Father Dave

Name: Rev. David Bruce Smith

City: Dulwich Hill

Occupation: Parish Priest, Fight Club Manager, Bush Camp Manager, Webmaster

Twitter: @FatherDave

Blog(s):
www.fatherdave.org/article

www.fatherdave.org/news

Bio:

Anglican priest, martial arts master, professional boxer, community worker, social justice campaigner, father of four.

Three University degrees, eight black belts and various community awards for work with at-risk youth – twice awarded citizen of the year, twice nominated Australian of the year.

Parish priest in Dulwich Hill since 1990, started Father Dave’s Fight Club 1991, Trinitys Youth Centre 1994, Order of the Fighting Fathers 1996, Binacrombi Bush Retreat in 2003.

Built first website (www.fatherdave.org) in 2001. Currently 244 sites

Why I want to be an outreach blogger:

I believe in the new world coming, and I believe in making a difference for the poor and the marginalised in the here and now.

I have found the web to be an incomparable tool for giving voice to the voiceless. Those of us without money and power cannot compete with the mainline media on their own terms, but on the NET the boy with the bent pin can still beat the professional angler, and an intelligent blogger can still publish unpopular truths and make the world sit up and take notice.

I’ve spent most of my life working with marginalised persons in my own community and raising funds to alleviate poverty in developing communities. In recent years though I‘ve become increasingly aware that the deepest problems facing developing countries require more than charitable funds alone to achieve real and lasting change.

I believe that change can happen when the powerless are give a voice, and that the phenomenon of social networking gives marginalised persons an unprecedented opportunity to share their stories. I believe too that my own experience both on the web, in social welfare and cross-cultural work makes me uniquely well suited to help facilitate that work.