers of people with a disability, a chronic or mental illness, or aged frailty in Australia. They are invisible to politicians and policy makers. Read more...
Standing Up to Telstra and the Big Four Banks
Help us create a voice for consumers.  Read more...
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