WHAT! WHY! HOW! COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT – GET CURIOUS

Through community engagement we can create value – and expand opportunities with and for the community. The Strategic Alignment and Community Impact program day heightened our knowledge and invigorated our curiosity and left wanting to ask more questions.

The speakers showed us ways to build strategic partnerships that unite our WHY with the WHAT! WHY! HOW! of other people and organisations to work together with the community!

It appears that a fundamental component of the Leadership Great South Coast’s Community Leadership Program is gaining a comprehensive and accurate understanding of working through our values. The program challenges us to rethink at a deeper level to be acquiring and reflecting on our WHY – the compelling higher purpose that inspires us to ask people what they think about ideas, plans or proposal so they can contribute to, and influence, the decisions that affect them. This assists in clarifying the why of community engagement to contribute to sound decision making.

Community engagement is a crucial part of both public and private sector decision making. Its important to consider the whole picture of what community engagement entails before leaping straight in. It is about creating the two-way dialogue and for the collective feedback to be focussed into a decision. The level of your community engagement is based on the why and the impact of the decision on the community and the influence of the stakeholders.

Communication and Engagement Specialist, Ailiche Goddard-Clegg, had us understanding:

• • collaboration and connections
  • mobilising resources and influence systems
  • changing the relationships among partners, and
  • serving as catalysts for changing policies, programs, and practices, as we worked through a number of sample project concepts.

This elevated the discussion regarding strategic profiles and community engagement. Together they create more beneficial linkages, and the community connections improves the overall outcomes by engaging, listening, and learning from community.

Prompt questions to consider project concepts included:

What is the

• • Need
  • Opinion
  • Opportunity?

Why do it?

• • Mandates
  • Co-ownership
  • Sustainment
  • Better outcomes

How to do it?

• • Define / map
  • Engage
  • Refine
  • Communicate

Robust communication and engagement with community is a pivotal process in the planning process to ensure the plan’s long-term or overall aims, interests, and the means of achieving them are met.

Thank you to all our speakers for sharing your valuable time and knowledge.

Nigel Harper – Acting Manager Regional Operations, Regional Development Victoria, Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions. Brett Davis – CEO Moyne Shire, and Member of South West Victoria Alliance and Great South Coast Regional Partnership. Katie Hearn – Manager Community Services, Corangamite Shire. Ashish Sitoula – Manager Strategic Community Planning and Policy, Warrnambool City Council. Ailiche Goddard-Clegg – Communication and Engagement Specialist.

Jo-Anne O’Brien  2023 LGSC Participant.

Welcome to our 2023 participants

ALEXANDRA STOUPAS: Manager Operations and Workforce Systems, South West Healthcare

CATE CORBET: Business Analyst, Southern Grampians Shire Council

CATHRYN WALDER: Community Engagement Coordinator, Youth Live4Life. Sponsor: The A.L. Lane Foundation

CLAUDIA KLUNKER: Dairy Farm Manager, Rosemount Dairy Pty Ltd. Sponsor: Gardiner Foundation

COURTNEY MATHEW: Marketing & Communications Advisor, Wannon Water

EMMA SHORTIS: Lecturer, RMIT University. Sponsor: Corangamite Shire Council

JANE HINDS: Sport and Recreation Coordinator, Corangamite Shire Council

JO-ANNE O’BRIEN: Administration Officer, Warrnambool Legacy Club Inc. Sponsor: The Thomas O’Toole Foundation

MARK BARLING: IT Facilitator, Mpower

MICHAELA MEADE: Owner/Operator Dairy Farmer, Boonderoo Pastoral and Meade Livestock Carriers. Sponsor: Gardiner Foundation

MITCHELL SPENCER: Director, Broadvue Heights Pty Ltd. Sponsor: Community Bank Port Fairy and District

NICOLE WOOD: Travel Smart Officer, Warrnambool City Council

RACHEL CAMERON: Communications Officer, Corangamite Shire Council

The Arts – an underappreciated and undeniable commodity

I’ve read and heard the comment “I’m not really into art” quite a bit over the past few months. The commentary stems from a current review of the Warrnambool Art Gallery and its need for an update. What does it mean for the health and prosperity of our community when people seemingly don’t recognise the role art plays?

