2023 Awards for Excellence Yearbook

WINNERS AND FINALISTS

LGPRO AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

YEARBOOK

AWARDS PRESENTED BY:

PROUD SPONSORS

We share your commitment to excellence.

For 54 years, McArthur has been committed to delivering the highest levels of ser vice to LOCAL GOVERNMENT acr oss V ictoria and Australia-wide.

Like you, we share the same commitment to excellence in everything we do including:

• Executive Recr uitment

• Per manent, Temporar y and Contract Recr uitment

• HR/Management Consulting:

– Perfor mance Management

– Organisational Design and Development

– Talent Management

– Remuneration Strategies

– Staff Engagement

– Lear ning and Development

– Succession Planning

– Outplacement

McArthur is proud to be associated with such high achievers, and we congratulate all Winners and Finalists in the 2023 Awards for Excellence. With your talent and dedication, the future of Local Government is definitely in safe hands.

A MESSAGE FROM THE LGPRO PRESIDENT

Elevating the sector by celebrating best practice is an LGPro priority. Through publications like the Awards for Excellence Yearbook, we actively promote the value and achievement of our sector both within our peer groups and to the outside world. Through this celebratory document, we also hope to offer up opportunities for our professionals to learn from each other.

These Awards for Excellence thus serve a dual function: they highlight our professionals’ dedication to the diverse communities they serve and provide our sector the collective opportunity to share and learn from the innovative ideas and the latest in best practice on show.

I thank all those involved in making these awards possible, including the team of volunteer judges who contributed their time and expertise to the selection process of these extensive awards. With such high-quality nominees each year, this is no easy feat. I further thank the council leaders who dedicated the staff time and allocated resources toward this important program through their team members who participated.

I congratulate every finalist, those highly commended, and the winners of this year’s awards on behalf of the LGPro Board. I further congratulate the diligent graduates of LGPro’s leadership programs this year who have proven their dedication to the development of their professionalism and our sector.

I invite you to join me in this celebration, but moreover I hope that you find golden opportunities to bring these ideas into your own organisations so that we might continue to move forward as a collective, learning from our peers and growing as a sector.

Liana Thompson President, LGPro Director City Life, Wyndham City Council

It is a pleasure and a privilege to present the deserving winners and finalists of LGPro’s 2023 Awards for Excellence in another year’s celebration of the Local Government sector’s innovation.

The 2023 LGPro Awards for Excellence are proudly sponsored by:

2023 CATEGORY JUDGING PANELS

Community Assets & Infrastructure Initiative –$5 million & under

Kerryn Ellis South Gippsland Shire Council

Rachael Gadd Towong Shire Council

Daniel Basham Campaspe Shire Council

Heather Burns Maroondah City Council

Community Assets & Infrastructure Initiative –Over $5 million

Steve Hamilton Greater Bendigo City Council

Birgit King Yarra Ranges Council

Pene Winslade Hobsons Bay City Council

Shweta Babbar Frankston City Council

Community Partnerships Initiative

Liana Thompson Wyndham City Council

Jodi Kennedy Bass Coast Shire Council

Julian Edwards Melbourne City Council

Patrick Dillon Frankston City Council

Diversity & Inclusion

Gail Gatt Surf Coast Shire Council

David Echeverry Murrindindi Shire Council

Nick Lund Boroondara City Council

Mozma Tate Kingston City Council

First Nations Community Partnership Initiative

Roslyn Wai Melton City Council

Charles Pakana Victorian Aboriginal News

Jason Eades Melbourne City Council

Julie Salomon Strathbogie Shire Council

Innovative Management Initiative

Bruce Dobson Knox City Council

Abby McCarthy Yarra Ranges Council

Renae Littlejohn South Gippsland Shire Council

Michael Evans Yarriambiack Shire Council

Outstanding Small Rural Council Initiative

Jen Bednar Casey City Council

Matt Gibbs Borough of Queenscliffe

Maree East Colac Otway Shire Council

Ilona Ellerton Frankston City Council

Service Delivery Initiative

Svetla Petkova Swan Hill Rural City Council

Georgia Paterakis Whitehorse City Council

Leanne Carbonneau Baw Baw Shire Council

Tanya Hall Greater Geelong City Council

Special Projects Initiative

Andrew Day Manningham City Council

Mel Kerr Whitehorse City Council

John Ciavarella Baw Baw Shire Council

Cathy Henderson Merri-Beck City Council

Sustainability Initiative

Robert Kisgen Whittlesea City Council

David Rae Moyne Shire Council

Claire Brace Bayside City Council

Robert Parker Glen Eira City Council

Young Achiever

Chris Leivers Brimbank City Council

James McNulty Hume City Council

James Stirton Bass Coast Shire Council

Vanessa Bove Manningham City Council

2023 WINNERS AND FINALISTS

Community Assets & Infrastructure Initiative – $5 million & under

WINNER

• Mount Alexander Shire Council

Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Team

Stanley Park North Play Space

FINALISTS

• Glen Eira City Council

Aileen Avenue, Caulfield South

• Manningham City Council – wonguim wilam Upgrade Project Team

wonguim wilam Upgrade

• Yarra Ranges Shire Council – Recreation, Projects and Parks Team

Warburton Water World

Community Assets & Infrastructure Initiative – Over $5 million

WINNER

• Merri-bek City Council – Glenroy Community Hub Project Team

Glenroy Community Hub

HIGH COMMENDATION

• South Gippsland Shire Council

Mirboo North Pool

FINALISTS

• Casey City Council

Planning, Design, Construction and Management Teams

Cranbourne West Community Hub

• Wodonga City Council

Hyphen, Wodonga Library Gallery

Community Partnerships Initiative

WINNER

• Whittlesea City Council

Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement Team

Epping Community Services Hub

HIGH COMMENDATION

• Greater Geelong City Council Youth on Board

FINALISTS

• Hume City Council

Hume Winter Lights Festival

• South Gippsland Shire Council

Local Men Local Communities

Diversity & Inclusion

WINNER

• Wyndham City Council

Wyndham City Arts and Culture

Mother Tongue

HIGH COMMENDATION

• Hume City Council

Supporting Diverse Communities

FINALISTS

• Glen Eira City Council

Every Body Active

• Monash City Council – Active Monash Team

Holmesglen – Integrated Practical Placement Program

First Nations Community Partnership Initiative

WINNER

• Yarra Ranges Shire Council – Indigenous Development Team

Return of the Firesticks Project

FINALISTS

• Glen Eira City Council

Our Climate Emergency Response Strategy 2021-2025 –

Dhumbali Wurrungi-biik Parbin-ata

• Merri-bek City Council – Renaming City Council Project Team

Renaming Moreland City Council

Innovative Management Initiative

WINNER

• Glen Eira City Council, Casey City Council, Brimbank City Council

Child Safe E-learn Partnership

Child Safe E-learn Module Development

HIGH COMMENDATION

• Southern Grampians Shire Council

Economic Development and Business Systems Teams

Digital Innovation and Smart Agriculture Festival (DISA)

