Gardens bring a sense of community
IT IS a big call but I’m going to make it.
The Toowoomba Region officially has the most beautiful gardens of any waste management facility (politically correct speak for dump or tip) in Australia!
Right now is our region’s time to shine. At this time of year hospitals, schools, churches, businesses of all shapes and sizes all get into the swing of things and present the very best that nature can deliver in a garden as part of our celebration of the Carnival of Flowers.
Then like every other year I dip my lid to the incredible efforts of our Council’s parks and gardens staff as they deliver beauty that never fails to catch the eye.
Then of course we have the private gardeners who each year open their hearts, homes (and wallets with little expense spared) to the Australian community to enjoy the magnificence that their creativity blending hands with soil brings to the fore. I salute you one and all.
But there is an unexpected corner of our community where nature’s beauty has broken in this year. It is a place where care, love and creativity are also on show for all to see. You won’t find it in the Chronicle’s Garden Competition Map but I reckon it should be.
I am talking about the gatehouses and entry points to a number of our region’s dumps. Staff from Ability Enterprises for some time now have been lending their green thumbs to create beautiful gardens at our local tips.
To paraphrase something Councillor Nancy Somerfield once said to me, “It might be a tip but it doesn’t have to look like a dump”. And Ability Enterprises has taken this to heart.
To my mind Ability Enterprises is a prize winning garden in the backyard of our region’s businesses. (Declaration of interest – I am proudly the Chair of Ability Enterprises Board of Directors).
Ability Enterprises is a not for profit social enterprise business that was established in November 2012 to provide employment opportunities for people who face barriers to employment, with a particular emphasis on people with a lived experience of mental illness.
Over time the company has broadened its definition of barriers to employment to include physical disabilities, refugees and Indigenous people.
Ability Enterprises runs the gatehouses to your dumps. Many of their employees have been socially excluded, homeless, poor, suicidal and without hope. Ability Enterprises has never accessed any government funding to assist in its operations or job creation.
Staff are paid full award wages. The company is a business, not a charity. One of their key values is excellence and between January and August of this year they served over 210000 customers with a complaint rate of 0.002 % that’s world class!
This excellence can be seen in the pride taken and shown through the gardens at the tip gatehouses. Do not for a second think that this is a warm and fuzzy ‘easy gig’.
The barriers to employment for some in our community are immense and the work that the staff at Ability do to support new employees is second to none.
One employee reported applying for more than 450 jobs last year. This employee received just three letters informing them that they were unsuccessful. The dignity of work is a key part of the human experience.
It brings with it a sense of belonging, a sense of pride and a sense of contributing to the common good. These are the flowers Ability is growing in the backyard of our region’s economy.
This Friday Councillors Cahill and Somerfield will be judging the very best of our tip’s gardens. My money’s on the Crows Nest Gatehouse.