# Examples of Local Projects for Better Futures

A space for collecting examples of efforts to resist the unsustainable systems we've inherited by creating alternative practices that contribute to better-futures. Unless otherwise specified, these can be assumed to be navigating contexts dominated by the social/legal/economic structures of Federal and State Governments of Australia.

Rather than an exhaustive list, this list forms part of my more general [Recommendations Snapshot](/IQ4RWwgYRVeTd2XWaBjKXw). For related projects from further afield and/or amplifying and coordinating international efforts, see the broader [Better-futures Resource Lists](/khR8lDT6Rk6HoOqFFC-z6A)

While generally connecting across multiple themes, the following are roughly sorted by the following characteristics of resisting oppression and building alternative approaches to shared futures:
- Resisting oppressive systems: projects led by people with lived experience of surviving specific forms of oppression
- Food Justice: projects focused on reducing food insecurity by ensuring equitable access to healthy, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods that are produced and distributed in environmentally sustainable ways).
- Community resilience: projects focused on cultivating community-participation, resource-sharing, cooperative practices, and collective responsibility.

Also see the set of resources for surviving the impacts of precarious housing collected in [Housing is Collective Responsibility](https://hackmd.io/tDX3bsDKTzqrkWlqjjMNCQ?view#Location-specific-resources-for-navigating-precarious-housing%E2%80%A6).

## Resisting Oppressive Systems
Projects led by people with lived experience of surviving specific forms of oppression
- [Black Rainbow](https://blackrainbow.org.au/) - investing in the futures of the Indigenous LGBTIQ+ community
- [ANTaR](https://antar.org.au/), is a national advocacy organisation dedicated specifically to the rights - and overcoming the disadvantage - of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- [RISE](https://www.riserefugee.org/) refugees, survivor and eX-detainee led collective focusing on projects and services that "aim to redress social barriers and empower Refugee, eX-detainee and Asylum seeker communities to actively participate in society" (Australia)
- [Mad Studies Network](https://madstudiesmelb.net.au/) - "brings together anyone interested in Mad Studies, mad ideas, critical thinking about mental distress, the politics of ‘mental health’, the mental health consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement and alternatives to the contemporary mental health paradigm/system."
- [The Dhadjowa Foundation](https://dhadjowa.com.au/), providing strategic, coordinated and culturally appropriate support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families whose loved ones have died in custody.
- [Democracy in Colour](https://democracyincolour.org/about/) - "a national racial and economic justice organisation led by people of colour. We run campaigns that tackle structural racism and build the power of people of colour to shape the critical issues that affect our lives."

## Food Justice
Projects & resources focused on one or more aspects of [food justice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Justice_Movement)
- [CERES](https://ceres.org.au/), "an environmental education centre, urban farm and social enterprise hub spread across four locations, linked by the Merri and Darebin Creeks on Wurundjeri Country, Melbourne"
- [Food Not Bombs (Narrm/Birraranga)](https://fnbmelb.noblogs.org/) - running since 1996, this is a collection of people who volunteer to collect, cook and deliver vegan food to the streets, to protests, fundraisers and events throughout the city. This practice is part of an international movement which has no headquarters or positions of leadership - new participants encouraged.
- [Friends of the Earth Food Co-op & Cafe](https://www.foefood.org/)
- [ASRC Food Justice Truck](https://asrc.org.au/foodjustice/)
- [Sustain](https://sustain.org.au/), a network specialising in designing and building sustainable & healthy food systems by working in partnerships with other organisations to transition to a food system that supports flourishing communities, individuals and ecosystems. They also maintain a [food system directory](https://sustain.org.au/directory/)
- [Open Food Network](https://about.openfoodnetwork.org.au/about-us/) - "encompasses the not-for-profit Open Food Foundation, our social enterprise consultancy Open Food Services, and the work done with our global Open Food Network community."
- [Moving Feast](https://movingfeast.net/projects), a collective of Victorian social enterprises which joined forces to provide culturally-appropriate food relief to vulnerable people during the pandemic and now seek to transform Victoria’s food system.
- [Melbourne Food Hub](https://melbournefoodhub.org.au/foodjustice/), an initiative to connect Victoria’s food growers, makers and eaters through a shared appreciation and respect for the region’s people and resources
- [Sustainable Table](https://sustainabletable.org.au/about-sustainable-table/), an environmental not-for-profit raising awareness for the connection between the food production/distribution and the state of the planet
- [Cornerstone Network](https://cornerstorenetwork.org.au/mobile-cafe) focuses on "preserving the future through the provision of food, economic and environmental justice" while selling coffee beans, preserves, and offering a mobile cafe for hire.
- [Sustainable food system research project](https://sustainable.unimelb.edu.au/research/research-projects/sustainable-food-systems) led by Dr Rachel Carey and Professor Christine Parker (also see the associated [Foodprint Melbourne project](https://fvas.unimelb.edu.au/research/projects/foodprint-melbourne/about/about-new))

## Building Community Resilience
A sample of projects focused on cultivating community-participation, resource-sharing, cooperative practices, and collective responsibility.
- [Seed Mob](https://www.seedmob.org.au/), an Indigenous youth climate network which is building a movement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people for climate justice with the [Australian Youth Climate Coalition](https://www.aycc.org.au/) - youth-run organisation to build a movement leading solutions to the climate crisis.
- [Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation](https://www.firesticks.org.au/about/), an Indigenous led network and aims to re-invigorate the use of cultural burning by facilitating cultural learning pathways to fire and land management. It is an initiative for Indigenous and non- Indigenous people to look after Country, share their experiences and collectively explore ways to achieve their goals.
- [Earthworker Cooperative](https://earthworkercooperative.com.au/) - "a network of worker-owned cooperatives committed to sustainable enterprise throughout Australia. We believe social and environmental exploitation are intertwined, and that the problems of climate change, job insecurity and growing inequality must be tackled simultaneously, through greater grassroots economic ownership."
- [First Nations Hub](https://www.firstnationshub.net.au/), providing a culturally safe, co-working space to advance grassroots campaigns for Country and Victorian Aboriginal community.
- [Castlemain Community Investement Fund](https://castlemaine.coop/), a project for people to work together to purchase and manage local properties, taking them out of the speculative real estate market to make them community owned for good.
- [COVID-19 Queer Aid Naarm/Melbourne](https://queeraidmelbourne.org/) - volunteers coordinating grassroots solidarity support for anyone who is quarantined, self-isolating, or at high risk from COVID-19
- Brunswick [Maker Community](https://makercommunity.org.au/): a volunteer run not-for-profit [makerspace](https://www.makerspaces.com/what-is-a-makerspace/) with resources across a range of techniques for creating, constructing, and repairing the objects that form part of our everyday lives - including woodworking, textiles, electronics, digital fabrication , metal work, etc.,
- [Brunswick Tool Library](https://www.brunswicktoollibrary.org/): a physical tool library in Melbourne set-up to reduce the need to buy.

###### tags: `resource-sets` `commoning` `naarm`
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Return to [Better-futures Resource Lists](/khR8lDT6Rk6HoOqFFC-z6A)

This resource set is being curated in an on-going process. It is being created on [lands of the Wurundjeri people](/@Teq/BJ-WElpWD) by [E. T. Smith](https://hackmd.io/@Teq/Bio) (2021) and is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>.