What principles drive community based social service organizations in Australia?

So to the Australian context: What are the value principles that guide the finest work in this sector in Australia? My reading of both the literature (including ACOSS, 2009; ACOSS 2011; NVCO 2011; Our Community 2008) and practice in our society describes clear values and principles for the sector that include:

1. Vision and mission driven: Work in this sector is mission driven, not market driven. This means that surpluses are reinvested in the community in the form of additional services or increased quality. The altruistic purpose can lead to greater trust and engagement of marginalized individuals, families and communities. Our vision implies a commitment to working towards sustainable economic, environmental and community development.
2. Independence: This means exercising the right of people to associate and organize themselves and others, independent of the State.
3. Social justice: The sector strives to make a difference and promote lasting social, environmental, political and economic change. It does this independent of the State, expressing the right of people to associate and organize themselves and others.
4. Diversity, dignity and respect: Recognising and celebrating diversity and viewing this as a strength on which we can build our social structure. This also means a commitment to taking account of individual needs and circumstances and developing integrity in relationships.
5. Responsiveness and flexibility: The sector can provide quality services and be more responsive to emerging or unrecognized needs. Not-for-Profit organisations are not subject to the same political imperatives and do not necessarily share the same silo structure as government organisations. They can respond holistically and flexibly to the full range of needs of the individuals they support.
6. Participation and Empowerment: Those we serve can participate and be represented in management structures, policy and program development and service delivery processes – this can be an empowering process. A long term commitment to an issue or client group or community brings a potent history that can support a capacity to search for new understandings of social issues of ways of addressing them. The altruistic mission generates goodwill which mobilizes additional human and material resources which can build community cohesion and social capital.
7. Innovation: A capacity for innovation that includes the ability to anticipate new needs and respond more effectively to entrenched inequality.

In many ways, therefore, the values that motivated me in the early years of my career are mirrored in this analysis of those held in the not-for-profit sector in Australia today (ACOSS, 2011). No doubt each of you will hold other values inherent in the work of our sector that serve as a guiding light in the work that you do.

Table of Contents

Related posts:

1. Challenging Inequality: Social Action in an Ever Changing World – The Community Sector
2. What are the values of the community sector?
3. What do the values of the community sector look like in practice?