Through a Child’s Eyes

In recent weeks I have travelled to several rural and remote communities with the purpose of introducing the principles of the National Early and Middle Years Learning Framework (EYLF) through culturally appropriate and inclusive activities. The primary audience was educators, youth and health workers who interact with children aged five to twelve years in remote communities.
The photo on the left is one that I took during one of the workshops that involved children using everyday materials and resources.
Read more about the project and the children’s reactions in my feature story on our ‘Out of the Dark’ project.
The time spent in those communities (mind you mostly fly-in, fly-out) left me with a lot of impressions, experiences and information that I have been reflecting on since my return.
I have shared some of my thoughts in ‘Gudrun’s Corner’ as well as listed a few books that you may want to have a look at and share with others, especially children if you find the subjects raised interesting.

Edition 2 April 2011 - Content

Upcoming Presentations

09 April 2011 – Perth
CAWA Conference 
‘Cultural Competence in Early Care and Education’,’ Inclusive Games’ (BISS)
21 May 2011 – Sydney
Network of Communities Conference 2011
Evolving towards Culturally Intelligent Leadership, and ‘Avoiding the Five Deadly F’s’
18 & 19 June 2011 - Perth
WA ECEC Conference 2010 - Windows of Opportunity
‘Learning Environments that work for children from Aboriginal background’ (BISS)
‘Cultural Competency - A National Perspective’ (co-presentation with other members of the National Association for Ethnic and Multicultural Children Services NAMECS)

Edition Topic

Why being strategic is essential for successful organisations

Did you know that around 50% of organisations fail within the first three years of business?

I am regularly invited to be a guest presenter at the UWA Business School to explore innovation and entrepreneurship in small business with MBA students. On my last presentation Professor Tim Mazzarol congratulated me on having survived the ‘magic’ three first years in small business. He outlined that research shows that around 50% of small businesses fail within the first three years.

The question is why?

Some of the factors that impact on the successful start-up and survival of an organisation include:
* How well they know their own business (the environment we operate in, what do we offer to clients, who are our clients and our competition, our market and product)
* Knowing how to ‘price’ yourself and your ‘product’.
* The organisation’s goals and indicators that measure how well these are being achieved
* The organisation’s commitment to reinvesting into itself  
* Processes in place to monitor and evaluate the organisations activities.

I discovered that having a well-rounded and researched business plan has made sure that I know my own business, its products and goals. Sure some of this has changed over the years (and this has been reflected in my business plan). Overall I have been immensely grateful that I had the wisdom and support - I participated in UWA Business School’s Small Business Excellence Program (SBEP) early on - to develop a solid business plan which I have identified as one of the major factors for GoodRun Solutions not only having survived but thrived in the past four years.
Having a business plan has guided me in making major decisions such as what tasks needs to be done by whom, which projects to apply for and how to ‘price’ the projects. Part of my business plan was identifying a business model that will suit my goals and what I expect the business to achieve. I never forgot the advice given to me right in the beginning by Professor Mazzarol to have an ‘exit strategy’. That sounded a bit off at the time. But now that I know how it keeps me on track and focuses me throughout the life of the business I appreciate the advice given right at the start-up of GoodRun Solutions.

My business plan tells me that I am in the space now where I promote my product called ‘organisational growth’ and this article is part of making those that are associated with GoodRun Solutions aware that we provide professional services to you in planning, developing and growing your organisation. So if that’s what your organisation needs why not contact me and have a chat on how we can be of help.

Our News

BISS
Promoting cultural competence in early care and education

A service supported by CHILD Australia's Professional Support Coordination (PSC) in WA and the NT

In the past month I have spent a week in Alice Springs to facilitate workshops, reconnect with services and introduce them to the BISS resources section on our website. It was great to see so many team members from primary schools accessing the workshops. For me this is a sign that the children services and education sectors are starting to acknowledge the value in cooperating with each other to give children the best start in life.
I have also had meetings with the Inclusion Support Agency, the Indigenous Professional Support Provider and the Multicultural Community Support Agency to discuss the impact of strong migration trends into Alice Springs on care and education providers.
Charity has continued her role as the first point of contact for BISS and many of you have provided great feedback on how much you appreciate her responsiveness and ability to provide you with just the right support to include children into your service or increase your practice of representing diversity in your setting. Our contribution to CHILD TIMES March edition focused on cultural competence as a 'hot topic'. Access the article here for those of you who have not read it yet. Our project 'Breaking down the Barriers' is moving towards its final stages with participating services having been visited by our two diversity consultants Yarmintali and Le. We are starting the process of collating all the materials and findings of this project.
Our next BISS workshops will be in the first week in June in Darwin:
01 June 2011: 'Programming That Reflects Diversity'
03 June 2011: 'Telling A Yarn'
Please check the PSC training calendar for details and contact your PSC for bookings. Access the state PSC via their webpage by selecting the link to WA or NT.
Just a reminders that the phone number for referrals to BISS is 1800826413 or e-mail biss@goodrunsolutions.com.au.

