No copyright on strengthening communities

by Val French

I was lucky enough to be invited to the 2020 Summit. The indescribable energy in a room where ideas were tossed, slammed and bounced around was like a grand final between Hewitt and Federer.

There is no copyright on ideas!

There has been a lot of talk from commentators about when, how and if the government will act upon these ideas. These ideas can be built on by government, but they also belong to the people.

Here are just some that can be acted on immediately within the community:

A community volunteer corp – created by older people to help mentor the young in schools and in the community generally. This would involve more extensive use of the school infrastructure up to 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. Let’s first use the space after school and during school holidays with more innovative programmes for the kids.

Older people could work in the schools, after school hours and in the school holidays sharing their skills with pupils of all ages. Not only are there skills that older people can teach the young, there are skills that the young can teach us.

OPSO has already successfully piloted a skills interchange. Some of the skills that older people can learn from the young are: computer skills and mobile phone texting. At the same time older men taught teenagers how to pull down and rebuild a car, a motorbike, ball room dancing, furniture restoration, craft, art, leatherwork, pottery, debating, public speaking, drama – the list is endless.

The school premises could be to set up early intervention programs of an evening to help families cope with the pressures of raising children in a modern society where drugs and alcohol pose enormous problems.

Other ways to assist our young people would be to set up independent hubs for youth, run by youth with the assistance of older volunteers where everything from sport, bands, drama, computers, skateboard riding, dances, discos etc. could be organised by youth. A good model for this is the youth hub at Kingaroy.

At present OPSO is working with Qld Police and Volunteering Qld to build a database of volunteers interested in building on these ideas.

POSITIVE AGEING MEANS NO AGE DISCRIMINATION

It is interesting to look at some of the areas where age discrimination still rears its ugly head.

1. The lack of suitable and easily accessible transport especially for those who have no car or no licence is a form of discrimination.
2. Employers assuming that an older employee returning to the workforce would not be happy with a less senior role is another.
3. Women divorced years ago receiving little recognition in financial settlements now facing the burden of poverty on a single pension.
4. Many people today relying on the single age pension in real poverty not because they were improvident but simply because superannuation was not available to them.
5. Most women having a broken working life and being employed at minimal rates of pay.
6. Poor planning in public buildings impeding access to older people and disabled.
7. The difficulties for older people returning to the workforce because of negative attitudes towards ageing and inflexible workplace employment practices and regulations.
8. Regulations imposed on those receiving a pension destroying any incentive to return to the workforce.
9. The issue of older people bringing up grandchildren in poverty without government assistance.

These are only a few examples – there are many, many more.