Dr Helen Sheil has recently published a revised edition of Growing and Learning in Rural Communities (Sheil 2024).
The professional development manual places community knowledge at the heart of decision making – the place where decisions made in multiple sectors and organisations combines and impacts. Often a missing link in regional planning.
“I was introduced to the value of listening to stories that had been silenced by dedicated storytellers like Jan Wositzky, Carolyn Landon and Uncle Albert Mullett,” Helen said.
“Asking questions and listening (dialogue) was one of the strategies of the Graduate Certificate in Regional Community Development I designed and taught at Monash University’s Gippsland Campus to meet the need for skilled community engagement facilitators.
“This interest in lived lives in a landscape also led to the annual Stories of Influence initiative to raise awareness of the beauty and vulnerability of the Nowa Nowa Gorge and Lake Tyers Catchment.”
The book features stories giving insight into the reality of community life and dynamic partnerships that can result when communities have access to skills, knowledge and resources to be at decision making tables. To lead rather than respond to externally imposed changes.
Stories include Bruthen beginning the Tambo Rambler after hearing of the Mirboo North Times, of beginning the Landcare Group, of Nowa Nowa and Bruthen learning from Buchan of ways to better prepare for fires in the East Gippsland Building Community Resilience project. Of how Boolarra reinvigorating their social club by supporting the annual Christmas Carols led to new ventures, skills and changed relationships with LaTrobe City who then employed facilitators in their rural communities.
Regional initiatives such as the story of the Orbost Women’s Awareness Group becoming a hub for many groups to take action on the health of the Snowy River is inspiring and the response in Mirboo North when banks closed local branches and the wealth now being reinvested through the partnership with the Bendigo Community Bank and of the way that the FLOAT Almanac enriched our lives.
“Thank you to those whose contributions raise awareness of what can be achieved when organisations work in partnership with communities. Thanks to East Gippsland Community Foundation and Centre for Rural Communities to enable the book to be published,” Helen said.
More information on the book is available through the Centre for Rural Communities website.
Print copies are available from Bruthen Bizarre, Just Books and Games and Slipway in Lakes Entrance. It is also available online and in eBook format for your device of choice.
