Increasing health & wellbeing and building community capacity and resilience – Meeting Live Well Tasmania

Recently I visited with Robbin Krabbe of the community group Live Well Tasmania based in Wynyard. We spoke about our need to have significantly improved food systems, people’s mental health and well-being and how we can make changes in our economic systems that provide our incomes.

In short Live Well Tasmania aims to tackle 4 key problems with the introduction of a Community Basic Income (CBI):

1. unemployment
2. poverty, particularly inter-generational poverty, and rising costs of living
3. a non-fit for purpose welfare system
4. the lack of work that could be happening in our communities to improve life for everyone, including promoting conversations about what we value

CBI is a liveable wage paid to those who provide a good or service deemed to be directly or indirectly of benefit to society, including providing caring services, engaging in education and training, and other activities that increase health and wellbeing. Person-centred care and co-design are key principle’s of this project, such that the community in effect decides how participants are deemed eligible for the income.
Some examples of community projects that could be achieved via a CBI:
• Food Security projects – ensuring everyone has access to healthy, food, grown in environmentally friendly ways, and using the power of food for greater social connection and inclusion
• Helping kids get a better start in life, help them be lifelong learners, help families raise healthy kids
• Environmental regeneration
• Easing the housing crisis – connecting up and actively supporting house sharing such as between retiree’s and students, promoting tiny houses