Our Society was formally established on 8 March 1981 and was known as the “Sydney Chinese Child Care and Community Co-operative Society Ltd.” Its goal was to seek government funding to establish a Child Care Centre to provide child care service to the Chinese community.
The project faced hurdles right from the beginning. However, our Society did not give up and initiated a telephone referral service. The service brought good outcomes and gained the recognition of the relevant government department. In late 1984, our Society was awarded funding to buy the Campsie Kindergarten which was renamed to Campsie Child Care Centre. On 29 March 1987, the then Federal Minister, Hon. Tom Uren, officially opened the Centre at a ceremony. This milestone marked our Society’s achievement in its founding aim of establishing a Child Care Centre.
From its establishment to 1987, it took our Society 6 years of hard work to achieve its goal of “establishing a Child Care Centre”. Regrettably, some directors of our Board who had dedicated themselves to our Society’s work in its initial difficult period felt that they had already accomplished our Society’s mission and decided to leave the team for various reasons.
This was a common phenomenon for many community organizations. Many founding members with shared missions fought together to achieve the organization’s establishment goals, but once those goals were achieved, some would leave the organization while new members would join, who had different visions and the organization gradually drifted away from its original direction and lost its continuity.
In Henry’s view, an energetic community organization would not stop at achieving one mission. It would respond to emerging community needs and continued to develop services. He gathered our Society’s Board members, friends and volunteers to discuss what the organization needed to do.
On 15 August 1987, they gathered to share their views and canvass suggestions. They agreed on the following:
- Continue to work on establishing a Child Care Centre in the Sydney CBD near Chinatown, fulfilling the original mission;
- While The Australian Chinese Community Association (ACCA) had obtained government funding from 1979 to provide settlement services in the Chinese community, there is strong and increasing needs for settlement services in the community, including information sessions, form filling, helping community members to understand English documents and helping new migrants with issues relating to medical, education and welfare. This is an area our Society could venture into.
- There is increasing need for elderly services. The Society should actively work with other amicable organizations, such as Chinese Youth League, to develop services for seniors.
- As racist remarks appeared frequently in the mainstream media, there is a need to coordinate the Chinese community with other community organizations on measures to protect the rights and interests of various communities and speak out on issues affecting the community’s rights, welfare and interests.
- Continue organising cultural and social activities to promote social harmony and interaction.
Based on the above suggestions, our Society formulated the first 5-year Corporate Plan since establishment. It provided direction for our Society’s future endeavour.
Even though there was no financial support, in 1987, a group of volunteers of our Society, including Henry and some Board members, began assisting people in form filling and reading English documents, etc. They began applying for government settlement services funding but were not successful.
🤔How did the Corporate Plan guide the development of our Society? There is more to share in the coming article!