There’s magic in the air when local government and community engage
An event popped up in my social media feed at 4pm Friday that piqued my interest - a collaborative workshop around “green” ideas - and happened to be on at 10am the next morning.
My Saturday was already looking very full, with volunteering at Parkrun at 8am and junior hockey coaching and umpiring from 3-6pm but something inside me said I should make it to the four hour Green Warrnambool CoLab event that Warrnambool City Council was putting on. I was interested in a collaborative event on sustainability, was keen to check out the conference facilities downstairs at The Pavilion and, as a workshop facilitator myself I was also hopeful I could observe and learn from some good facilitation in action.
About a dozen community members attended as well as a sprinkling of council staff from the sustainability teams and a consultant.
We learned about the plethora of sustainability strategies and initiatives that are happening in the region as well as Council’s Community Development Fund that incorporated community groups are encouraged to tap in to to fund local initiatives.
Forming ideas and teams
Things got really interesting when the focus turned to working in teams on ideas for “local solutions to fight climate change, protect our environment and promote sustainability.” As part of our online registration we had been asked to bring a sustainability idea we wanted to work on. I couldn’t complete the online registration without putting something in this field so I added ‘reducing soft plastics going into landfill’, a legitimate idea I developed during a design thinking online course with IDEO U a couple of years earlier.
We were asked to introduce ourselves and our idea but were told ideas should be deliverable within 6-9 months. People talked about improving food security for vulnerable members of the community, reducing car usage and the adverse effects of “heat islands” which can be addressed by planting trees.
Seated next to me was Lisette Mill who I had met several years earlier when she was working at a local Landcare group and I was Innovation Specialist at The Hive at South West TAFE. Lisette is passionate about measuring and addressing problems caused by heat as is local legend John Sherwood who mentioned he had also submitted a heat-related idea when registering for the event. Asked to narrow down the ideas into three working groups I was happy to form Team Heat with Lisette and John.
“Cool your ‘bool”
Now the fun starts. Teams were encouraged to discuss their themes in more detail amongst themselves to define the problem they wanted to address and to brainstorm ideas that could realistically be put into action within 6-9 months.
Our team discussed the health issue of heat islands (in cities and towns) where temperatures can soar where there is very little canopy cover providing shade from trees and other plants that can significantly reduce heat if planted in the right spots. We talked about bus stops and car parks that bake in the sun and offer no shade for people or parked cars as well as new housing developments with larger dwellings but smaller yards (and invariably no tree to provide shade). We discussed the health implications of heat islands on everybody in the community, especially vulnerable members including but not limited to the elderly. There’s an opportunity to address this health risk by planting trees or creating green spaces such as pocket parks, community gardens and vertical gardens on building walls. Not to forget shading structures. We also began shortlisting some sites for a pilot project.
Each team filled in a worksheet, developing answers for things like project background, goals, why the solution is needed, challenges and what success looks like. John came up with the catchy Cool your Bool as our project name!
We were very engaged in our new project idea and felt that it could be quite achievable to make solid progress this year.
Where to next?
Team were asked to decide whether they wanted to develop their ideas further beyond the workshop and to share individual contact details if they wanted to continue. We have also been invited to reconvene in an online meeting in one month from the workshop date so Council staff can see what progress has been made.
We shared contact details and I expect we’ll likely meet up again shortly to explore taking our idea further. If we really saw an opportunity to put our idea into action I expect we would be encouraged to apply for an Environment & Sustainability grant through Council’s Community Development Fund if we were to find an Incorporated entity to auspice our application. Or we could go through the process to create an entity and incorporate ourselves but I expect it’d be easier and preferrable to find a likeminded entity to auspice us to develop and deliver our idea over the coming months.
The CoLab event was held at The Pavilion cafe on the Warrnambool foreshore on Saturday 22nd March 2025.
We need more events like the CoLab more often
The whole process of developing an idea, bringing more likeminded people “inside the tent” to collaborate and engaging a broad mix of stakeholders to bring an idea to life and create value in the community is very appealing to me.
Maybe it’s just the way I’m wired but I believe there are many people, in every community, who would like to contribute to positive change where they live but they might feel ill-equipped or powerless to make a difference in a team of one.
I would encourage all organisations, from local government to utilities (water, electricity) through to educational institutions and state and federal government entities to deliver more meaningful, collaborative exchanges with community members to ideate, plan and deliver solutions to local challenges.
The electricity and energy generated, when people try to solve problems together in a structured event supported by good coffee and food, could really lead to meaningful and positive outcomes. This should become the new normal for community engagement and consultation. I believe many people have become cynical of online surveys and other ways institutions consult the community and they see it as a box ticking exercise that doesn’t lead to anything.
We have rarely been more divided as a society, with all of the disruption of Big Tech, social media and its keyboard warriors and geopolitical uncertainty and division rolled into one. It’s easy to criticise government for the ills of the world but as someone once said to me when I was in my first job fresh out of university “never bring a problem to your manager without bringing a solution.”
I’d encourage more of these kinds of “CoLab” activities in the community where people are invited to come along with problems related to a theme as well as ideas to address them. To sit together in teams, over a nice coffee and sandwich, and to work together and exchange perspectives to form one or more potential solutions to the problems people bring with them. Wrap that in a safe, respectful and structured format with a facilitator and we could have better outcomes than simply complaining or leaving negative comments on social media. We need to move beyond complaining about everything that’s wrong and towards meaningful exchanges to turn problems and challenges into opportunities and solutions where we live.
I hope to see more of these events soon. I’d love to know what you think and if you’re aware of any similar events coming up please let me know at paul@regionalrising.com.au.