The contribution of the Arts to local and global economies is undeniable. At our Volunteering and Creativity Program Day Gareth Colliton, a local artist and advocate for the arts, provided a stunning comparison of the relative contribution of art to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared to that of sports. Gareth said, “the Arts contribute about 6% of GDP compared to 3% for sport”. Beyond just the financials, art is also a vital point for community reflection and growth, it is the foundation of our culture and shapes our collective identity. The retention of knowledge in song and stories by First Nations people, the iconic western Victorian landscape paintings of Von-Guerard, Streeton and Chevalier and the relatively unknown fact that Australia’s first ever sound recording was captured in Warrnambool, all point to the Great South Coast being no exception as a region defined by art.

Despite some people thinking they are not into in art, the contemporary presence and passion of the Arts in Warrnambool is on full display, through the various laneways and streetscapes around town and in the volunteer run F-Project Arts hub. The Warrnambool Art Gallery (WAG), given the right opportunity, has an impressive collection around which to grow a world class cultural institution. We only need to look at MONA (Hobart) or the Bendigo Art Gallery to see the potential opportunities this offers in terms of tourism. Investment in the Arts also motivates and attracts creative thinkers, the very people we need to keep evolving socially, and economically. The fact that some people think they are not into art makes this necessity even greater.

The program day also offered a unique insight into the workings of the SES with Bernadette Northeast, a chat with Jaimee Millar, a lunchtime chat with Dan Tehan MP, a tour of One Day Studios with Gareth and a tour of the F Project gallery and workspaces with Helen Bunyon. Thank you to all these speakers for sharing your stories and inspiring our civic participation.

Lachie Farrington, 2022 LGSC Participant.

‘ONE SIZE FITS ALL’ APPROACH TO LEARNING OUTDATED & IRRELEVANT IN 2022

Regimented regimes, lack of flexibility, poor insight into individualised learning needs and a ‘one size fits all’ approach to education is creating barriers to learning in Australia.   The Warrnambool WAVE School (WAVE) breaks down those barriers for young people aged 15-19 years, creating an inviting, comfortable learning environment where students are supported to access education and achieve successful outcomes in VCAL and their future goals.

The classroom at WAVE where our Reskilling the Region for the Future program day was held, at first glance, was not unlike any regular classroom.  However, a closer look revealed swinging egg chairs located around the room, a flexible layout and a flexible timetable allowing an individualised approach to learning for each student.

WAVE School Coordinator and Teacher Damien Farley spoke of the WAVE’s ability to reengage disengaged students in education.  Teachers at WAVE take time to get to know each student’s personal interests and support students to set goals relevant to each individual’s circumstances, interests and needs.  The teachers at WAVE school advocate for their students and work to facilitate work experience, education and employment opportunities.  The ultimate aim of each student at WAVE is to complete a VCAL program and find meaningful employment guided by the school’s support and flexible learning arrangements.

Students at WAVE often face significant barriers to accessing education.  These barriers are different for each student and include not feeling supported at ‘mainstream’ school, financial and social barriers.  Students at WAVE school are supported to feel safe, happy and cared about.   The school offers flexible hours to enable students to work, gain valuable work experience as well as attending school to complete VCAL.  The school also offers assistance with work experience and choosing subjects and a career pathway to suit each individual’s interests.

WAVE is unique in its approach to creating a flexible and welcoming learning environment which facilitates individualised learning programs and breaks down barriers to accessing education. WAVE school teachers are in touch with their students and well ahead in terms of enabling equitable access to education and being student focussed.

Sarah Irving

LGSC Participant 2022