Health and Wellbeing Forum highlights important role councils play in their communities
We recently invited elected representatives and council staff to join us in Hobart and online for our Health and Wellbeing Forum.
The theme for this event was Liveable Places, Thriving Communities. Health and wellbeing is at the heart of local government and we wanted to highlight how the services provided by councils contribute to the broad systems of wellbeing in communities.
To open the event we heard from Dr Scott McKeown, the current Deputy Director of Public Health. He recognised the important role local government plays in health and wellbeing and encouraged engagement with councils to shape the 20-Year Preventive Health Strategy.
Our keynote speakers explored how community-led approaches are the best choice for building resilient and liveable communities. Kellie Vise from Glen Eira City Council discussed how her council focused on engagement work to establish key priorities, highlighting the community's value of quality of life and place-based solutions. She shared how Glen Eira City Council put trust and collaboration at the heart of their approach with great success.
Adam Cooper from Maroondah City Council shared how his council focused on community vision, systems work and building wellbeing literacy. The Maroondah Youth Strategy uses a wellbeing framework informed by positive psychology that highlights being healthy, connected and engaged. The council has empowered young people by implementing the Maroondah Youth Wellbeing Advocates group that co-designs and facilitates engagement with their peers. Adam also shared how Maroondah City Council plans on bringing its 2050 Community Vision to life.
Brett Ellis from The Resilience Canopy spoke about the role of local government in building community resilience. He shared the Six-Step Future Ready Communities Model that focuses on building the right foundations, assessing the opportunities and forming partnerships. He highlighted how the town of Millgrove implemented this in their community-led resilience journey. Brett also revealed the current milestones and achievements of The Resilience Canopy, which include activating 72 communities across five states, and how their courses have resulted in 183 trained practitioners, with 40 of those being in Tasmania.
In the afternoon we heard about local case studies from two Tasmanian councils. Kylie Murphy from Brighton Council spoke about taking an Asset Based Community Development approach to sustainable community-driven development. This approach shows that communities can drive the development process themselves by identifying and mobilising existing, but often unrecognised assets.
Kristen Desmond and Elizabeth Nye from West Tamar Council shared the process of developing the council’s new Community Health and Wellbeing Plan 'What's Best for the West Tamar?'. They wanted to ensure community buy-in from the very beginning, so they engaged residents in collaborative workshops that tapped into their collective ideas and insights into the municipality's future growth and prosperity. This resulted in a plan with four pillars and five key enablers to deliver this new vision for the West Tamar community.
We’d like to thank everyone who joined us at this event that highlighted the impact of councils in activating health and wellbeing initiatives in their communities. Speaker presentations are available on our Member Portal.