Community Development and Indigenous Empowerment SSW3012

Organization Chosen- KWY Mankurri-Apinthi

Section 1- Community Organization and Program Description

The KWY offers support and cultural services to Aboriginal individuals, communities, and families to build positive change. The range of KWY programs mainly focuses on sexual, domestic, and family violence, youth work, perpetrator interventions, reunification, child development, disability, mental health, emotional and social wellbeing, cultural training, and wise practice research (Adelaide, 2024a). It is a peer-to-peer group program run by ACSI (Australian Centre for Social Innovation). The mission is to ensure that the aspirations and voices of First Nation people are valued and the achievements, research, culture and knowledge of Indigenous community are celebrated, contributing to the transformative changes in broader community and institutions.

KWY states the aspirations, dreams, and strengths of Aboriginal people in their work towards sustainable changes that are long-term (Adelaide, 2024b). The vision of KWY is to deliver an enriched and meaningful success, participation and access of First Nation people as a priority and responsibility university wide.

Mankurri-Apinthi means to bring together. It is referred to as the new program of a group that has been facilitated and designed by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families for their own sake. These peer programs are run by volunteers who have lived experience to form various community connections. Each and every group has approximately 6 years who meet weekly in order to work towards the common goals. Groups are led by volunteers yearning as the group members generally work towards their objectives and what they seek out of the groups (Binda-Moir & Malik, 2023). The volunteers lead the groups in order to strengthen and empower the group members. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are considered the first peoples of Australia. They live in regional and urban areas as compared to the remote areas, though the proportion of the total population of the First Nation people is higher generally in remote areas.

It has been often found that people of the Aboriginal community do not have the ability to gain proper knowledge and they often lack self-confidence (Gallop & Bastien, 2016). The children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders does not participate in the community programs. This program is referred to as a national strategic plan for the University of Adelaide. This program aims to maximize the participation, access, and success of the staff and students of the First Nation community.

The progressive blueprint mainly strives to explain an effective and sustainable Indigenous portfolio in the University (Indigenoushpf, 2024). It is referred to as the outcome of extensive research and review of literature conducted both globally and domestically, internal consultation with the executive members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff, and external consultation with the leading community and the leading universities around Australia identified for the excellence in the success, participation, and access of First Nation (KWY, 2024a). With the help of this program, the members seek to magnify the voices offered nation's people to celebrate the achievements and foster various transformative changes. The program envisions a university where the people of the First Nation community collectively can acquire success.

It is important to consider the fact that the students of the Aboriginal community are not a homogenous group. Hence, the program complies with several aspects such as social engagement and efforts provided for building a formal community. Strong cultural identity is referred to as the protective aspect for lots of Aboriginal students when they enter, continue, and complete their education. This also acts as the means for those students to persist in the educational system which is constructed with aboriginal students (KWY, 2024b). Aboriginal students who generally hold powerful cultural identities tend to have the confidence to participate in a new culture with less assimilation fear or loss of culture. The rates of achievement among Aboriginal students are underrepresented grossly in post-secondary education and High schools. Indigenous science is likely to have a holistic approach to learning. This journey mainly focuses on kinship and relationships found between living organisms for meeting the students to involve their spirit, mind, and body to gain success.

Section 2- Critical Analysis of Community Development (CD) Processes

Analyzing the above-mentioned program, it has been observed that the Mankurri-Apinthi program used the bottom-up approach in the process of community development. Considering the vision along with strategic priorities formed by the program, it has been noticed that day complied with every small detail of the students of Aboriginal people that are necessary for acquiring success of Aboriginal students (Song & Wang, 2023). This strategy used by the volunteers of the program involved starting with the small details and they gradually build up a larger system. This strategy also motivates the participation of other employees in the decision-making which results in a better relationship between the team members.

The people of First Nations are involved in making decisions and hence, the decisions taken by them impact the lives of the Aboriginal people positively. They seek to build a strong cultural identity among the Aboriginal students which will consequently help them to enhance their self-confidence continuously (UNISA, 2021). They also strive to expand the representation of First Nation people in the community. Moreover, the program also increases the recruitment of First Nation people of students and staff. The team members of Mankurri-Apinthi make informed decisions on which are best to use requisite and existing resources.

