STORIES OF Experience: learning from the environmental experiences of older Australians

We have recently published a book of 24 short stories celebrating the practices, innovations and wisdom of older people…stories about surviving hardship and self-sufficiency. Mend and make do, thrift and sharing were a major part of life well before recycling, environmentalism and plasma television sets. Up-to-date environmental information with each story suggests a change or action all of us can make. Stories of Experience costs just $10 – including postage please click here for an order form If you would like more information about this project please click here: Stories of Experience info

More stories Following on from the approach taken in the development of Stories of Experience, Meg Bishop is working on a community development project based around residents of Housing NSW accommodation telling their stories of living in public housing. For many there is a stigma attached with this but a real sense of community is evident in many public housing estates and the value of people telling their stories is inestimable. A very rewarding project.

...and more stories We have conducted a story writing workshop at Canterbury Council Library and a number of public libraries have expressed interest in similar story telling projects. We expect some of these to commence in the near future. To see what Canterbury did please click here

About us

Real Options is a small, successful consultancy based in Huskisson at Jervis Bay on the South Coast of New South Wales. Much of our work is in the areas of community services and natural resource management. The company was established in 1997 by principals Meg Bishop and Graeme Gibson.

Graeme has experience and qualifications in adult and community education and training, action research and community participation. He has many years experience in working with young people and has recently built a bure in Fiji where he hopes to spend time writing.
To see information about our bure in Fiji click here

Meg has experience and qualifications in education, training and social research. She has been a teacher, a farmer, an environmental educator and has a strong interest in community development.
to see Meg’s CV click here.

Our approach

At Real Options we take pride in providing a professional, flexible and realistic approach. We will work with you to:

• identify your needs
• consult with your target audience
• develop submissions and apply for funding (where appropriate)
• design a program that works for you and has stakeholder support and ownership
• evaluate and report on the work done

Along with providing professional and successful programs this approach will help to develop your organisations skills base and increase your capacity and efficiency.

We balance experience, theory, practice and creativity to produce programs based on community development, sustainability and action learning. Our values are trust, respect, sharing, celebrating difference and an ethical approach.

We feel our best jobs are where we can work together with our clients and their stakeholders to produce work that is both worthwhile and makes a difference. Last but certainly not least we believe that an important outcome is to have fun while we learn.