FINALISTS

• Kingston City Council

Speak Up Platform

• Whitehorse City Council

Whitehorse Continuous Improvement Team

Continuous Improvement Program

Outstanding Small Rural Council Initiative

WINNER

• Hepburn Shire Council

Hepburn Shire Council Community Life Team

Aged Care and Disability Services Transition

HIGH COMMENDATION

• Yarriambiack Shire Council

Hopetoun Powerhouse Project

FINALIST

• Mount Alexander Shire Council

The Village Square

Service Delivery Initiative

WINNER

• Yarra City Council

Yarra Libraries Library Management Team

Open Libraries

HIGH COMMENDATION

• Brimbank City Council

Brimbank Neighbourhood House Unit

Hospitality Skills Training and Mentoring Program

FINALISTS

• Frankston City Council

Frankston Maternal and Child Health Team

Healthy & Safe Communities

• Glen Eira City Council

Glen Eira Mums

Special Projects Initiative

WINNER

• Macedon Ranges Shire Council – Storm Response Team

Storm Green Waste Processing Site

HIGH COMMENDATION

• Merri-bek City Council – Creative Coburg Team

Creative Coburg

FINALISTS

• Frankston City Council

Transparency Hub

• Mornington Peninsula Shire Council – Traffic and Transport Team

Mornington Peninsula Shire Safer Speeds

Sustainability Initiative

WINNER

• Yarra Ranges Shire Council

Environmental Stewardship Team

Ribbons of Green Program

HIGH COMMENDATION

• Darebin City Council

Rewilding Darebin

FINALIST

• Strathbogie Shire Council

Greening Euroa Steering Committee

Greening Euroa Project

Young Achiever

WINNER

• Elena Spanos

Principal Strategic Planner, Revitalisation City of Casey

HIGH COMMENDATION

• Chrissy Athanasopoulos

Coordinator Continuous Improvement

Frankston City Council

FINALISTS

• Dominique Foenander

Manager Governance

Baw Baw Shire Council

• Rebecca Botheras

Projects Coordinator

Yarriambiack Shire Council

Initiatives that maximise benefits to the community and showcase partnerships in developing and managing community assets. This award is for projects that cost $5 million and under that are new and a one-off activity of a capital nature.

• Clarity of the initiative’s outcomes

• Innovative features

• Demonstrated leadership

• Cost benefits

• Transferability

• Mount Alexander Shire Council

Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Team

Stanley Park North Play Space

• Glen Eira City Council

Aileen Avenue, Caulfield South

• Manningham City Council

wonguim wilam Upgrade Project Team

wonguim wilam Upgrade

• Yarra Ranges Shire Council

Recreation, Projects and Parks Team

Warburton Water World

COMMUNITY ASSETS & INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE – $5 MILLION & UNDER

MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE COUNCIL PARKS, RECREATION AND COMMUNITY FACILITIES TEAM

Stanley Park North Play Space

Back in 2016, Harcourt boasted more children per capita than any other township in Mount Alexander Shire. A key growth area in the Shire, the Harcourt population is forecast to increase 65 per cent over the next 15 years. This statistic highlighted the need to replace play equipment suited to the limited cohort of two-to-five-year-olds with an accessible, inclusive play space that would welcome both younger and older children. It is now a thriving, multi-generational community space attracting visitors and community members from families through to mountain bikers.

It can be difficult to ensure locally sourced expertise on projects of this size in rural areas. The provision of an innovative yet locally considered play space was made possible however thanks to the dedication of local experts involved in the project’s delivery. The project’s landscape architect was a Harcourt local, and their intimate local knowledge helped to guarantee the play space reflected the area’s local natural attributes.

With the creation of an attractive, vibrant community space in the centre of Harcourt being the ultimate objective of both Council and community, one of the project’s key ambitious aims was to create a play space that offered a different experience to those in neighbouring townships while showcasing the history of Harcourt. The engagement with local children was key in achieving this aim, with feedback resulting in unique attributes including apple boxes, a nod to Harcourt’s being the home of 40 per cent of Victoria’s farmed apples.

With the initial budget being insufficient, community leadership and strong project guidance by dedicated staff helped propel the project into fruition. Advocacy for additional funding resulted in grants from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and local banks along with free infrastructure additions from providers like Coliban Water. The since-funded project ultimately turned a disused open park space into a valued community hub.

COMMUNITY ASSETS & INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE – $5 MILLION & UNDER

GLEN EIRA CITY COUNCIL Aileen Avenue, Caulfield South

Glen Eira is faced with having the least amount of open space in metropolitan Melbourne. Their Council’s Open Space Strategy is creating accessible, green spaces for the community in this context, and its latest project has delivered 1,500 square metres of parkland from a mix of former residential property and road discontinuance.

Shifting their focus towards green spaces and walk-friendly neighbourhoods is set to positively contribute towards improved mental and physical health outcomes in the community and the ecological health of the area’s urban environments. As a green, permeable space, the park ameliorates the urban heat island effect and assists urban cooling in higher-density suburbs, for example.

Accommodating population growth, climate change, and pandemicinduced lifestyle changes requires a reimagining of established suburbs. New, sustainable, engaging open spaces need to challenge the existing status quo. The collaborative effort from across departments as diverse as engineering, open space, planning, buildings and properties, finance, and transport delivered a deftly planned project to meet these needs. The resulting park features extensive plantings, pathways, a small playground, seating, shelter, and water-sensitive urban design features.

MANNINGHAM CITY COUNCIL WONGUIM WILAM UPGRADE PROJECT TEAM wonguim wilam Upgrade

The wonguim wilam park revitalisation was the culmination of five years of dedication and an incredibly collaborative effort drawing on the diverse expertise of the wider Warrandyte community. The result is a sympathetic riverside regional open space, highly valued by the community.

The new park, complete with grassed spaces, playgrounds, fitness stations, and picnicking and barbecue areas among other features, has improved the overall accessibility, amenity, and public use of a key section of Yarra River frontage. The more accessible design now provides opportunities for connection with nature and the local community.

Critical to the project’s success was the need to consider different (and often competing) priorities within the community. Creating a space that would meet the expectations of a diverse, engaged community required strong leadership to facilitate delicate conversations and to ensure that the decision-making process was both sound and transparent. The establishment of a project reference group provided an important conduit between the project team and the community and helped inform key aspects of the design. The redeveloped park was dubbed ‘wonguim wilam,’ meaning Boomerang Place, in recognition of its historical significance and ongoing connection to First Nations people.

