Earles, Wendy (2007) Organisation or idea: the story of Yaandina. Third Sector Review, 13 (2). pp. 87-103.

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Abstract

For some, Yaandina is an organisation. For many, Yaandina is an idea. The Yaandina story started with nuns from a local order, and then nurses from a local hospital. These individuals, alongside community volunteers, cared for children in need in troubled times. The telling flows to include dedicated and visionary community members caring for children, and progressively a range of community groups, as paid workers under the loose auspices of the state. As the state changed, the story changed - and the telling now includes a non-profit organisational story.

Yaandina is now a multi-function and multi-finder community service organisation that operates, at times still precariously, as an incorporated association in a small town in the north-west of Australia. Yaandina, as an idea, has operated in many organisational forms for over thirty years. This period encompassed many waves of 'reform' for the community services, the public sector and the non-profit sector. Yaandina morphed as and when its supporters believed it should or when its opponents forced the issue.

The story of Yaandina needs to be heard. As a practice sector, organisational stories - especially stories of survival- are our practice wisdom (theory). They should be handed down to newcomers and used to argue for good practice with those that seek to denigrate or ignore such wisdom. As an industry sector, the new raft of reforms aimed at strengthening non-profit organisations or building organisational capacity would suggest that many of our organisations are in trouble or, at the very least, not formed in such a way as to efficiently deliver the agenda of the government of the day. If we are to critique and effectively change these agendas, we should be learning from. our organisational practice as much as our service practice.

Item ID:	2242
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1323-9163
Keywords:	non-profit; organisational change; Indigenous; non-profit organisational change, practice wisdom; community service reform
Date Deposited:	27 May 2009 23:23
FoR Codes:	16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1607 Social Work > 160702 Counselling, Welfare and Community Services @ 100%
SEO Codes:	94 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 9401 Community Service (excl. Work) > 940199 Community Service (excl. Work) not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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