Community driven projects usually focus on a single goal – a new recreation facility, youth centre or a city farm is about as far as they go. That’s why the scope of the Maddington Kenwick Sustainable Communities Partnership is mind boggling. A Community Leadership Network (CLN) has been set up to include and involve the entire community throughout a five year plan to revitalise the City of Gosnells suburbs of Maddington and Kenwick.
The project includes development of a new town centre, employment areas, good road and rail networks and quality streetscapes. It will encourage housing diversity, improved natural assets, upgraded infrastructure and a safety focused urban design.
Further than that, at the end of the five years when the project plan has been put into action, the CLN won’t simply be abolished. Instead, it will continue working to support a strong, sustainable, revitalised community. It is focusing on a 20 year horizon, putting in place the changes today that will improve the quality of life for the families of tomorrow.
Endorsed by the Premier of Western Australia, Geoff Gallop, the Maddington Kenwick Sustainable Communities Partnership is a feature of the State Government’s Sustainability Strategy, ‘Hope for the Future’. This model regeneration partnership will form the basis for Perth’s future urban regeneration planning, and already the State Government is looking to establish similar partnerships with other Local Governments.
City of Gosnells Chief Executive Officer, Stuart Jardine, said the City would make sure the project delivered sustainability at a grassroots level, with tangible social, environmental and economic benefits for everyone.
“From a social sustainability point of view, grassroots feedback from the community has enabled a practical plan to be developed,” he said.
Maddington Kenwick has one of the highest rates of socio economic disadvantage in Perth. The community profile developed during the first stage of the project indicated that the Maddington Kenwick community had limited experience in actively participating in governance. It was used to relying on government intervention and lacked the confidence to participate. But the community showed a strong desire to learn the skills and knowledge they needed to guide the future for Maddington and Kenwick.
The Partnership looked to the Action and Implementation Plan community engagement programme as a way to find the true current community leaders, the quiet achievers and the well connected members of the community who had shown a strong desire and ability to ‘get things done’.
More than 600 people provided feedback to the Plan and from this the CLN was born. Today, the CLN comprises 60 active community members who fall into two groups:
- Core Group: who provide detailed and ongoing advice and input into the Partnership and donate considerable amounts of time to leading the community’s involvement in the Action and Implementation Plan.
- The Friends of Maddington Kenwick: a group of community members who support the Core Group by contributing to public participation programmes, and event management.
Supported by ongoing facilitation and training, the ultimate objective is to build community skills to a point where the CLN can continue to work in the community’s interest without the Partnership’s support.
Details of the Maddington Kenwick Sustainable Communities Partnership are available online at www.gosnells.wa.gov.au
