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Mobilising ethnic communities

Wadim (Bill) Jegorow.

Wadim (Bill) Jegorow, talks about the Australian Assistant Plan.

Created:

1994

Date Added:

17 July 2002

Source:

Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1994.

Format:

mov (Quicktime);

File size:

--

Length:

25 secs

Transcript

WADIM (BILL) JEGOROW
Foundation Chair of the Ethnic Communities' Council of NSW and of the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia.

This (early 1970s) was the time of the Australian Assistance Plan when the Labor Party, the Government was saying people should participate and should play an active part in the sort of society that was developing in terms of services provided, in terms of provision of needs. And that it would be a matter of, not only consultation, but participation.

CONTINUATION OF INTERVIEW AS TEXT

The Australian Assistance Plan (AAP) was designed to promote community development and participation of people in the welfare and development and growth of local interest groups.

Many community organisations were spawned around that time because philosophically, at least, it was recognised that consumers had the right to participate in the decision making process, and had the right to ask for services appropriate to their needs and to be involved in a process of development and evaluation of those services.

The Australian Assistance Plan (AAP) recognised that communities had a role in shaping their communities, starting from town planning to Meals on Wheels. This was an important breakthrough, but again, in the Australian context, voluntary groups have been the yeast of social fermentation, and, hopefully, social change. The Australian Assistance Plan (AAP), in a way, built on what had happened in Australia in the past, but formalised things and highlighted aspects of volunteer, citizen and community participation.

Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1994.