the+first+forum

Making A Difference - Making It Happen
 ==      == ===<span style="font-size: 150%; color: #f78d18; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">      === <span style="font-size: 70%; color: #ffa50f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="color: #ffa40f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="font-size: 150%; color: #f78d18; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="font-size: 80%; color: #ff971a; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="font-size: 150%; color: #ff9100; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Community Organising Forum <span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="font-size: 70%; color: #ffa50f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="color: #ffa40f; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;"><span style="font-size: 150%; color: #f78d18; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">Wednesday 13th August <span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'Univers Bold','sans-serif';">  The first Community Organising forum was held at the CafeChurch in Glebe on August 13th. The event was well attended, with over 70 interested members of the community turning out on the day.

City of Sydney Councillor,   <span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'Univers Bold','sans-serif';">   Robyn Kemmis greeted everyone, in her role as Patron of the event and introduced Aunty Fay, a local Aboriginal Elder. Aunty Fay welcomed all to Gadigal land. <span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'Univers Bold','sans-serif';"> Keynote Speaker, Eva Cox spoke about the importance of building community capacity and the need for tolerance in modern society. Her speech was very well received and gave the community organisers in the room much to ponder.

Greta Angel discussed her involvement in the Community Housing Tenant Network, a tenant driven organisation created to forge links between the tenants of all NSW community housing providers. [|www.communityhousing.org.au] <span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'Univers Bold','sans-serif';">  Kaz from the PACT Theatre guided us through two years work which culminated in the Gathering Ground: Blockside Story, a community devised performance with residents and organisations living in and around The Block in Redfern. The project was a collaboration between PACT and Redfern Community Centre. [|www.gatheringground.org]

The role of The Surry Hills Public Tenants Association (SHPTA) was explained by Vice Chairperson, Rick O'Meara. SHPTA represent all Public Housing tenants in Surry Hills, providing advocacy and information, along with the enormous job of maintaining the Northcott Community Centre. The centre is open fulltime, run solely on volunteer power.

After lunch, a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and new faces, a series of workshops such Online Resources and Networking were run.

The day concluded in a group discussion, with participants saying this was the only opportunity for them to meet other community advocates from across the City of Sydney LGA and how much they appreciated the chance to share their stories and learn from others.The outcome of the discussion was a consensus in the value of coming together and the next forum should focus on building networks.