Town of Victoria Park, Western Australia, has adopted a Community Charter in a new approach to working with its community.
While most local governments have a customer service charter, Council was looking at introducing several more charters to express the various ways it builds relationships and partners with community.
An organisational restructure in 2018 and the adoption of Council’s Strategic Community Plan, saw several new ways of working put into practice in 2019.
Some of these new approaches included asset based community development, a place planning approach, a combined communication and engagement practice and a governance framework for devolved decision making to the community
Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Vuleta, said, “We were keen to communicate the various new things we were doing to invite community in and work with us more closely, across many aspects of the Town’s work.
“Rather than develop several charters for our different areas, we decided to develop one holistic charter to combine our commitments from across the business with one promise to our whole community, from the whole council.
“Last year, pre-COVID-19, Council supported and adopted the Community Charter. Then all was disrupted and we focused on the crisis.
“Now in recovery, we are looking toward new beginnings in 2021, and we’re super excited to launch it.
“Community Charters are more common in overseas government bodies, and we’ve seen some examples interstate, and in the private sector, particularly in hospitals and colleges.
“We are not aware of a WA local government that has one, but we expect this will become a thing, following the release of WA Local Government Act Review recommendations.
“In true Vic Park style, we wanted to get ahead of the curve.”
The Town’s Community Charter is a holistic commitment designed to build better relationships between community and Council.
In one page, it outlines what community can expect from Council in all its interactions with them, no matter where they are or who they deal with.
It is Council’s promise to work in partnership with community to create a sustainable, inclusive and connected community – together.
