Wards of the State

In RAGE I talk about friends that became Wards of the State. Basically they were taken from their families and put into institutions because the Child Welfare Department decided they were uncontrollable or in moral danger. In the institutions, like Turana and Winlayton they found themselves with disturbed or traumatised children and the government tested drugs on them.

Now the State Government is acknowledging the damage and has started a fund for the 'Forgotten' Wards of the State. If you were in any Governement home in the 60s and 70s ring 1800 779 379. The support worker at Open Place will find your file, help you with your application and will discuss how the life skills program can "assist the unique circumstances of each Forgotten Australian".

For a three year period, they offer $1500 towards Medical/dental/glasses etc and $1500 towards life skills each year for that three years, they are currently in year two, so potentially you can access $6000

Life skills cover things like

• Employment skills (eg: basic computer, endorsed driving licence, etc)
• Life skills (eg: cooking,reading, writing, maths)
• Recreation skills (gym membership, music lessons)
• Applications may include a request for funding for equipment, courses, books and/or related materials.

Also, there is a travel re-union fund

http://www.openplace.org.au/Home

If you were in these places, think about contacting them and contact me if you would like me to help navigate the red tape and public servants.

Get some guitar lessons to be the rockstar you always knew you were, dancing lessons, etc think of the hobbies and activites you missed out on because of the situation.

We are getting old, get your eyes checked and/or new glasses, or your teeth whitened, or a walking stick to smack someone over the head with!

Logies Legend

The following is in this month's Victorian Writer Magazine. 90% of me is posting it because it's funny, 9% is posting it because I want to brag and 1% because I don't post enough on the blog.

Comedy, comment and overcoming procrastination.
I admire strong Victorian women like Vali Myers, Chrissy Amphlette, Joan Kirner and Phryne Fisher. Women with attitude. I found Catherine Deveny in late 2009 when I read her Doncaster/Manpower column on The Age website and I frowned thinking, 'Who is this woman? She is brutal.' A peek at her website displayed an attractive brunette with red lippy and matching sequined dress. My kinda gal. This thought was further confirmed when I spied her in another fabulous red dress at the Melbourne Writers Festival, with a pack of admiring males tripping over themselves to keep up with her glamorous stilettoed stride from BMW Edge to the book signing table in the Atrium at Federation Square.

The resilient women that grow up in our bluestone suburbs of hard knocks are interesting and fascinating, so I signed up for Comedy, Comment and Overcoming Procrastination, ready to sit back and be entertained by this Reservoir chick.

During the round-the-table introductions, somehow Catherine individually probed our souls with a laser sharp skill that revealed our genres and then with a Jedi like mind trick, commanded us to complete 1000 words for the next session. 1000 words, or don‚t bother coming back!

Using secret subliminal trigger words like schooligans, turdlock and corporate maggots, there was not one grumble from the stunned participants (aged from 20 to 70) as we were given a high voltage jump-start to write ˜ ŒWrite in the nude‚ and Œsing from the heart‚ on a Œrandom creative adventure with no fixed outcome‚ other than to work on our Œwriting fitness‚.

We received our orders. Write first. Write before morning coffee, write before your shower and with other tips on smashing the obstacles of procrastination and rude domestic interruptions to our creativity, every writer easily met the challenge and captured their 1000 words. Our reward? The punishing task of reducing our masterpiece to 500 words.

It was then I realised that calling the course Comedy, Comment and Overcoming Procrastination was a trick to semi-imprison me in a Writers‚ Boot-camp with a literary dominatrix. I couldn‚t wait to go back for more.

Julie Mac is the author of RAGE A Sharpie‚s Journal Melbourne 1974-1980‚ and the contact for Williamstown Writers‚ Group and membership officer for Authors Australia Inc. for independently published writers.

Catherine's response : Well done class slut. Great to hear from you.

I am sure I will bump into you somewhere. I expect you'll be giving a wristy to a dero for a couple of fags.

OMG I have arrived!