COMMUNITY ASSETS & INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE – $5 MILLION & UNDER

YARRA RANGES SHIRE COUNCIL RECREATION, PROJECTS AND PARKS TEAM

Warburton Water World

Warburton Water World brings to life the community’s vision for a place that families and the community can gather and recreate which includes a regional level play space, water play park, and event space in one. As a project with a 10-year lifespan from concept to delivery, the rebuild involved a collective of council staff, community members, and consultants on a collaborative journey.

The closure of the previous outdoor pool was the catalyst for a renewal of the space. Where the initial outdoor pool saw between 4,000 and 6,000 visitors for an entire season, the new venue is now seeing this number of visitors on peak summer days alone, and from all over Melbourne.

As the only regional play space in the area and its placement adjacent to the Yarra River and alongside amenities and hospitality like caravan parks, the project has created a popular destination for inbound tourists. The associated economic benefits of these shortstay visits have been significant, helping local businesses recover from the impacts of the pandemic.

South Gippsland Shire Council

South Gippsland is proud to be a finalist in this year’s LGPro Awards for Excellence in the Community Partnerships category. Our nomination acknowledges the success of our Local Men - Local Communities project in South Gippsland.

The project focuses on prevention by working with community groups and individuals to identify training and activities that build mental health, well being and social connectedness for rural men aged 25+.

It also focuses on postvention by working with community groups, volunteers, service providers, educators and the media to make links to services and community supports for people at risk of suicide.

The objectives of the project are serious but the outcomes have been surprisingly uplifting as men come together, building friendships and supporting general health and well-being.

www.localmen-localcommunities.com.au

Initiatives that maximise benefits to the community and showcase partnerships in developing and managing community assets. This award is for projects that cost over $5 million and are new and a one-off activity of a capital nature.

• Clarity of the initiative’s outcomes

• Innovative features

• Demonstrated leadership

• Cost benefits

• Transferability

• Merri-bek City Council

Glenroy Community Hub Project Team

Glenroy Community Hub

• South Gippsland Shire Council

Mirboo North Pool

• Casey City Council Planning, Design, Construction and Management Teams

Cranbourne West Community Hub

• Wodonga City Council

Hyphen, Wodonga Library Gallery

COMMUNITY ASSETS & INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE – OVER $5 MILLION

MERRI-BEK CITY COUNCIL GLENROY COMMUNITY HUB PROJECT TEAM

Glenroy Community Hub

The Glenroy Community Hub is Australia's first public building to be certified as a ‘Passive House’ – a global benchmark for best practice in sustainable building design. The state-of-the art community facility meets the highest environmental design standards and demonstrates the council’s commitment to leadership in taking action on climate change. With a net positive energy rating, it exceeds the organisation’s commitment to delivering net zero buildings.

The $30 million building features a cluster of council and communitybased services that support health, wellbeing, and lifelong learning through an integrated collective impact approach to service delivery under a single roof. The complex includes a library, kindergarten, long day care and education service, neighbourhood centre, maternal and child health service, community health centre, and customer service centre.

Such an expansive design has gone on to support collaboration across traditional service boundaries to address local needs and fosters joint projects like the integration of various children’s services from integrated child care, kindergarten, play groups, and library programs.

This is further supported by off-site additions; linked to this new facility is an adjacent reserve, upgraded to include a new playground, community garden, public sculpture, and social enterprise cafe.

This significant investment is looking to develop better health and education outcomes in the community. The community is now being afforded better educational outcomes and employment pathways through increased participation in formal and informal adult learning, increased rates of kindergarten participation, and more involvement in lifelong learning. The healthier, connected community are now increasingly accessing community health services and maternal and child health services.

The community has described the hub as a welcoming place with open space and natural light that invites them in. Noteworthy alongside these built elements are connections to nature through the connecting park and included greenery that promote this welcoming experience.

Architect: DesignInc

Photography: Dianna Snape

COMMUNITY ASSETS & INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE – OVER $5 MILLION

SOUTH GIPPSLAND SHIRE COUNCIL Mirboo North Pool

The Mirboo North Pool redevelopment successfully secured the future of a community asset that has been used and loved by local residents since 1904 – and it is expected that the new facility will be able to meet the needs of the community for another 50 years and beyond.

The redevelopment was a community-led initiative with significant fundraising initiated by the local community itself. A million-dollar contribution from the community meant they were invested in the project emotionally and financially. This helped in securing ongoing support for the project which has gone on to attract new users to the space through considered, inclusive design.

This inclusive design was an important part of the process. The design process considered the needs of a variety of users such as people with a disability, families with small children, and the elderly.

The refurbishment has since helped to attract new users to the pool through the introduction of accessible ramps and changerooms, a splash area for younger children, and heating (which has also helped in extending the annual pool season).

Sustainability was a key consideration through the redevelopment, from design to delivery and ongoing operation. Recognising that the pool was unlikely to generate a profit but was nonetheless an important community facility, the council was keen to ensure that operation of the facility was as cost-effective and financially sustainable as possible. For example, solar systems were installed to offset energy costs while an air-to-water heat pump was set up to provide cost-efficient water heating.

Although attendance and income levels are likely to rise, the overall benefit of the facility cannot be calculated by fiscal measures alone. The redevelopment of the pool has helped to revitalise a community asset so that it can be enjoyed by future generations.

COMMUNITY ASSETS & INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE – OVER $5 MILLION

CASEY CITY COUNCIL PLANNING, DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT TEAMS

Cranbourne West Community Hub

The Cranbourne West Community Hub provides multipurpose intergenerational community spaces that deliver opportunities for people to meet, learn, play, socialise, connect, and express their culture. The Hub is a space that goes on to support local small businesses to thrive through the provision of affordable training, meetings, communal space, and consulting rooms – all in an environmentally sustainable package.

In practice, the Cranbourne West Community Hub is a $9.7 million state-of-the-art facility featuring flexible and shared multi-use spaces. The unique building, opened in 2021, is designed with environmentally friendly elements that seek to delight the eye, from its recycled bricks to its green terrace sustained by recycled water. It has a low carbon footprint powered by stored solar systems and a retractable roof that naturally cools the building.

The Hub offers local residents a variety of accessible and low-cost integrated services that enhance the council’s ability to build and maintain connections with key agencies and community service organisations, including improved referral pathways with more than 15 partnerships functioning out of the Hub. Positively received by the community, the Hub has since received more than 5,000 visits and provides 70 programs including indoor sport and physical activity, parenting programs, family gatherings, and private functions.

WODONGA CITY COUNCIL

Hyphen, Wodonga Library Gallery

‘Hyphen’ saw an obsolete library and gallery redeveloped into a state-ofthe-art community cultural hub located in Wodonga’s CBD. The venue is dedicated to the presentation of experiences that nurture creativity, connection, and curiosity in an accessible, inspiring environment. It is a place where the community and visitors can connect with ideas, skills, knowledge, and each other.