Gudrun at the IWD event with Esther Steingiesser , Farrah Frank and Nilda Eisen

Celebrating International Women's Day (IWD)

For the third year in a row GoodRun Solutions has contributed to the celebration of International Women's Day.
This year we collaborated with the United Nations Association of WA (UNAWA) to assemble and publish a booklet Celebrating Diversity in Western Australia of recipes from life in Western Australia. The booklet includes some of the family stories that make the recipes so special. The booklet was co-funded by GoodRun Solutions and the National Immigrant and Refugee Women's Alliance (NIRWA). It was launched at the Ethnic Community Council's (ECC) Women's Day Celebrations by Dame Judith Parker. Both ECC WA and UNAWA sell the booklets and funds raised go back to projects supported by UNAWA.
My contribution in 2010 to the ECC forum on Women overcoming Poverty was a presentation on 'Migrant Women in Employment and Education'. Other presenters at the forum included Yvonne Henderson (Commissioner of the Equal Opportunities Commission in WA) and Irina Catalina (WA Council of Social Services - WACOSS). In 2009 I joined Beryl Mulder and Matina Motte during the Inaugural National Refugee and Migrant Women's Conference: Setting the Social Agenda.
We explored the vulnerabilities of senior migrant women.
I am already looking forward to next year's celebration and what I can contribute!

'Out of the Dark'
A project supporting Out of School Hours Care in Aboriginal communities in the Top End of Northern Territory
Collaboration with the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
The project that I am involved in provides a catalyst for developing the use of children’s imagination and creativity and creates endless learning experiences. The activities are based on traditional aboriginal games and arts and use natural materials from the environment as well as items that have been discarded.  During March I travelled to several remote communities in East Arnhem in the Northern Territory with two members of the Batchelor’s RRACSSU Central and Top End teams to co-facilitate workshops aimed at educators to introduce the new national quality framework and encourage the use of our game and activity ideas. I took more than 1300 photos to capture the amazing results. These photos will appear in various publications and form part of a series of booklets that we are developing over the next few months.
As you can see a very exiting project and hopefully one that will be recognized as valuable and attracts some funding to roll it out nationwide.

Gudrun's Corner

Experiences, Impressions and Thoughts on Remote Aboriginal Communities

What was it that struck me while spending time in remote aboriginal communities?

The two most provocative issues during these travels for me have been the following:

1. A statement that was made several times during my travels by various individuals referred to the good literacy and numeracy skills of the grandparents of children that we were meeting in the communities. Comments were made that in fact grandparent’s skills in these academic areas were far superior to those of their children and grandchildren.
2. The other was relating to the communities who were distinctly different by the fact that some were what I call ‘natural’ communities with members being part of the same tribe/family – communities that have grown and bonded over generations. Some other communities had been developed/ created to ‘house’ displaced individuals and families. I observed distinct differences in these communities relating to the social behaviour of individual children and the community at large.
These two topics have led me down some interesting paths of thought that I may be on for a while yet.
Some of my reflections have been around:

• Why literacy and numeracy skills have not been ‘passed’ down between the generations?
• What is the deciding factor in which skills, knowledge and experiences are shared across communities and families with our children?
• How can we bridge the gap that has been created by displacement and loss of identity over several generations?
• How can communities create a sense of belonging and ownership when they have been created artificially?
• What are the factors that create a sense of identity, belonging and aspirations in individuals and communities?

Not everyone has the opportunity like me to experience first hand, the results of generations of Aboriginal-Western interactions to trigger such reflections.
For those of you that would like some other sources of information relating to these topics, which are easy to read (and most are excellent books to share with children), I can recommend the following books:
STOLEN GIRL by Trina Saffioti & Norma MacDonald, Magabala Books
THEY TOOK THE CHILDREN by David Hollinsworth, Working Title Press
DOWN THE HOLE by Edna Tantjingu Williams, Eileen Wani Wingfield and Kunyi June-Anne McInerney, Jukurrpa Books, Alice Springs, 2000.
WHITE MEN ARE LIARS by Margret S. Bain, AuSIL Inc.

I hope you have enjoyed the content of this Newsletter and are looking forward to the next edition!

Gudrun

Director - GoodRun Solutions
Phone: (08) 93901922
Mobile: 0415 886 413
Skype: goodrun.solutions
Web: www.goodrunsolutions.com.au
E-mail: gudrun@goodrunsolutions.com.au