Adelaide Hills Community
The Adelaide Hills is very much about community and although there are layers of smaller communities revolving around townships, cultures, interests, faith and values there is an overriding sense of community through out the whole area. This sense of community in my experience is very much about wanting a better environment to live in, more opportunities so people can work, create & make choices, local support for those who need help at a particular moment and service & sacrifice by many to underpin the community in so many ways.
Guests from overseas are amazed at the ‘honesty boxes’ for paying for fruit & flowers at roadside stalls, the professionalism & dedication of the volunteer fire service, the levels of volunteer work put into schools and sporting clubs and the friendliness towards visitors.
Trees for Life
Trees for Life is a wonderful South Australian community organisation established in 1981 to promote and assist the revegetation of South Australia and the protection of its remnant vegetation. The organisation is unique in Australia both in its methods and its reach. Its aim to provide opportunities for people to play a part in the restoration and conservation of our natural environment has been realised and its success in this approach has been to the lasting benefit of the ecology of South Australia. We should all be most grateful for the example this organisation sets and for the work its 3000 volunteers do. I have been a member for just over 20 years now and have had the good fortune that volunteer growers have grown plants for me primarily for my revegetation works at Littlehampton.
Crowd Funding
Crowd funding provides opportunities for every section of society to contribute and benefit from this funding model. It covers but is not limited to things like development financing, property purchase funding, taking ideas to the next stage, charitable, research and creative ventures.
For myself, our first tentative step into this model was a pledge of support & then contribution to the musician, Fraser Anderson with his crowd funded ‘The Fraser Anderson Project’. Searching for funds to be able to write and produce a new music album, Fraser, who lives in Europe, used ‘crowdfunder.co.uk as the platform to manage the fundraising & used his professional & family connections to mobilise support & funds.
For all of us, the wide range of crowd funding platforms gives us a way to be involved in a way that would not have been possible before.
YackaYacka
YackaYacka is the name I have given to my property at Littlehampton in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. It is very much an oasis and in some ways an enclave for some Yacka bushes, wildflowers and for those who shelter there. It also seems to have become the base for increasing numbers of Kangaroos, Wallaroos & Euros. Koalas seem to be returning to the area as well. Revegetation has been a slow but ongoing and in many ways a rewarding aspect to life on this piece of land. Every year some plants are planted somewhere on the property, just part of the process of recovery and renewal. In 2016 I planted approx 600 seedlings from Trees for Life. It is worth noting the invaluable work done by the volunteer growers who grow these seedlings from seed.
Tours of some of the walkways & revegetation can arranged by appointment.
FIABCI
FIABCI the organisation contributes to the wider community through a series of programs. FIABCI Professional Exchanges. Through its Exchanges Committee, FIABCI helps young professionals and students in real estate to organise internships abroad.
The program allows participants to develop their skills, understand differences in real estate practices in another country and to start building their international career. Fiabci Scholarship Foundation. The FIABCI Scholarship Foundation is an international initiative focused on supporting the future careers of our younger generation throughout the world. The Foundation is a nonprofit corporation to provide grants to students who demonstrate an interest in international real estate who are enrolled in a FIABCI member university. FIABCI & International Organisations. Sustainability & Environmental Issues, The UN Global Compact Cities Program, The Doing Business Report of the World Bank, International Property Measurement Standards and the International Ethics Coalition. FIABCI and the United Nations. Consistent work with the United Nations since 1954 reveals FIABCI’s firm and lasting commitment to real property issues. FIABCI expands its influence through its vital work with the United Nations participating in programs that make a positive impact throughout the world. FIABCI is the only real estate association to hold NGO special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).