The unique building gets its name from the connection between the building’s twin purposes of art and literature. It also reflects the building’s signature cantilever feature (being dash-like in shape) which holds a gallery above the venue’s entrance. The overarching architectural aspiration for the venue was to create a combined library and gallery facility that would offer elevating and interesting spatial experiences.

The engineering achievement of its first-floor gallery suspended approximately 10 metres above the entrance and projecting into the precinct’s courtyard was the work of a partnership between Sydney-based and local architects. A single piece of curvaceous black steel forming a spiral staircase drawing visitors into the space and then upwards from the foyer is another such visual marvel.

The development of Hyphen and Wodonga’s community cultural precinct that it lives within is a key strategic imperative in strengthening Wodonga’s economic, cultural, and social capacity, both now and into the future.

Initiatives that demonstrate a commitment to working with and/or in the community to achieve positive outcomes.

• Clarity of outcomes and impact on the sector

• Demonstrated leadership

• Effectiveness of collaboration

• Transferability of the initiative

• Complexity of project

• Whittlesea City Council Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement Team Epping Community Services Hub

• Greater Geelong City Council Youth on Board

• Hume City Council

Hume Winter Lights Festival

• South Gippsland Shire Council

Local Men Local Communities

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS INITIATIVE

WHITTLESEA CITY COUNCIL PARTNERSHIPS AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT TEAM

Epping Community Services Hub

Back in 2014, a Human Services Needs Analysis reviewed what services were available to people living in Whittlesea, what services were missing, and what services would be required in the future. The analysis identified a significant need for additional service provision but also a lack of infrastructure to service this provision.

The recommendation was for Council to facilitate the expansion of service providers in the area, maximise the use of appropriate Council facilities for service provision, and work with partners to develop innovative and collaborative service delivery models. With strategic planning and research pointing out the need for a health and wellbeing hub, the Epping Community Services Hub was born.

The hub is a supportive environment for organisations to deliver their important community health services, where residents had once otherwise had to travel long distances to access community services or do without altogether. The sustainable hub is maintained by partner organisations paying annual desk rental which is inclusive of office furniture, WiFi, phones, printers, meeting and consultation rooms, outgoings, reception, and operational staff support (while maintaining rental fees that are at reduced levels to market value but sufficient to cover overall costs).

This shared space is an ongoing benefit for both the community and those serving them. It allows partner organisations to build and maintain productive interagency relationships and strong networks and gives them the capacity to respond to emerging and changing community needs and aspirations. The community meanwhile has better access to more services, are active participants in solutions to their needs, and now have a more positive experience engaging with these services.

Today, the hub is a unique, vibrant centre bringing together partner organisations delivering a range of services to the municipality. Unlike other hubs, it is much more than co-location of services; it was planned from the outset to be a common platform to facilitate community sector connections, including more innovation, networking, and collaboration leading to a higher level of quality, efficiency, and holistic service delivery by partner organisations.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS INITIATIVE

GREATER GEELONG CITY COUNCIL Youth on Board

The City of Greater Geelong has a Youth Service Plan with guiding principles that include being informed directly by youth, having young people at the centre of council business, and working with the council to create and enrich their connection, participation, and overall wellbeing. This integration of a youth voice fed into a unique program for empowering young people in the municipality.

The Youth on Board Program is a youth leadership program where young people become board members of local organisations. The program recruits young people aged 18 to 25 years, trains them in governance, and coaches and supports them to be placed in decision-making roles to ensure there is a validated youth voice in the future planning of local organisations.

Having young people on boards of management ensures that local organisations consider the needs of young people who are emerging as consumers, and this program is providing young people with genuine opportunities to have a voice and to meaningfully participate in civic life.

With four young people joining boards as part of the program in its first six months of operation, the program has since been providing young people with the opportunity to make valuable contributions to local decision making, with the skills and support to influence these decisions. Local organisations are meanwhile benefitting from having a youth voice on their boards of management, diversifying the input influencing their direction and planning and ensuring a key community demographic is being served.

Rather than supplying governance training or making referrals, Youth on Board is a comprehensive and integrated program that supports the journey of a participant’s induction to being a full voting and supported member of an organisation's board. The program features a structured mentoring component where organisations provide a board member to mentor the young people in relevant components of board experience. Acknowledging that young people are the community’s future, the program ensures they are practically equipped to be instrumental in the shaping of the direction of the municipality.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS INITIATIVE

HUME CITY COUNCIL Hume Winter Lights Festival

Answering the council’s call to build culturally vibrant and connected communities, the Hume Winter Lights Festival brought together visual art and performance in a public space to build community connections through art, music, and new experiences. 18 months of close engagement with local artists, students, and community members culminated in over 4,000 locals and visitors alike converging on Broadmeadows for an engaging live event.

The free event in underutilised public space presented projection, live music, interactive installations, roving performers, and fireworks in a project that supported local artists and community members. Council simultaneously showcased and celebrated its creative community while fostering opportunities to improve practice capability and encouraged economic participation of creative practitioners. For example, through the adoption of a non-hierarchal collaborative working model, Hume and the Centre for Projection Art supported Hume’s Aboriginal community to tell their own stories in their own voices through the event.

Funding has been secured for future editions of the Hume Winter Lights Festival with plans to expand the celebration of Hume and its people to run over multiple nights to ensure the event remains sustainable.

SOUTH GIPPSLAND SHIRE COUNCIL Local Men Local Communities

Suicide is the tenth-leading cause of death among males in Australia. These rates are higher in rural Victoria, exacerbated by the difficulty in accessing mental health services regionally. A substantial uptick in deaths in South Gippsland in 2019 led to the Department of Health’s funding of the Local Men Local Communities project, aimed at addressing this issue through a community-based prevention approach. The program sought to build the capacity of local individuals, community groups, and workplaces to address the mental health and emotional wellbeing of men aged over 25 in the municipality, successfully creating a place-based approach to suicide prevention activities in regional Victoria.

Where men who do not engage readily with traditional community clubs and organisations being at particular risk of loneliness and its resulting poor mental health outcomes, this initiative sought to change these outcomes by recruiting a group of men with a specific interest in mental health to plan and lead non-traditional activities and events to help reduce this social isolation.

The support includes online and in-person training for the community and workplaces that helps participants respond to people with poor mental health, support for rural farmers, suicide prevention awareness, online resources, and events that are ongoing.

CITY OF GREATER GEELONG YOUTH ON BOARD PROGRAM

The Youth on Board Program, operated by the City’s Youth Development Unit, is designed to give young people aged between 18 to 25 the skills to contribute to boards across our region.

This new and innovative program acknowledges the importance of young people having a voice in local organisation decision making and planning.

The aim of the program is to increase the participation of young people as full board members.

Participants are trained in governance and are placed on boards of management of local organisations.

