Ambassadors are bringing a grassroots call to action to residents and traders in Coburg’s Sydney Road trading precinct, putting a helpful face to the push for a cleaner, healthier central city.
The Ambassadors pick up litter, chat with locals and keep the conversation about city improvement alive.
Coburg Traders’ Association President Roger Smith and Treasurer Des Halfpenny joined one of the new Ambassadors, Melinda Zamba, as she did her Victoria Mall walk through.
“It’s exciting to see real action on the streets,” Roger Smith said.
“Council’s clean up of Sydney Road and other parts of the city has really sparked the interest of locals. Seeing someone else out there doing something about it has inspired them to get out there themselves.”
The Ambassador program is the brainchild of the team leading The Coburg Initiative (TCI), a billion dollar development project designed to revitalise and renew the Coburg principle activity centre.
The team is a strategic partnership of Moreland City Council and developers Equiset Grollo. Also involved are local landowners, traders, residents’ groups and the State Government.
The Ambassadors program was designed in response to community feedback from a TCI workshop in February this year, and ongoing feedback that the shopping precinct around Sydney road was ‘too grotty’.
“The TCI Ambassadors program is an important element of Council’s investment to build long term sustainability, liveability and social cohesion in central Coburg,”
Council’s TCI director, James Scott, said. “Not only are ambassadors helping to clean up Coburg, they are also there to help local businesses and residents. We want to find out how everyone can, collectively, make Coburg a better place to live and work.”
As well as improving the experience of shoppers visiting Coburg, encouraging them to return, the Ambassadors Program has other benefits for the local economy.
“For immediacy, we began the program with local contractors,” James Scott said. “Now we’re recruiting our Ambassadors from the community.
“We’ve sought out people for the program who were unemployed or struggling financially. These are people who are often the backbone of local volunteer groups and programs, and benefit the most from the opportunity to be paid to give something back
to Coburg and promote pride in
their city. The program is showing great promise.”
