First meeting of Adopt-A-Town Steering Committee

The team met at Kevin and Liz's place today and decided to focus our efforts on the community of Yea in the Seymour district of central Victoria. Yea is a town of similar size to Bridport or Scotsdale, with small satelite towns similar to those of the rest of Dorset. Their rural economy is also similar, and there has already been contact through the Rotary club and John Lette's visits with fodder. Yea has also been the scene of one of the 'tent cities' that have sprung up to house refugees from the fires.

It was decided that the first step would be to get hold of community directories for Yea so that we can begin to contact groups there and ascertain needs, etc.

It was also decided to commission Graeme Loosmore to create a website for us, and this will be hosted on the domain name www.adoptatown.net. Committee members were also deputised to produce letterheads, advertising brochures, and liaise with newspapers, Radio and TV stations. Kevin has already been interviewed by ABC Northern Tasmania and will be again shortly now that we know what area we will be 'adopting'. The committee will also be approaching schools to provide them with postcards for the children to fill and and send to Yea district schools.

Next meeting is next Wednesday.


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The Adopt-A-Town Project

The idea came from a group of residents of Bridport on the north east coast of Tasmania. They took it to public meetings at Bridport and Scottsdale, where the concept of the Dorset community 'adopting' a community affected by the Victorian bushfires received enthusiastic support from all sectors represented. Representatives from Dorset Council, Industry groups, TFGA, the Combined Churches of Dorset, Youth, Schools and others all agreed in principle that adopting a town would be a worthwhile project to pursue.

At the meeting at Scottsdale RSL on Thursday 19th February there was much discussion about possible outcomes, pitfalls to avoid, and potential problems. But all were unanimous that we should appoint a steering committee to choose a suitable area, based on size, needs, and social and economic likeness to our own area in order to maximise our effectiveness in helping.

The idea is not to duplicate what is already being done by government and private agencies, but to reach out with moral support, social, material and spiritual help to an affected area. This would be done by 'networking the networks' that we already have. By helping the right hand to know what the left is doing. And by linking needs in the fire-affected area with skills, resources and generous offers of help in our own community. Above all, this was to be not so much concerned with the immediate future, as with the mid and long term needs of bushfire towns. We want to be there with a helping hand when the mass media has moved on and the attention of the world has passed to other things.

This blog will contain information about the ongoing state of this project and how you can be involved. We want to hear from you, too. If you have comments, ideas and suggestions, please post a comment here.