The program also includes a structured mentoring component, whereby

organisations nominate a board member to mentor young people in board meeting protocols.

The Youth Development Unit also provide on-going mentoring and support, as well as opportunities for reflective practice for both participants and organisations alike.

The Youth on Board Program aligns with the newly adopted Victorian Youth Strategy, and contributes to a unified approach to the youth sector between State and Local Governments.

Making lives better

This belief means we start with our own people. We’re creating a workplace where our people are valued, grow and develop, lead in their own spaces and are committed to serving our community.

This means living our values every day and working in an inclusive and respectful environment where everyone feels they belong.

If you’re interested in knowing more about careers at the City of Whittlesea, scan the QR code.

“What makes a workplace great for me? Knowing that what I do on a daily basis makes a real difference for our community.

As a team we have fun, innovate, inspire and trust each other.

Together we celebrate our wins and work through the things that don’t go to plan.

We believe that when a group of passionate and talented people work together, they can make lives better.

Mandy, Unit Manager Support at Home

Experience Hume City Council’s Major Events and Festivals!

Visit Hume City and experience the excitement of our award-winning festivals and events including local cuisines, live music, art and interactive installations, activities, performers and much more!

• Hume Winter Lights Festival

State Winner

Best Cultural, Arts or Music Event (Virtual, Live, or Hybrid)

2022 Australian Event Awards and Symposium

National Finalist

Best New Event

2022 Australian Event Awards and Symposium

• Craigieburn Festival

• Hume Carols by Candlelight

Find out more about our major events and festivals: hume.vic.gov.au/events

This category is open to achievements and outcomes that acknowledge, support, and celebrate diversity and inclusion in relation to internal practices and/or within the broader community context. This includes, but is not limited to, ethnicity, language, ability, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, class, education level, personality, political beliefs, and other ideologies. It is about understanding and respecting each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of diversity within each individual, whether it be in an organisational or community context.

• Commitment to diversity and inclusion

• Influence and originality

• Capacity for establishing and maintaining partnerships

• Benefits to the organisation and/or community

• Outcomes achieved within the organisation and/or the community

• Establishment of cross functional working relationships

• Wyndham City Council

Wyndham City Arts and Culture

Mother Tongue

• Hume City Council

Supporting Diverse Communities

• Glen Eira City Council

Every Body Active

• Monash City Council

Active Monash Team

Holmesglen – Integrated Practical Placement Program

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

WYNDHAM CITY COUNCIL

WYNDHAM CITY ARTS AND CULTURE

Mother Tongue

In remembrance of the Bangladeshi people’s efforts to uphold their own mother language, International Mother Language Day was announced by UNESCO in 1999 and was formally recognised by the United Nations General Assembly in 2002. It is held to generate awareness of cultural diversity and multiculturalism, forming part of the UN’s broader initiative “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world.” Held on 21 February, it is a worldwide observance of the anniversary of the day in 1952 that the people of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) fought to keep their language.

The Mother Tongue art project is a response to the struggle for the recognition of the Bangla language that ties in deeply to the Bangladeshi community in Wyndham. The artwork creates a sense of place and connection, nurturing community pride and identity. It is intended to create a focal point for community celebrations and gatherings, acknowledging the importance of mother languages in the strengthening of individual and community identities.

The project was a successful test of models for inclusive community participation in procurement processes. Wyndham used leading frameworks for cross-cultural and inclusive community engagement and partnership in the execution of this project, from the commissioning process to procurement and design, right through to fabrication and installation. These engagement and consultation processes were extensive and longitudinal, with people from pre-school language-based playgroups through to culturally-specific seniors groups included for authentic input.

The project was a successful exercise in valuing and acting on community-identified priorities, supporting cross-cultural understanding, and undertaking meaningful consultation that meets diverse communities in their day-to-day lives. The intersection of departments involved in this extensive project has since triggered revisions and new frameworks across the council including community centre management, service planning, procurement, service planning, community engagement, and public art.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

HUME CITY COUNCIL Supporting Diverse Communities

As one of Australia's fastest growing and most culturally diverse communities, Hume City Council is home to just over 258,000 residents. Almost 40 per cent of Hume residents were born overseas, coming from 156 different countries, and speaking over 150 languages. The Supporting Diverse Communities project was developed to ensure culturally and linguistically diverse community members were afforded equitable access to COVID-19 response and recovery information and resources.

Over its 18-month lifespan, the project evolved to deliver a range of supports and activities, including in-language pandemic-related resources and information sessions, community engagement, vaccination promotion and testing, and household isolation activities. With representation of the top three languages other than English spoken in the municipality, the project played an integral role in keeping diverse community members informed, connected, and engaged.

The project shone a spotlight on the value of Cultural Liaison Officers. These officers were critical to the project’s success, playing a vital role in translating and interpreting, engagement with individuals and community groups, and providing intelligence and insights to inform the delivery of targeted and accessible information and programs. As a result of the project, there has since been increased recognition across the council that the cultural experiences, connections, and understandings that people of diverse background possess are of equal value to technical and professional skills.

The project and the professionals behind it personified the mindset of ‘progress, not perfection’ with a flexibility mindset that allowed them to navigate the rapidly changing pandemic environment characterised by changing orders, restrictions, health advice, and treatments with innovation. This way of working allowed them to tackle complex and rapidly changing challenges and needs within the community in a paradigm applicable to all other areas of council business.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

GLEN EIRA CITY COUNCIL

Every Body Active

Addressing the 20 per cent of Australians who identify as having a disability, Every Body Active at Glen Eira Leisure is an inclusive one-on-one support program which bridges the gap between people with a disability or support needs and their involvement in mainstream leisure and aquatic programs. The removal of barriers means its more than 80 participants experience a sense of community belonging and improved health and wellbeing.

Providing physical, social, and emotional support to clients has resulted in greater continuity with their activity and greater confidence to explore more avenues for leisure activities. The affordable and accessible support offering began in 2016, growing from a single participant to the almost one hundred involved today. The affordability of the program for clients – now linked to the NDIS – mean they average two sessions per week, resulting in 80 hours of directly service weekly for the team across the gym for group fitness and the pool for aquatic exercise and hydrotherapy.

In meeting the evolving needs of this part of the community, collaboration with allied health providers has been essential to ensuring that client support and programs have remained up to date and relevant to participant needs.

MONASH CITY COUNCIL ACTIVE MONASH TEAM

Holmesglen – Integrated Practical Placement Program

Monash City Council’s Active Monash – in partnership with vocational education institute Holmesglen and WISE Employment – provides Integrated Practical Placement students with complex learning needs such as permanent cognitive impairment or intellectual disabilities with the foundation of employment-ready skills through extensive, hands-on, and meaningful supported experiences.

