Hume City Council has taken on the role of supporting the community to achieve outcomes which are beyond Council’s direct influence. It is doing this by assisting concerned members of the community to advocate on their own behalf.
The ‘How to Influence Change in your Community’ series of workshops attracted a range of Hume residents. They learned how to target campaigns, and effectively use media and other outlets to achieve changes in their local community.
Guest speakers from successful action groups addressed the sessions offering the benefit of their successes and failures. Manager City Planning Margaret Abbey said the workshops have brought far reaching benefits to the community, most importantly, empowering people to undertake action on their own behalf.
In matters of concern to the wider community Council takes on the advocacy role. Recent examples include pressing for one of the City’s principal north south traffic routes, Pascoe Vale Road, widened to ease traffic flows.
A second is working towards finding an alternative route to the favoured airport railway link proposal which is routed through much of the key open space areas of Hume. Council organised public meetings on both issues, helping people to formulate letters, petitions and other actions to assist their cause.
While both matters are still being pursued, Council has also organised follow up workshops and training sessions for participants in the ‘How to Influence Change in Your Community’ to assist them in having an effective voice in determining developments in their area.
“Many residents have been assisted in knowing how they can go about having their voices heard to bring change or resist activities which have a negative impact on them,” Margaret Abbey said. She said the strategy had been very successful.
The proposed airport rail route, having been chosen initially on the basis of cost effectiveness, is now recognised as having greater costs associated with the loss of open space and community amenity. Feedback from the training sessions has been highly positive with participants requesting more and longer sessions.
