Human nature has been sold short. Humans have a higher nature which includes the need for meaningful work, for responsibility, for creativeness, for being fair and just, for doing what is worthwhile and for preferring to do it well. (Abraham Maslow)
My current writing commission has taken me into the world of work and welfare, and it has been quite a dive into the deep end. Westgate Community Initiatives Group (WCIG) has 38 years of history, and as it looks to future directions, wants to capture its origins: how does its DNA from the past shape and inform its current form and vision?
With a change of leadership, and emerging from the challenges of Covid-19, WCIG is searching for its stories. ‘Strategy story’ is a well-known business tool for exploring the past to inform the future, and that is the essence of my commission. As part of the project, WCIG wants a book written that will capture the origins of the organisation, trace its history and developments and highlight the values that have remained over the years that drive it today. Just a small project!
WCIG is a community-based, not-for-profit organisation committed to improving lives through practical responses to unemployment and disadvantage, and is one of many employment services competing for government contracts and partnerships that will provide openings for people who find it hard to get a job. There are all sorts of reasons for this: health, discontinued employment experience, lack of qualifications, mental challenges, physical disabilities, language challenges and age and many more. These factors all make it more difficult to find meaningful jobs.
So where to start? My previous non-fiction books have been about people or organisations that I have known well or with whom I had a personal connection. This project is a little more challenging.
I have one slender thread of connection: my brother, Ross Langmead, as a pastor at the Westgate Baptist Community in the 1980s, was challenged by the needs in the western suburbs, and wanted the church to reach out and help in some way. Employment opportunities were the main goal, but WBC also established housing and medical facilities which still operate. Ross and his colleagues started the Westgate Delivery Service with a discarded truck that provided a few jobs. Soon after, computer skills were identified as useful (early days in the 80s), and Compuskill was launched in 1986 and grew quickly. This active organisation widened and became a gift to the community.
Today it has become the WCIG, with over 250 staff, 40 hubs, and no longer confined to the west; need is increasingly everywhere. To my surprise, there is a hub down the road from my home on the Mornington Peninsula!
So, my brother’s story is where I began. How have I gone about writing the history? To start with, records from the early Compuskill days, Baptist archives, and interviews with those who remember the beginning. Then WCIG has Annual Reports (with some frustrating gaps), and from 2010, digital reports on the internet. The best part of these are the stories and interviews with clients as well as staff over the years. I am also enjoying visiting hubs to feel the vibe. Some fresh insights are coming from the replies to a survey sent out to current staff.
Has WCIG changed? Well, that will be in the book! Of course it has, but it has been fascinating to trace the values and motivations of those who find it more than a job. Many current staff say it is a calling, requires passion, and most of all, that they love to serve their clients.
I have written about 24,000 words and am up to 2019, just before Covid hit. I have been drawn into the history of employment services, the ideologies and government policies which drive them, and the constant flexibility needed to respond to these and the current climate. I have been down many rabbit holes researching anything from Work for the Dole to the recent Job Keeper stimulus. In the end, it comes down to how we view the dignity of each human being; a little caring assistance can give people the step up they need to find and keep a job. This changes lives. It’s been a journey of discovery and admiration, and I hope I can capture that.
No-one else has read my work yet, and I am nervous about the accuracy of my work; careful editing will be needed down the track. But I love the power of story writing and have discovered that many current staff do not know much about the origins of their organisation. I trust that it will be enjoyable and informative reading for them when this project is published next year and that WCIG will continue to flourish and thrive in its mission.
Now, back to work!