Exposure to frontline customer service in a controlled environment allows students to develop resilience and confidence before engaging in employment. With 18 students participating over the first two years of the program, six of the nine students from 2021 have since secured employment, with two undertaking industry vocational courses. Students in the program since then have been on track to achieve similarly positive outcomes.

Active Monash staff have also meanwhile developed professionally and personally in supporting, guiding, and working alongside these students in the workplace. With the provided workplace education, Active Monash staff have been confidently delivering practical workplace experience for these students to be able to practice skills taught in the TAFE classroom in a real-world setting.

The Integrated Practical Placement Program has made a significant contribution towards celebrating and championing diversity within the council workforce and community, continuing to help redress historical inequities by ensuring people with a disability are more successfully included in the workforce.

WE VALUE A DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE TEAM

Active Monash is committed to being a flexible, safe, equal and inclusive workplace that embraces diversity. As an equal opportunity employer, we encourage applications from people who are from different backgrounds including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people of any age, race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation and cultural background.

Join the team!

Employment opportunities at our three recreational centres in:

• Aquatics

• Health and Wellness

• Operations

• Customer Experience and Engagement

• Inclusion and Development.

www.activemonash.vic.gov.au

BENTLEIGH | BENTLEIGH EAST| BRIGHTON EAST | CARNEGIE | CAULFIELD | ELSTERNWICK GARDENVALE | GLEN HUNTLY | MCKINNON | MURRUMBEENA | ORMOND | ST KILDA EAST

The culture at Glen Eira is awesome — probably the best I have worked in. Council team member, 2021 Alignment and Engagement Survey

Initiatives implemented in conjunction with the Indigenous community that have contributed towards enriching a community or municipality, delivered through an effective or innovative approach that goes beyond what the organisation has done previously.

• Clear description of approach adopted

• Originality or effectiveness of the initiative

• Evidence demonstrating how the successful approach was adopted

• Transferability of the approach

• Clarity of outcomes within the organisation and the community/municipality

• Benefits to the organisation, Indigenous community, and the broader community/municipality

• Yarra Ranges Shire Council

Indigenous Development Team

Return of the Firesticks Project

• Glen Eira City Council

Our Climate Emergency Response Strategy 2021-2025 –Dhumbali Wurrungi-biik Parbin-ata

• Merri-bek City Council

Renaming City Council Project Team

Renaming Moreland City Council

FIRST NATIONS COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE

YARRA RANGES SHIRE COUNCIL INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENT TEAM Return of the Firesticks Project

Traditional Aboriginal culture and lore achieved a natural equilibrium unmatched as a model of environmental sustainability over countless generations. One key tool was the sophisticated use of fire based on an intimate understanding of the environment and its ecosystems. A three-year partnership between the Firesticks Alliance Aboriginal Corporation and Yarra Ranges Shire Council has been empowering Traditional Owners to apply this knowledge to create resilient landscapes and communities in the Yarra Ranges while providing an alternative to damaging bushfire mitigation measures.

The primary objective of the partnership behind Yarra Ranges Shire Council’s Return of the Firesticks project was to support the local Wurundjeri Traditional Owners with their aspiration to reintroduce the ancient practice of cultural burning, also known as Firesticks, on landscapes within the Yarra Ranges.

The Project sought to share the depth of wisdom and connection with the environment that cultural burning brings, offering people the opportunity to reframe their relationship with the natural world, building pride in their First Nations heritage, reducing racism, and acting as an enabler of reconciliation to flourish.

Providing strong connections to Country and culture has been shown to be a critically effective methodology in improving Aboriginal health and wellbeing.

Through the practical application of Indigenous land management practices, the initiative has aimed to highlight the importance of healing Country in building resilience in both landscapes and community. While contemporary fuel reduction practices can often prioritise this reducing of fuel loads ahead of the health and wellbeing of landscapes, the practice of these burns can have a devastating impact on biodiversity, with heat intensity so severe that critical tree canopies can be left scorched. Advocacy linked to this project has been shifting long-held beliefs regarding traditional fuel reduction methodologies, highlighting the healing and resilience outcomes achieved instead by cultural burning practices.

FIRST NATIONS COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE

GLEN EIRA CITY COUNCIL

Our Climate Emergency Response Strategy 2021-2025 – Dhumbali Wurrungi-biik Parbin-ata

The collaboration between the Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council and Glen Eira City Council to inform the development of ‘Our Climate Emergency Response Strategy 2021-2025 | Dhumbali Wurrungibiik Parbin-ata’ was a key turning point for Council, the community, and First Nations people in the municipality. For the first time, First Nations’ perspectives were embedded into a tier-one Council strategy in Glen Eira, committing the organisation to explore how First Nations knowledge of climate could inform its response to the climate emergency, developing processes for the two organisations to develop subsequent plans and strategies.

The partnership sought to develop a genuinely collaborative relationship where First Nations people are empowered, included, and supported to contribute to the development and delivery of climate emergency plans and strategies. The collaboration built a shared approach to environmental management, where First Nations perspectives have been given equal weight, with cross-cultural ways of working developed. The partnership led to improved outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the community through education, leadership, and capacity building. The second goal was to improve the council’s climate emergency response through a weaving of diverse knowledge systems to inform how to best adapt to a changing climate.

MERRI-BEK CITY COUNCIL RENAMING CITY COUNCIL PROJECT TEAM

Renaming Moreland City Council

Merri-bek is the new name of the former Moreland City Council, with the council having partnered with Wurundjeri Elders to design and deliver a successful name change process in 2022 after research uncovered that “Moreland” had origins associated with global slavery and local dispossession.

The council worked closely alongside the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, the registered Aboriginal Party formally representing Traditional Owners, to facilitate a respectful and meaningful name change process. The process was part of the council honouring a commitment to reconciliation and recognising Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people as the Traditional Owners of the area.

Three options were presented for community consultation with over 6,300 responses received. Among Jerrang meaning “leaf of tree,” and Wa-dam-buk meaning “renew,” the ultimate decision came to adopting the name Merri-bek meaning “rocky country.”

Community engagement was extensive given the diversity of opinions, media attention, and competing advocacy campaigns in the community. The council set aside a budget for this engagement to address concerns, from public information sessions and stakeholder discussions to multi-platform surveys and submission processes. To ensure the full spectrum of the community was involved, the council reached out to senior citizen groups, youth ambassadors, early years educators, interfaith community leaders, service provider networks, advisory committees, and CALD community groups.

Whitehorse Continuous Improvement Program

The Whitehorse Continuous Improvement (CI) Program builds capability with a cohort of staff to deliver business and service improvements with quantifiable benefits back to the community. To date, certified CI champions have delivered in excess of $4.1million in financial benefits across more than 100 improvement projects.

Since inception these new and streamlined processes have resulted in:

ƒ Nearly 63,000 staff hours, now being redirected to meet new and increased demands,

ƒ Over 20,000 days improved response time for our customers, and

ƒ 151,000 self-service online transactions.

