The Community Development Team works with individuals and groups to improve opportunities and outcomes for community members. The team does this by assisting community groups identify and access resources to deal with community problems and aspirations. The team was nominated as Council high achievers by Councillor Liz Seckold, for their work to secure a grant to develop the Healthy Communities program.
The project, known as Live Life Bega Valley, is a community-based initiative and is funded by the Australian Government. It is designed to increase the number of Bega Valley residents participating in exercise, nutrition education and other healthy lifestyle activities. All of the programs run through Live Life Bega Valley are free to community members.
The programs that have been run through Live Life Bega Valley include Healthy Eating Activity and Lifestyle (HEAL), Heart Foundation Walking groups, hula hooping classes, Indigenous healthy lifestyle program, nutrition education classes with supermarket tours, a men’s health screening program, exercise classes and gardening programs.
One of the most popular programs recently run through Live Life Bega Valley was our Street Share program. This is an innovative approach to increasing people’s ability to grow high quality fruit and vegetables throughout the year. Street Share invites people to gather a group of friends and neighbours and establish food gardens in their own backyards, participate in a food gardening program, learn how to compost, plan what to grow together, share surplus food and prepare meals.
The Community Development team is led by the Manager Community Services, Simon Schweitzer, and consists of a range of community development officers in various roles including: migrant and multicultural services, youth, healthy communities, Aboriginal liaison, volunteering and committees. The team also has an energetic trainee working across all the project areas.
The Community Development team is made up of people from a range of professional backgrounds and this provides great depth and diversity. As a team, we think it is important to keep each other in the loop and are willing to share information, knowledge and experience. In a small team like ours it is important to be flexible and willing to share responsibilities and help out on each others’ projects.
Being able to get community projects up and running and seeing the positive impacts they have in our community is the most satisfying part of working in the team. We understand the importance of networking and encouraging community participation in the development of our projects. We believe community members are more likely to support initiatives that have been developed from within the community, rather than those that have been imposed from the outside. Good community development work capitalises on the people, skills and assets within a community.
We talk openly about the things that most need to be discussed and at times engage in passionate and productive debates to work through issues. We also have a lot of fun working together and are very supportive of each other.
The Bega Valley Shire is an isolated and ageing community, and is also considered to be a low socio-economic area. The nature of the shire presents challenges for the team in getting sustainable community development initiatives going. The distance to travel to town is a constraint for people living outside main towns.
Limited transport options can also lead to social isolation. Young people in particular are more isolated in the community due to the spread of townships. The need to have access to a car or public transport is important for young people to be actively engaged in the community. Another challenge is the limited access to specialised medical services within the shire and the need to travel outside the region. Access to specialist services such as paediatricians, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and clinical psychologists is limited.
The need to encourage a greater range of social activities, entertainment opportunities and recreational spaces for young people has been identified through Council consultations. There is an opportunity for community groups to work together to provide young people with places to hang out, such as youth spaces or community skate parks.
The formation of the Bega Valley Shire Youth Council has been central to Council’s efforts to increase recognition of young people in the shire. The Youth Council has proactively consulted with young people, bringing attention to youth issues and implementing projects that respond to the needs of young people.
The Community Development team employs a number of strategies to help facilitate our community work. We are flexible in our approach to meeting with the community; we hold events where there is appropriate access for people with disabilities, occasionally provide childcare and even arrange transport options.
