Pillar 5 - A Harmonious and Proud Community with Strong Social Services and Infrastructure

This pillar is about improving social cohesion through Council and community-run events that celebrate the area’s history and identity, and infrastructure and services.

The goals in this pillar are:

• Goal 5.1: We create and support events that celebrate community and cultural identify and benefit the economy • Goal 5.2: Affordable and quality housing options are available • Goal 5.3: The community is socially and culturally connected • Goal 5.4: Diverse, vibrant community facilities and spaces are connected, well maintained and accessible • Goal 5.5: The community is safe and healthy.

Achievements

• We adopted the Local Housing Strategy in August 2020.The Strategy links our vision for housing with the actions of the South District Plan (including housing targets) and Local Strategic Planning

Statement 2040. It sets out the future policy direction for housing in the LGA in response to the gaps and issues. • We adopted the Inclusive Housing Strategy and

Delivery Program in August 2020. • We prepared an Affordable Housing Policy which was adopted by Council in May 2021. The Policy outlines our position and approach to providing affordable housing in our LGA and contains the affordable housing targets from the Inclusive

Housing Strategy and Delivery Program. The

Policy details our commitment to increasing the range and supply of affordable housing in our

LGA to meet the growing needs of very low to moderate income households, singles, families,

couples, seniors, people with a disability, students, key workers and the broader residential market, including first home buyers. • We ran a Library Fines Amnesty from 1 May to 23

July 2021 to support families experiencing financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. For $1 donations, members with overdue fines were able to have their fines waived. All donations collected as part of this amnesty went to the Indigenous Literacy

Foundation. • We partnered with 3Bridges Community to support their Inclusive Volunteer program. This program supports people who have experienced a brain injury with a trained buddy to volunteer together in meaningful roles and be given the opportunity to develop skills, connect with different people in the community, gain self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment. • Hurstville Museum & Gallery was recognised at the

Museums and Galleries National Awards, receiving a Highly Commended award in the category for Best

Temporary or Travelling Exhibition - Level 1 for its exhibition Artbomb: connect + create. • Our libraries won a Highly Commended Award through the NSW Public Libraries Association for

‘Innovation in Outreach Services’ for the ‘Salon

Bibliothèque’ pop-up library in Hurstville Westfield.

This initiative aligned with the outreach mission of our Georges River Libraries 2030 Strategy, providing an innovative approach to engaging with members of the community outside traditional library spaces. • Over the lockdown period, our libraries and

Hurstville Museum & Gallery adapted to an online model offering: - Library of Learning instructional videos – a range of promotional videos have been developed to help the community use the library remotely - Biblioblog – an online space for Library Services to deliver some of our essential services and engage with the community remotely

- Digital Programs – a range of video and online content for the community - eLibrary – access to a vast collection of eBooks, audiobooks, comics, digital magazines and newspapers, as well as research databases - Story, rhyme time and book clubs available online. • South Hurstville Kindergarten partnered with Allied

Health in a pilot program to help identify children who may need extra support with their language and speech. The aim of this program is to help children who have been identified as needing support. • Our Child Protection Action Plan was developed to ensure Council is a Child Safe Organisation. • We offered cultural support for Nepalese children and their families who attend our early learning centres. With the assistance of Diversity Kids, a

Newari (a rare Nepalese dialect) speaking family were supported in the service and community.

We partnered with a bi-cultural support worker to overcome communication barriers with children and families and support children’s engagement in the early learning program. The worker was able to model and teach all staff key words in Newari to support the child and teach all children in the centre about the Nepalese language and culture. A library of educational resources was developed. The knowledge gained will benefit the inclusion of future

Nepalese children, families and the staff. • We opened our Oatley West Early Learning Centre in September 2020. Utilisation of this new service is very high with 97.14% of places filled within the first month of opening. • We developed and delivered online learning for children that were not attending Council's early learning centres during COVID-19 restrictions. We created take-home resources for families to collect and utilise at home to continue their child’s learning journey. • We delivered ‘Be Kind 2 Your Mind’, a series of online presentations, webinars and workshops providing mental health awareness and strategies for all ages, from pre-school to older people in the community. First in the series of COVID-19 safe events, we looked at the effect of COVID-19 on individual mental health and the community as a whole. • We developed ‘A Pocket Guide to Relationships,

Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control’, a unique and discreet pocket guide that provides helpful information on support services available and where to seek help in a threatening situation. We developed the guide in partnership with the

St George Domestic Violence committee and distributed it throughout the St George area. It was translated into five languages. • We held an Aboriginal Cultural Awareness workshop during Reconciliation Week 2021. • We were the recipient of a $10,000 grant from the

NSW Government (Multicultural NSW) to support inclusive, cross generational connect. This funding supports cultural festivals and events that bring the

NSW community together. The funds supported our

Little Lunar event held on Friday 19 February 2021 in Hurstville Plaza. • We received a $10,000 grant from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment to activate main town centres to drive economic recovery during

COVID-19. • We received a COVID-safe Australia Day Grant of $19,000 from the Australian Government through the

Australia Day Council of NSW to support our local citizenship ceremonies as part of the Australia Day program.

Challenges

• In accordance with COVID-19 restrictions, Library

Services and Hurstville Museum & Gallery closed to the public on 27 June 2021. Based on the same issue in 2020, it will take some time for the community to return to our spaces once restrictions ease. • In 2020/21 the number of people attending community centres and halls for hire was 124,628, down from 131,092 in 2019/20 due to COVID-19 restrictions. Attendance at Hurstville Entertainment

Centre venues was 10,028 patrons, significantly down from 43,550 in the 2019/20 year. • In accordance with COVID-19 restrictions, Hurstville

Entertainment Centre and all other community venues were closed to the public from 18 March 2020 until 6 September 2020, then again from 27 June 2021. All bookings were cancelled or postponed, and customers were offered a full refund for their booking. • Due to COVID-19 restrictions, many Council and community events were cancelled, postponed or modified. Despite this, we delivered 53 events attended by 36,225 people. We adjusted our event program to smaller-scale, COVID-19-safe events, to provide opportunities to build community connectivity and resilience.

Summary of performance against indicators

Measure Target 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21

Utilisation of Council’s child care centres >95% 83.6% 91.85% 82.31% 83% 87%

Customer satisfaction with Children’s Services 80% N/A N/A N/A N/A 88%

Number of annual visitors to Hurstville Museum & Gallery

Customer satisfaction with Hurstville Museum & Gallery

Number of annual visitors to Hurstville Entertainment Centre 12,000 14,083 19,136 18,256 13,217 N/A

80% N/A N/A N/A N/A 95%

100,000 156,016 169,773 164,687 119,714 N/A

Customer satisfaction with community centres and performance venues 80% N/A N/A N/A N/A 83%

Number of attendees at council major events 70,000 55,000 65,000 69,657 55,000 N/A

Customer satisfaction with events 80% N/A N/A N/A N/A 94%

Number of library members 73,000 57,318 69,155 67,865 61,369 N/A

Customer satisfaction with Library Services 80% N/A N/A N/A N/A 86%

Percentage of food premises inspected annually 100% 100% 100% 100% 77% 100%

Percentage of school safety zones patrolled annually 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

2021 It's A Mood - Chess tournament.

In 2021/22 we will …

• Ensure the Affordable Housing Contributions Scheme is in place for the area under the Mortdale Local

Centre Master Plan. • Implement the Library Services Debt Recovery Plan. • Expand library delivery services by investigating partnerships with early learning centres, schools, hospitals and direct delivery to homes. • Promote the benefits of library services to the community. • Provide improved networking opportunities for community cultural organisations and creative industry professionals in the LGA. • Develop an Events and Activation Strategy by reviewing current Council, community and commercial events and activations held in the LGA, resident feedback, audience analysis and industry best practice. • Implement actions in the Interim Community Property Strategy. • Implement the Open Space Expansion and Acquisition Plan. • Implement year one actions in the Open Space Strategy.