Co-operative to aid poor, unemployed

Press, 7 December 1988, Page 9

Co-operative to aid poor, unemployed

By

DEBORAH McPHERSON

An innovative inner-city co-operative is helping poor and unemployed east Christchurch residents pool their resources to ward off economic gloom.

A food co-operative, a labour pool and a women’s support network have already been established as a result of the efforts of the community development group, which is based in a house in Gloucester Street. The support group was originally initiated by the Anglican City Mission after surveys in the area two years ago showed a need to address the poverty and unemployment issues.

The group is now autonomous and is comprised mostly of interested residents, aged from their early 20s to 40s, who live in the eastern corridor between Madras Street and Stanmore Road. A community worker for the mission and the groups’ facilitators, Ms Jenny Smith, said the “village concept” was to provide a supportive caring community. It was also a political statement against the traditional definitions

of work. The eastern inner city and Linwood areas had some of the highest unemployment rates in Christchurch, said Ms Smith. The Statistics Department’s 1986 census showed more than 800 of more than 11,000 people were unemployed in those two areas. “We have a lot of unemployed people in the group aged in their 30s to 40s who feel like they have been thrown on the

scrap heap because of the lack of paid work. “Society puts so much emphasis on who you are because of what you do. But if you are no longer able to do that paid work, because society does not provide that employment, then you will feel excluded.” The village cottage group was in the process of setting up its own labour pool, which would provide a cheap house-

hold and gardening service, particularly to the elderly. The food co-operative bought produce at the growers’ direct markets, which was then sold to people in the area. It worked out cheaper than buying it in supermarkets, said Ms Smith. A women’s support network and community creche were other initiatives from the group.