In the not too distant
past, the government's involvement in supporting the needs of society
gave rise to a "welfare state" that has been plagued by inefficient,
wasteful and impersonal bureaucracy. Things are changing, and for the
better. The principle of subsidiarity is acknowledged and, for some
years now, there has been a creative approach to personalising and fine
tuning social services so that they are better designed to target and
serve the needs of people in difficulty.
The recent setting up
of a local community centre in Valletta that provides a one-stop shop
for persons with social problems is a most welcome step and it
underscores this almost revolutionary approach in helping the community.
The setting up of the
centre complements the services already initiated by the local council.
With the purpose of promoting the welfare of local residents, the
Valletta local council had unanimously adopted the novel idea of setting
up the Valletta Community Network (VCN), managed by a community worker.
It focused on the needs of three groups: children and youth; the elderly
and adults with social problems. More importantly, it did so in an
innovative way by harnessing and concentrating the energies of the NGOs,
parish organisations, government departments, etc. already working in
the locality.
As local councillor
Alexei Dingli explained recently, the VCN aims to cultivate a more
effective and harmonious relationship between the various organisations
so that, through closer collaboration and sharing of the resources
available, they can increase their effectiveness. This enables
individual organisations to achieve greater results yet retain their
autonomy.
The main purpose of the
VCN is to change the leaden approach of treating people in need as
passive recipients of aid. Its aim is to involve the people they serve,
to enable them bring about their own change, to help them assume their
responsibility in their community while making them aware of their
rights.
This open-ended,
democratic and inclusive approach has enhanced and triggered off
programmes that seem to be self generating as they come to grips with
the challenges and problems that are unique to each location and
community.
One hopes the VCN will
continue to be of service and consolidate its structure and, most
importantly, retain its independence as it identifies the networks of
services that are increasingly available to Valletta's community.
Meanwhile, this
holistic approach has now been reinforced by the setting up of the new
community centre by the government. This shows there is much to be
gained by voluntary organisations working hand in hand with the
government. This promotes the philosophy of making social services more
user friendly, more cost effective and, overall, more successful in
coming to grips with the complex range of problems that thwart the more
underprivileged from realising their potential and self worth.
Valletta mayor, Paul
Borg Olivier, greets the setting up of this centre with enthusiasm and
optimism that is also shared by Joe Gerada, the CEO of the Foundation
for Social Welfare Services, who, in turn, rightly insists that this is
the correct manner in which to tackle social problems.
One hopes this venture
will encourage other local councils to follow suit and will lead to the
setting up of similar decentralised services effectively addressing the
social needs of communities all over the island.
