Extending Opportunity To All
a blueprint to eliminate poverty in
South Australia
PLEASE NOTE: the Closer Than You Think campaign has now ended under that name. Visit www.sacoss.org.au/blueprint to download the final iteration of the Blueprint document, Blueprint for the eradication of poverty in South Australia, published December 2007.
On
Thursday 29 September 2005, SACOSS officially released its blueprint for the
elimination of poverty in South Australia, entitled Extending Opportunity to All.
Taking South
Australia’s Strategic Plan as its catalyst, the blueprint outlines
targets for 2015 that, when achieved, will represent an end to poverty and disadvantage
in South Australia.
Download
the blueprint by clicking on the links at the bottom of this page.
SACOSS has identified five areas where action can be taken
to tackle the fundamental causes of poverty in this state, and the blueprint
lists key issues and associated targets for each of these themes: income;
employment, education & training; health and wellbeing; housing; and social
participation.
“A
successful society is one that enables all its members to enjoy its benefits,
not just some” says Karen Grogan, SACOSS Executive Director. “SACOSS believes
that for poverty to be addressed – and currently one in four South Australians
are living in poverty – a specific social development plan is required.”
“Through its campaign, Closer Than You Think, SACOSS
has developed this blueprint to solve the problem of poverty. This plan
provides a positive vision for the sort of society we want to be living in, in
ten years’ time” says Grogan.
“South
Australia’s Strategic Plan, released by Premier Rann in March last year, intends to serve as a
goad to action and a prompt to debate on South Australia’s future, and so
SACOSS is taking up this challenge by putting forward a positive vision for a
state without poverty and, as spoken about by the Premier in launching the Plan,
‘a fair community that extends opportunity to all’. In this way, South
Australia’s Strategic Plan has served as the catalyst for our blueprint”
Grogan says.
The twenty-page blueprint had its genesis through the Closer
Than You Think poverty-awareness campaign, developed with consultation
across the community and government sectors, and in its draft form was
presented to delegates at the Closer Than You Think Conference
on
28 July 2005.
Companion documents outlining strategies to achieve the targets
set in the blueprint will be progressively developed and released over the next
few years. The first of these can be accessed below.