Debbie Carstens

I am excited by the opportunity to bring RBA processes and principles to community planning work with neighbourhood centres and communities. While it is a new challenge for me, I can draw on a range of experiences I have had in other fields.

I have been involved in community development and community organizing work in Queensland, NSW and overseas in South Korea for over 25 years. In South Korea I worked with passionate people using community organizing to support the development of the progressive trade union movement. It inspired the work I have done with others over the last 18 years to establish and develop Asian Women at Work in Sydney, an organization of migrant women workers in precarious employment with over 1600 members. Through its community building and leadership development work, many Asian women workers in precarious employment have found their voice and successfully challenged decision makers to respond to their issues. We also established the FairWear Campaign in NSW, addressing the exploitation of outworkers in the clothing industry.

While working as a community worker at Maitland Neighbourhood Centre, my participation in a Community Visioning process using RBA™ to engage community members in visioning and planning sparked my interest in this current project.

I am passionate about social justice and empowering the voiceless wherever they may be, and see community development and community organizing as important processes for achieving this. I would love to see neighbourhood centres further developing this aspect of their work.