A Career Advice Australia Local Community Partnership and Shoalhaven City Council have successfully developed and implemented an Adopt a School program. With 22 Year 10 students from Nowra High School participating, it aimed to promote interest in careers in town planning.
The program involved students creating and designing a new living area in West Nowra, Mundamia, and presenting their ideas to Council.
The success of the Mundamia town planning project has encouraged Council to use the same model of school engagement to interest students in environmental health.
The model that Shoalhaven City Council used for the Mundamia town planning project involved strategic planning staff visiting the Mundamia site with the students to see the area first hand and to view some of the constraints and opportunities that the site would be likely to present. These considerations included roads and access considerations, environmental constraints, fire hazards and a possible shopping centre development.
Council staff then attended the school to help the students develop masterplans for the project.
The project ran for nine weeks and students were broken into three teams. They were given resources including plans and policies on town planning and were able to contact a Council Town Planner via email to address any questions or issues. Each team then delivered a PowerPoint presentation of their plans to Council for consideration. As the Mundamia project was the first like it to run in Shoalhaven, Council staff took great interest in the project and worked well together with the students to make a success of the experience.
Former Shoalhaven City Mayor, Councillor Greg Watson, said this program provided two major outcomes for the City and the students.
“Firstly, we’ve helped to create interest among students about looking at Local Government when they consider a career, and secondly, we’ve helped to generate interest among students on how to design, plan and create a future living area that is attractive to and usable for all people in our society,” Councillor Watson said.
Further benefits for students of running a school engagement project like this include gaining skills in considering the needs of people moving to the area; understanding how government agencies are involved in the planning process; learning how to research, understand and implement the planning process; gaining experience in conducting community consultations; and gaining experience in formal presentations.
Council’s Director of Strategic Planning, Ernie Royston, said the project gave students a fantastic opportunity to grasp some of the more important town planning issues, such as how to provide housing along with sporting venues, or social venues, or commercial opportunities in the area.
“This will give students the unique experience of planning a future living area and presenting their ideas and concepts to Council,” Ernie Royston said. “They will also gain invaluable feedback on their ideas.”
He also indicated that Council staff were extremely impressed with the performance of the students.
Shoalhaven is in the planning stages of reusing this model of student engagement to encourage students to consider a career in environmental health and to promote environmental health as a primary concern for the area.
Visit the Shoalhaven City Council website for more information at www.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au
*Copy supplied by Government Skills Australia
