Page 3057 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 17 October 2007
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Board. The board, throughout both of its terms, has overseen a number of key projects and a research program aimed directly at reducing poverty.
The board’s seminar series provides an opportunity for community sector stakeholders to present their views on social inclusion issues and hear from government agencies about their policy responses. Recent seminars have included “Dropping off the Edge”, which analysed locational disadvantage, by Professor Tony Vinson, which was released in February 2007. The seminar enhanced the level of knowledge of the distribution of disadvantage in the ACT and discussed approaches to improving service delivery to people who are disadvantaged.
The board will also host the community wellbeing seminar, providing opportunity for participants to understand the practical application of community wellbeing indicators in addressing individual determinants of health and wellbeing. Other seminars being progressed to be held in the near future include a seminar on prison support services pending the opening of the Alexander Maconochie Centre mid next year, an early intervention seminar to report back on a meta analysis of ACT early intervention programs to further develop the ACT’s early intervention policy, and a seminar that focuses on sharing best practice in working with and in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
In its first term, the board has commissioned a substantial body of research work that gives us a more comprehensive understanding of the social factors that influence individual disadvantage and how we as a community have a role in supporting the disadvantaged and marginalised. The long-term unemployment project will undertake a demographic analysis of the ACT’s long-term unemployed and will include a calculation of the implications of long-term unemployment in the ACT. This work will inform subsequent work on investigating and analysing the range of long-term unemployment assistance programs, with the aim of advising the ACT government on areas where they can play a positive role.
The government is also supporting the development of better information about the experience of poverty in the ACT through the Community Inclusion Board’s contribution to the ACTCOSS-NATSEM research project that is updating the analysis of ABS data related to households in the bottom 20 per cent income bracket in the ACT that was published in 2002. This research will assist stakeholders to better understand and respond to the needs of these households.
The Community Inclusion Board has initiated a number of projects to reduce the burden of poverty and debt in the ACT. The community inclusion and household debt pilot project was released in August 2007. The project achieved outstanding results, with more than 40 per cent of participants increasing their earnings, including five who returned to part-time paid work, and more than 90 per cent reporting that they had changed their behaviours in relation to how they manage their finances. Many of the project recommendations, including boosting the dental scheme, reviewing debt and fine collection arrangements and enhancing the school bursary scheme, have been adopted across government and will continue to inform policymaking.
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