The Australian community sector faces an enormous challenge to keep providing services amid the global economic downturn if the Federal Government does not apply the same attention it has given to the corporate sector, says Infoxchange Australia's Andrew Mahar.

“There appears little thought has been given to supporting the sector that will have the responsibility to pick up the pieces of family breakdown, increasing mental health problems, household financial stress, growing housing crisis including growing homelessness and increasing suicide,” said Andrew Mahar, Infoxchange's Executive Director, in his key note speech at the recent Making Links conference.

“I doubt that more resources will be made available to support the health, welfare and community sectors that even during the good times were under significant stress,” he said.

This assessment is in line with the latest Access Economic report that suggests about the need of Federal be forced into deficit to meet the welfare costs of rising.  As cited in The Age; “It is looking increasingly likely that the pending economic downturn will require the federal government to take the budget into deficit in the short term in order to effectively meet the needs of the community, something not precluded by its stated policy objective of pursuing budget surpluses, on average, over the medium term,"

The conference, held at Melbourne University from November 11-13, showcased how information and communication technologies (ICT) can be used to elevate and empower disadvantaged communities.

One of the projects highlighted at the conference was ‘Wired Community@Collingwood’, an Infoxchange Australia digital inclusion initiative that provides ICT access for disadvantaged people, bringing a range of benefits including an increase in skills. The project targets residents from nearly a thousand high-rise households and more than 350 townhouse units of the Collingwood public housing estate.

Wired Community@Collingwood is the largest digital inclusion project in Australia, involving the wiring of households, provision of a personal computer in each apartment, and training of up to 2000 residents. It shows the potential use of ICT in activating contacts and breaking social isolation among disadvantaged communities. 

“Civil and democratic societies demand that everyone be able to access and share information,” Mahar said.

“In the twentieth century, this meant being able to read and have access to print materials, radio and television.  In the twenty-first century, it means having access to information and communications technologies.”

Youthworx and Fitzroy Learning Centre also run digital inclusion projects with young people from disadvantaged communities. The potential benefits these organisations bring to their communities are enormous. But as the economic situation worsens, their income may also be affected as they rely on government funding, income from services, donations, sponsorship and fundraising for their revenue. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics report, Not-for-profit Organisations Australia 2006–07; “not for profit organisations received $74.5 billion in income, 34.1% or $25.4 billion is from governments, 28.6% or $21.3 billion is from income services and 9.2% or $6.8 billion is from donations, sponsorship and fundraising”.  This revenue may decrease in the near future, which makes partnerships between corporate and community sectors more important than ever.

“There is high energy (of cooperation) and it will continue, as there is greater awareness of the potential for not-for-profit sector contribution to society; but we have opposite trends, declining profit, and an upward in social capital,” said Professor Allan Fels, Dean of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, when I spoke to him during the presentation of Australia Cares’ Big Heart Awards. 

Attended by nearly 200 people in November, the inaugural Big Heart Awards celebrated the strengthening of partnerships between the private and not-for-profit sectors. The first Big Heart Award was given to Cadbury Schweppes, for allowing its workers to volunteer their time to be part of the Wired Community@Collingwood project, teaching public housing residents how to use computers and the internet. Such a partnership is an alternative way to provide better services for the communities.

If the Australian economy does not recover quickly, the work of community organisations will increase as more community members become disadvantaged. The Australian government recently forecast that unemployment will increase to five per cent by June 2009, a readjustment from the previous forecast of 4.75 per cent. It also cut its GDP growth forecast for 2009/10 to 2.25 per cent, from 3.0 per cent.

“When there is an (economic) downturn in Australia, we have a history of relying on the not-for-profit sector to help the needy that in other countries is usually achieved by the government,” says Professor Fels.

In the United States, the community sector has started to feel the pinch. According to the quarterly Index of National Fundraising Performance; “Donor numbers in the index fell four per cent from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, while overall revenue declined; it fell 1.8 per cent from Q1 2007 to Q1 2008”.

In Australia, the digital divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ is still significant. According to The Internet in Australia, the latest research report conducted by ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation and Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology, “A fifth of the population have never used the internet  Forty-two per cent of the 1000 respondents living in the lowest income households who earn less than $20,000 per annum used the internet, compared to 92.5 per cent of those who earn more than $100,000 per annum”. 

Today’s economic situation shows that the laissez-faire economic system is not sustainable as governments intervene and regulate the market.  Neither can it be applied to rule society as the system mostly benefits the affluent instead of the disadvantaged.  The digital divide is a reminder of a failure of such an unsustainable system.

The Victorian Government is attempting to provide a solution to the digital divide by setting up community hubs in rural areas. “People in the rural communities come to a community hub where they can access services and community interaction is possible to occur,” said Lily D’Ambrosio, Victorian Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development.

“It has been a wonderful way for people in the remote communities to gain access to information about employment, educational opportunities or to families and friends overseas.”

Communicating online with relatives and friends overseas is a powerful experience; which also creates a sense of confidence and encourages curiosity about events happening in the wider community. “I can read about international news, about what happened in my country in Vietnamese language through the BBC website,” said Tuan Nguyen, a 53 years old Collingwood public housing estate resident.

Understanding the importance of information accessibility for all, and the social benefits that will flow to the communities provides a logical step for the government to adopt digital inclusion as part of its social inclusion strategy, and to include the corporate and not-for-profit sectors as part of it. For Tuan Nguyen, the benefit is felt at a practical level. He hopes others could benefit from it too.

“Every resident of housing estates, and low-income earners in particular, should have opportunities to access the internet to gain more knowledge, and access information about local and international news.”