By 2030, our Continuous Improvement (CI) Program is committed to deliver $20million of financial benefits supporting Council’s financial sustainability.

Initiatives that demonstrate new ways of leading, facilitating, administering, controlling, or ensuring a particular outcome is achieved and create positive changes to the management of an organisation’s practices or projects.

• Clarity of program/project objectives and outcomes

• Originality and effectiveness of the initiative

• Achievement of project versus intention

• Sustainability/transferability of the initiative

• Demonstrated leadership

• Glen Eira City Council, Casey City Council, Brimbank City Council

Child Safe E-learn Partnership

Child Safe E-learn Module Development

• Southern Grampians Shire Council

Economic Development and Business Systems Teams

DigitalInnovationandSmartAgricultureFestival(DISA)

• Kingston City Council

Speak Up Platform

• Whitehorse City Council

Whitehorse Continuous Improvement Team

Continuous Improvement Program

INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE

EIRA CITY COUNCIL, CASEY CITY COUNCIL, BRIMBANK CITY COUNCIL CHILD SAFE E-LEARN PARTNERSHIP

Child Safe E-learn Module Development

Following the introduction of new Victorian Child Safe Standards, an initial group of 16 councils embarked on an initiative to develop a child safeguarding e-learning module to support their collective need to equip staff and volunteers with the knowledge and skills to keep children and young people safe.

Implementation of new legislative requirements often results in duplication of effort across the Local Government sector. The objective of the project was to establish an inter-council partnership to meet these new legislative obligations collectively, making the learning relevant to the council context, and reducing the resource cost of the update.

After quickly growing to 22 councils participating, the module has since been adopted by 34 councils, representing almost half the Victorian Local Government workforce, helping them meet their legislative obligations and giving people the skills to recognise, respond to, and report incidents, allegations, concerns, and disclosures of child abuse, harm, or neglect.

Initiated by Casey City Council, it was determined that the involvement of both child safe officers and learning and development officers from each council would achieve the best outcomes. A Child Safe E-learn Working Group was convened to undertake an analysis of training needs and determine the project’s plan. As the subject matter experts, child safe officers led by Casey and Glen Eira developed the learning content while learning and development officers led by Brimbank converted this into an e-learning format that could be applied to multiple learning platforms.

In a successful example of inter-council collaboration, all councils in the partnership provided feedback that resulting in a fit-for-purpose child safeguarding e-learn module written and developed for Local Government by Local Government. This initiative is a demonstration of how small projects and even small councils working as a collective can create large impacts across the sector. With the implementation of Child Safe Standards being a relatively new area of practice with many councils not having the resources to recruit dedicated child safe officers to guide their implementation, such a collaborative approach has been an immense benefit to much of the sector.

GLEN

INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE

SOUTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE COUNCIL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS TEAMS

Digital Innovation and Smart Agriculture Festival (DISA)

Many smaller regional and rural councils are faced with the challenges of attracting investment, growing their populations, and providing their communities with the same opportunities and connectivity as their larger metropolitan counterparts. The Digital Innovation and Smart Agriculture (DISA) Festival was created to bridge this divide.

The DISA Festival is a three-day event that takes participants onto farms, into laneways, and into Smart Agriculture workshops, showcasing digital pathways for youth and connecting participants with the many practitioners of smart technology that are becoming increasingly important to the regional way of life.

The new event that began in 2019 and returned in 2021 looks beyond council boundaries to help regional Victorian communities implement innovative practices, partnerships, and technology to uplift the regions, showcasing how rural communities can and are embracing new technology to gain an edge.

DISA has been helping councils fulfil their long-term goals for the communities they serve, from reducing the digital divide between metropolitan and rural communities to nurturing local innovation and start-up environments, attracting businesses to regional areas, and retaining young talent. Learning about how technology could be applied to regional contexts and farming in 2019 has gone from being a new concept to an ingrained idea, where farmers arrived at the 2021 event looking to implement these technologies and realise the benefits.

An event of this scale was new to Southern Grampians Shire Council before the 2019 debut, but its organisers had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve, with passionate staff and the support of leadership behind them. They worked with external partners who brought agricultural experience into the planning process, “putting them in the farmers’ shoes” to better understand what kind of event would (and would not) work for them. After a small financial loss in the first event, the following returned a profit with a growth in sponsorship and attendance, paving the way for a sustainable future.

INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE

KINGSTON CITY COUNCIL Speak Up Platform

The Victorian Auditor General’s Office audit into sexual harassment in Local Government in late 2020 highlighted where the sector needed to improve, including the need to improve access to reporting mechanisms. Separate audits of councils, including those assessing corruption and fraud controls, and staff surveys have indicated that incidents of misconduct may be underreported.

Committed to promoting organisational integrity and safety, Kingston City Council implemented an anonymous reporting line, the Speak Up! Platform. This unique software, the first known implementation of its kind in a local government, allows staff, volunteers, and Councillors to anonymously report misconduct while enabling Human Resources and Governance staff to engage in two-way communication with the reporter while protecting their anonymity.

Unlike other anonymous reporting tools, the two-way communication platform allows for further investigation, support, and greater opportunities for resolution. A dynamic system, the platform supports reports of any misconduct including inappropriate behaviour, sexual harassment, fraud, and corruption.

The solution was developed to address the risk to organisational culture and trust, aimed at supporting safety and integrity across the whole organisation. Its implementation saw increased access to the reporting of misconduct in a way that promoted safety and integrity, increasing trust for all staff, volunteers, Councillors, and – by extension – the community.

WHITEHORSE CITY COUNCIL WHITEHORSE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT TEAM

Continuous Improvement Program

Like many councils across Victoria, Whitehorse City Council is operating within a constrained financial environment to meet ever-increasing demand for services from a diverse, growing community. Whitehorse’s Continuous Improvement (CI) Program was implemented to respond to these challenges and drive a culture and practise of continuous improvement across the organisation.

The CI Program builds capability and capacity with a cohort of nominated staff to deliver business and service improvements with clear and quantifiable benefits back to the community. The program builds internal capacity and capability to drive optimisation, data-driven solutions, cross-functional collaboration, and customer satisfaction.

Candidates for the program are high performers with an aptitude for customer service, change management, systems, and statistics, coupled with a commitment for professional development. After four days of internal training and then further certification, the CI Champions are embedded in their respective departments where they fulfil their existing responsibilities while leveraging support from a Coordinator Continuous Improvement to create efficiencies.

To date, these champions have delivered over three million dollars in financial benefits across more than 100 improvement projects. The streamlined processes introduced on the back of the program have redirected nearly 60,000 staff hours to meet new and increased demands, improved customer response times to the tune of nearly 18,000 days, and have seen more than 120,000 self-service transactions processed online.