The program strives to strengthen the cultural identity among Aboriginal students to enhance their self-confidence, self-esteem, and knowledge. They believe that the sharing of cultural knowledge and life experience occurs organically. This implies the use of informal powers and this is not tied to the title or position and is based on personal characteristics. The pathway of the program offers essential support, promoting confidence among the First Nation students as they investigate and familiar environment as well as transition into further pursuits of education at the University (Popli, 2024). They undertake a comprehensive review of the indigenous access and pathways including other programs to inform the eventual operating model for Adelaide University. This indicates the formal use of power. Both the utilization of informal and formal power positively impacts the life of Aboriginal peoples and this consequently carries them towards success.

The Mankurri-Apinthi program adopted a holistic approach to creating an inclusive society. The volunteers and other team members of the Mankurri-Apinthi program recognize the responsibility to individual society and they hold a collective responsibility to uphold principles of equity equality and human dignity globally. As social leaders, they hold the responsibility to be committed to the purposes of community development. Moreover, they facilitate equal employment opportunities for the staff and students who belong to the Aboriginal community. The program emphasizes the requirement for respectful, and open communication between the learners and the community members.

In Mankurri-Apinthi, KWY the clients hold the right to participate in the decisions about their own life and they receive care that is respectful for them, their family, and their home. The client receives information about the services which they are using. In KWY, the client can lodge a complaint when people are not happy with the service provided by KWY and they can access their personal information (DESA, 2019). The clients can also refuse the services of Mankurri-Apinthi, KWY. People receive coordinated, reliable, quality, and safe services proper for the assessed requirements of clients.

The processes that are being adopted to empower people by Mankurri-Apinthi are being non-judgmental and respectful. They also strive to build relationships where individual feels comfortable in order to describe their feelings and what they seek. The client focuses on their abilities and strengths. The team members also encourage and support engagement in the process of decision-making. To empower every individual, they respect the decisions that an individual makes about their life. In addition to this, the process of empowerment starts by listening to the dreams and grievances of people who have experienced discrimination and disadvantages and responding to their interests and requirements. It also engages in taking those requirements, vision, and interests seriously.

As a community worker, various approaches can be used while working with communities. The approaches are the reconciliation approach, general content approach, process approach, and specific content approach. The focus of the general content approach is the orderly and coordinated development of various services within the community in specific interest areas (Cityofadelaide, 2024). Hence, the council of Welfare Night seeks to co-ordinate the existing services comma to initiate various new services and to extend the present services to meet the requirements of welfare within the community. This approach incorporates two approaches including starting new services and strengthening existing services.

Analyzing the above discussion, I would adopt a reconciliation process for community development. The reconciliation between community and individual is considered a long-term procedure. The individual here is referred to as the basic community unit. When a community leaves an individual, it does not have any practical importance. The community is referred to as the basis for the development and survival of people. When an individual leaves a community it cannot develop or exist (Mhandara, 2020). Both the community and the individual must have a symbiotic relationship. How a society deals with the previous violations of human rights describes the extent to which long-term reconciliation and stability might be acquired. The interventions must aim to prevent the recurrence of the conflicts while repairing the damage that has been caused.

The inclusion practices adopted by the program worked well for the Aboriginal people. This can be strengthened further by practicing clear communication about the process of decision making including the way the input is used and considered as this will help to improve transparency and will build the trust of the public. This includes constant communications offline and online options and attributions based on geography in order to enhance transparency build stronger relationships and close the loop of communication (Tinkler & Tinkler, 2020). Moreover, complying with the principle of maximum participation will help the aboriginal students to move towards success. In order to build social capital and to build capacity, it is important to comply with the principle of an informed and educated community. Social capital can be enhanced significantly through the establishment of opportunities for community service work.

Conclusion

Evaluating the above discussions, I observed that community development is referred to as the procedure where individuals come together in order to take action on what is important to them. Community development is based on the belief that each and every individual must have access to well-being, equality, opportunity, and justice. Community workers mainly assess the requirements of the community and recognize the challenges and opportunities associated with that. These learnings would help me in the future because while organizing a community I might use the processes of community development such as advocating, connecting with the resources, offering support, and many more.

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