Better Together - A Plan for the Northern Beaches
Our meeting held on 5 October 2021, had two very interesting speakers, Will Wrathall, Acting Manager of Youth & Community Development and Russell Peake Manager Social Planning and Services both from Northern Beaches Council.
The overriding rationale of their presentation was for our local community assistance efforts and fundraising initiatives to become more strategic given the needs that have been identified by their work.
The meeting was held via ZOOM and we were also joined by Sam Wilkins President of Rotaract Northern Beaches.
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| Will and Russell presenting to the meeting via ZOOM |
Lindy Myers has already sent each Rotarian an Easy-Read doco on the Better Together Strategy.
A lot of this material from the document was presented in more detail and substance by Will and Russell.
Will Wrathall firstly outlined the work that his team are performing with Youth and Community Development and how it sits closely with social planning. Will said that the local Government Act does capture the requirement for the needs and desired outcomes of the local community to be addressed in the longer term and the participation of the community in this, together with strategic planning requirements.
The Northern Beaches Council Community Strategic Plan outlines the vision of the Northern Beaches becoming a safe, connected and inclusive community balanced with our coastal and bushland environment. This is a key component of the Social Sustainability Strategy that has been issued by Council.
It was explained that in addition to the plan for Youth & Community Plans and activities outlined, several other short-term action plans sit within the major 20-year social sustainably plan (Better Together) so that the diverse needs and underlying social/lifestyle changes in our area can be properly addressed. These include Social Sustainability Policy & Strategy, Community Safety Plan, Disability Action Plan, Homeless Person Protocol and Youth Voice. Each of them attempts to embody quantifiable outcomes so that the desired changes can be objectively verified.
How the team works:
The Youth & Community Development team’s strategic approach, the work they perform, together the groups with which they work and collaborate with is best explained with slides from the presentation:
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| Team Purpose - which reflects the core key strategies of the plan |
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| These principles reflect the needs of the community |
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| Will explained more of this work in detail in the presentation |
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| See further discussion below |
Underpinning the actions arising from these plans, council grants for community groups are $120K and arts groups $120K per annum. (Now closed for the current year and being assessed before deliberation).
In addition to the annual grants program, helping the community occurs on several important fronts:
- Responding to individual cases (usually from referrals by email or phone calls) and normally with informational referral or directing people to required departments/specialist professionals.
- A variety of publications that assist key needs including
o a monthly disability newsletter (1,400 subscribers) providing resources & information.
o Seniors’ directory (published bi-annually) 10,000 initially with 5-6 thousand follow on. (Widely distributed) Available free.
o Youth Platform: KALOF (Keep a look out for)
o Council website /community directory of services & groups
o PCYC at Dee Why.
- Representation at larger community group meetings or governing bodies in the Northern Sydney regions (e.g. N B Youth interagency, NB B Disability Network, N B Seniors, community safety committee, working groups with dementia alliance, mental health, suicide prevention, homelessness (43 people successfully housed in last 12 months), domestic and family violence.) The latter items mentioned have been a priority with the workload in recent years and at both state and federal levels. This representational role and work also helps to identify gaps in current services or collective opportunities.
- Coordinate regular forums, workshops, events, and programs in the community and help with training to build capacity of local organisations and similar groups plus mobilise volunteering. Partnering, assistance and possible sharing of resources with community assistance organisations is also being undertaken.
- It takes a village program: Building local neighbourhood connection with street events and activities (where possible) Due for launch in early 2022.
- Better evaluation tools to capture or verify the changes that are being instigated.
Will further elaborated this using the next two charts:
And the resulting populations given priority in our community:
Will then handed over to Russell Peake:
Strategic Plan
& Social Sustainability Strategy:
Russell Peake discussed the Strategic document BETTER TOGETHER. Using this strategic approach better directs the resources that exist in Council, and it can better partner with the other organisations in the community. The scope of the strategy the relationship between the vision, 3 key strategies and action plans as shown below:
Many of the action plans shown at the base of the image are already underway but not managed in isolation but embody the overall strategy from the Social Sustainability Strategy.
How it came about:
The strategy evolved from 1,000 consultative interviews that were conducted had the following 5 major findings:
These major findings then were modelled into core principles with 3 key strategic directions or imperatives:
A Safe community
A Connected Community and
An Inclusive community.
The challenges and the 10 resulting outcomes (or opportunities) from the 3 key strategic direction are shown in the center of the diagram below, together with the key impacts/action steps shown on the right. The arrows showing the interconnectivity of the elements. Much of the learning shown here also feeds into the economic development strategy.
The core social sustainability challenges in the bottom left of the image reflect a shift in demographics in the area – especially housing affordability and the shift in demographics as younger people (and elements of the required workforce) move to more affordable areas. Moreover, since social services funding is based on disadvantaged & socio-economic indicators, where Northern Beaches fit on this scale, some of the need and demand in our area is masked and makes it a challenge for organisations to obtain the funding they require.
Russell explained the theory of change methodology being used and how it allowed necessary preconditions to be identified in order that long-term outcomes or results. The component elements, their interrelationship, outcomes, and impacts were further discussed and explained with diagram below. Many of the actions (and plans) are not just for council, but for different service providers and the broader community.
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Working across the diagram one should be able to identify whether the actions being undertaken are contributing to the desired outcome. It is a cycle that once improvement (or otherwise) occurs: check if the challenges the same, the strengths still valid and the outputs still occurring?
The audience thanked both Will & Russell for their time and commitment explaining this very important; ‘whole of community’ and significant social sustainability strategy and the directions that will be followed - not only by council but in collaboration with other many organisations and operators.
Balgowlah Rotary looks forward to working with any projects that can help achieve these aims.
Further detail on their work is available at: https://www.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/services
Next meeting:
19 October TUESDAY Formal Meeting 7pm - DG Visit
(Board & Committee meet @6pm) NOTE Via ZOOM
Speaker –Lindsay May OAM District Governor`
FORWARD PLANNING:
21 November SUNDAY Cars n’Clues RALLY
7 December TUESDAY Christmas Party
11 December SATURDAY Quiz Night (@ RSL)
25 March ‘22 FRIDAY Golf Day & Dinner
And a final thought post-lockdown:
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