Bridges Themes
Empathy can be increased through systems thinking – thinking that recognises that, for instance, the family or community is a system with different parts affecting each other. Issues are interrelated; problems occur in a context. If people understand that a problem occurs in a context they will be more tolerant and look for more comprehensive solutions.
For example, a child’s poor behaviour can be influenced by his/her family and community environment and even by societal attitudes. The BNA works to bring about more supportive and supported contexts – more supported families and more supported and supportivecommunities. Even the funding system can ultimately have an influence on whether or not a child is supported.
The BNA harnesses, builds on and promotes strengths, “voices” and relationships, and uses the ripple effect to not only support individual change but also change in family, community and even structural contexts. The strategies empower community groups while maximizing use of resources. For instance, Bridges partnered with Mt Druitt Indigenous Church and Willmot Public School to run a PhotoVoice project with fifteen Indigenous children, resulting in the booklet titled Willmot is the place to be. This booklet promotes the children’s voices and the strengths of their community. The project linked them more strongly with their school community. The headmaster stated that as a result of this project children were happier at school and attendance improved. Also as a result of this project, Willmot Public School embarked on a whole-of-school pride project with all the children encouraged to take photographs (an example of the ripple effect). The booklet is now also being presented on National Indigenous Television.
The BNA recognises the strengths and possibilities of people being involved in their own and their community’s change process. As in the above example, the BNA supports people to be proactive in influencing cultural and social change. Bridges has also partnered with community members and organisations in running “Celebrate the Power of Community” events.
The BNA encourages organisations to constantly be on the look out for opportunities for working together and building trust. A project such as the Willmott PhotoVoice project can be linked with other projects through the operation of coordinated networks to bring about, in the end, major results.
Bridges, guided by the BNA, facilitates such networks. These networks take advantage of the unique characteristics of small community organisations (closeness to the community, flexibility, responsiveness, independent voice), in combination with the unique characteristics of large organisations (economies of scale, strong resource base, higher media profile).
Large organisations are often seen as more efficient than small organisations, and top-down approaches still dominate the way our society addresses challenges. The BNA is an approach that provides a opportunities to leverage the efficiencies and potential of small community organisations, network development and the use of the ripple effect for large-scale change.
The BNA promotes increased initiative and leadership by community members and small community organisations, while still valuing and encouraging leadership by large organisations. The BNA connects bottom-up and top-down approaches.
From its base in Blacktown, a western suburb of Sydney, Bridges has demonstrated the leadership capable of a small community organisation by its role in the development of the BNA while collaborating with many others, including large organisations.
No single organisation has the capacity, breadth of knowledge or responsiveness to be able to fully address complex issues. The BNA enables synergies to do more for less, and produce more innovative programs and strategies reaching more people.
The BNA’s strategies include partnering and actively sharing one’s own resources as much as possible. For instance, Bridges, despite operating from a small, insecure funding base, has been proactive in negotiating with some funders to use its resources for the benefit of the network, and for the benefit of other organisations’ clients, as opposed to only using the funds to employ workers for Bridges’ client group. This approach also recognises that issues overlap for groups serviced by different organisations. For example, families affected by AOD issues might be being seen not only by AOD-specific agencies, but also by family support, child-protection and youth agencies.
The BNA’s emphasis on network development for addressing common and overlapping goals led Bridges to at times make the strengthening of networks more important than the strengthening of itself. Taking this approach has resulted in Bridges gaining support from many different organisations and has transformed Bridges from a service focused primarily on counselling to a networked, collaborative agent for social change.
The BNA invites service providers to ask themselves, “To what degree can I use my own and my organisation’s time, energy and resources to strengthen the network while also strengthening the organisation?”
In 1999 Bridges was desperately struggling with securing funding for its own survival but it was clear that the funding system was failing small community organisations in general. So instead of all of Bridges’ energy going into seeking funding for itself, it led the development of Voice for SONG (Small Organisations Non-Government) – a network that promotes the value and potential of small organisations and seeks cooperative solutions with large and small organisations. This network went on to gain state and national recognition.
Voice for SONG raises the issues related to the struggles of small community organisations, but its emphasis is always on the positives: promoting the value and potential of such organisations and on new ways forward.
Similarly, the BNA encourages “voices” and the profiling of issues with the aim of strengthening relationships for positive change and for stronger communities and organisational networks. The BNA encourages “voices” that have empathy and hope.
One of the tenets of the BNA is that positive social change is brought about by strengthening relationships and people working together; relationships are strengthened when people empathise with each other and hear each other’s “voices” – their experiences, stories and ideas. Promoting “voices” also results in decreased isolation and people understanding, and having empathy with, each other. The BNA encourages honest and, as much as possible, non-blaming dialogue around difficult issues.
The promotion of people’s and organisations’ stories, voices and projects also to creates connections and inspires for further activities. The various ways of telling stories can also be vehicles for self-expression which can increase people’s sense of belonging and their resilience. The Bridges website and new technological opportunities enable this to take place on a much larger scale than would otherwise be possible.
People, communities and organisations are connected to ultimately recognise that their involvement in a project or strategy is part of something bigger. The BNA enables them to have big visions, with big potential for systemic change.
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