C
olin Kerr was responsible for the winning submission
to the NFPN Awards for Partnership of the Year for the
Ngulla Community Nursery. As CEO of Bridging the
Gap, his organisation was one of the key partners and
prime movers of this successful partnership.
He explains that the Ngulla Community Nursery is an initiative
that combines a small commercial venture together with a venue
to enable community members to participate and learn about
horticulture, environment and personal development as well as
to provide training for the more disadvantaged in the community.
It takes on students who are indigenous, come from special
education schools, have other mental health issues, are on work
for the dole projects or Green Corps participants, and offers a
range of Certificate level qualifications. As such, its benefits
to the community are twofold: the provision of native plants
supports the environment whilst training supports those who are
not at ease in a standard training environment.
Bridging the Gap was initially appointed as the lead agency
and the primary partner was Peet Ltd in a joint venture with
the Department of Housing and Works. Other members of the
partnership included the Town of Kwinana, Challenger TAFE and
Medina Aboriginal Cultural Centre. In 2007 BHP Nickel West
joined as an industry partner and Challenger TAFE exited the
partnership to pursue other priorities.
For each of the partners, the partnership presented a unique
opportunity to fulfil either part of their mission, specific core
organisational goals or was undertaken as part of a corporate
community contribution program. For Bridging the Gap, whose
mission is "To develop and grow people and communities
by providing caring and innovative lifelong learning and
development opportunities and employment services" this
partnership provided an innovative way to meet these objectives.
The idea for the partnership was born when land developer
Peet Ltd, held a community meeting to present its plans for a
development in the Town of Kwinana local government area and
as part of their consultation mentioned the need to regenerate
an area of wetlands. Colin then approached them in relation to
employment opportunities within the development and it was
also suggested that a community organisation might want to
be involved in the production of plants for the venture. Medina
Aboriginal Cultural Centre then came on board and the original
concept to produce native plants for re-vegetation was extended
to include training provision. Following which Challenger TAFE
joined the group as a training provider with a view to TAFE
students using the facility.
2008 PartNershiP of the Year
ngulla Community nursery
alisha Dean recently caught up with
Colin Kerr, Ceo of Bridging the Gap,
one of the partners in the `Ngulla
Community Nursery' that won
the 2008 Not-For-Profit Network
Partnership of the Year award.
new nickel West
training room.
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