Rodney Greene  (at right) is in charge of “Burnie Works”, a community collective, making change in the areas of education, employment, justice, and family wellbeing. Collective Impact concepts are as old as time, but nobody has tried to use this approach to tackle all of a community’s needs. We’re the first.

Rodney said it was clear that the local community considered its Council’s efforts to be poor: ‘We must do better!’

Local school attendance has dropped from 90% prior to Covid to 50% today. It is quite clear that many families in our community have a history of non-work generations. How can a child in such a family grasp the value of education and of gaining suitable employment?

Burnie Works coordinates actions of groups that tackle community issues in different ways, to achieve an enhanced overall outcome. One example is Books in Homes a concept that provides books-of-choice to children living in low socio-economic circumstances. Burnie Works encourages a love of reading by providing students in Burnie public primary schools with three new books of choice given to young children in each of terms 1, 2 and 4 of the school year . The kids get to keep the books. Information is included aimed at educating children and families about the uses of our local library.