This is a new category and has been introduced to recognise the resource challenges faced by smaller rural councils. Nominations received from eligible councils in the existing categories (except for Young Achiever) were automatically entered into this new category and have been assessed based on a separate set of criteria by the judging panel.

• Demonstration of program/project objectives and measurable outcomes

• Demonstrated innovative approach

• Size and complexity of initiative relative to funding

• Impact of initiative on community/organisation, relative to resources and cost

• Transferability of initiative

• Hepburn Shire Council

Hepburn Shire Council Community Life Team

Aged Care and Disability Services Transition

• Yarriambiack Shire Council

Hopetoun Powerhouse Project

• Mount Alexander Shire Council

The Village Square

OUTSTANDING SMALL RURAL COUNCIL INITIATIVE

HEPBURN SHIRE COUNCIL

HEPBURN SHIRE COUNCIL COMMUNITY LIFE TEAM

Aged Care and Disability Services Transition

Hepburn Shire Council sought to understand the impacts of the Commonwealth Aged Care reforms so that their Council could make informed decisions that would be in the best interests of the Hepburn community.

A small, rural Shire with only 15,000 people and limited resources, Hepburn developed a project control group to oversee the project, ensuring that strict probity and governance requirements were met along with extensive community consultation. This resulted in Council making a decision to transition to two new service providers and the creation of a community-wide positive ageing strategy.

Providing Council a thorough understanding of the reform environment so that it could make an informed decision regarding the future of service provision for particularly vulnerable community members meant wide consultation was necessary.

Pop up consultations were held across all villages and hamlets in the Shire and included consultations on the development of a positive ageing strategy.

Occurring during the pandemic, important letters to clients and family members were hand delivered so that they would be the first to know of Council decisions while postal delays were expected. Consultation extended to other councils which have been on similar journeys and which have since contacted Hepburn for advice and resources in transitioning to new service provision paradigms with new providers.

This process saw the council bring on value-aligned service providers which brought with them service provision features that would ensure a seamless client journey for community members. Community feedback on the transition has been overwhelmingly positive, with the council continuing to play an important role in helping the community navigate ageing and aged care services.

OUTSTANDING SMALL RURAL COUNCIL INITIATIVE

YARRIAMBIACK SHIRE COUNCIL Hopetoun Powerhouse Project

The Hopetoun Powerhouse originally opened in 1913 as Hopetoun's Power Supply. An iconic but disused building located in the heart of Victoria's silo art trail, the Hopetoun Powerhouse has been transformed into an art studio and exhibition space combined with modern accommodation. When not in use as a studio retreat, gallery, or workshop venue, the revived historical building acts as a lodging, providing a welcome retreat to weary travellers.

Providing opportunities for people within north-western Victoria and visitors to the region to develop, visit, participate in, and explore the arts, the revival of this building was part of a series of projects that aimed to enhance art and culture across the Yarriambiack Shire Council municipality. Vic Track investment into the development of the Woomelang Railway Station, the Patchewollock Railway Station, and the development of the Warracknabeal former Court House building, has been part of an overarching plan to capitalise on historical buildings within the Shire to promote arts and culture within the region.

The Powerhouse's new life as an art studio provides artists with a versatile space to relax, create, and find inspiration from the surrounds, from the nearby silo art and neighbouring towns to the shores of Lake Lascelles. The project brought together a community that was feeling disillusioned coming out of pandemic lockdowns with widely embraced arts and culture programs offering positive social wellbeing outcomes.

There have since been a diverse range of arts projects and installations utilising the Powerhouse and employing artists across varying mediums. Residencies have been attracting art-loving visitors to Hopetoun through exhibitions, installations, and broadly by contributing more attractions to the town. Meanwhile, they have provided a new tool for arts education while promoting the town as a tourism destination.

OUTSTANDING SMALL RURAL COUNCIL INITIATIVE

MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE COUNCIL The Village Square

The Village Square was a successful, temporary activation of a large block of vacant land in the heart of Castlemaine, supporting the development, retention, and recovery of the region’s creative industries and provided a welcoming space to safely gather outdoors.

Supported by three Victorian State Government funding programs, the project included the establishment of a ‘Curatorium’ comprising of community-focused producers delivering professional development pathways through cultural activities and workshops, primarily focused on young people.

The project demonstrated the value of partnering with creative industries to reimagine and activate under-utilised spaces.

An ‘embedded artist’ was engaged to help drive creative thinking and co-design approaches, resulting in the Village Square becoming an organic and evolving space that has allowed the community to determine its programming and infrastructure directions, including its carbon neutrality.

This infrastructure and programming were seasonally responsive and developed for a wide range of uses, resulting in a much-loved community venue.

The flexible and accessible new workspace it has offered responded to demand for outdoor activities following Victoria’s pandemic lockdowns. It has shown that when seeking to improve public spaces, an investment in people and creativity is as important as a council’s investment in infrastructure.

Initiatives demonstrating best practice or the pursuit of excellence in service delivery to the community or a specified target market that will be continued.

• Clarity of demonstrated outcomes

• Benefits relative to cost

• Size and complexity of initiative relative to funding and resources

• Innovative and defining features

• Effectiveness/transferability

• Financial sustainability

• Ability to meet specific clients/target group needs

• Yarra City Council

Yarra Libraries Library Management Team

Open Libraries

• Brimbank City Council

Brimbank Neighbourhood House Unit

Hospitality Skills Training and Mentoring Program

• Frankston City Council

Frankston Maternal and Child Health Team

Healthy & Safe Communities

• Glen Eira City Council

Glen Eira Mums

SERVICE DELIVERY INITIATIVE

YARRA CITY COUNCIL YARRA LIBRARIES LIBRARY MANAGEMENT TEAM

Open Libraries

Yarra City Council introduced a radical concept to the way public libraries operate in early 2022: they allowed the community the access library buildings outside of the usual opening hours, completely unstaffed.

Inspired by Europe’s public and academic libraries that offer 24/7 library access, the Open Libraries initiative has since been allowing members to use two of five community libraries outside of scheduled open times. After-hours access includes the ability to use WiFi, borrow and return books, use public computers (and the linked printing, scanning, and copying services), and the use of study spaces.

The project required an investment in security software, security cameras, and automation for lights and air conditioning, making the unstaffed locations as safe as possible for the community to access. Members are required to attend a simple induction program to upgrade their library membership, thenceforth gaining access to the libraries out of hours.

This has effectively increased library opening hours by 84 hours per week without increasing staffing overheads. Rather, staff time was allocated to set up policies and procedures, risk assessment, guidelines for membership, and the inductions which are now a business-as-usual process. After setup costs, the only ongoing expenditure is on security monitoring, cleaning of branches on public holidays, and utility bills.

Since implementation, the project has seen over 1,700 visits outside of usual business hours at one location and nearly 2,000 at another, from students using the facilities to study in the times that suit them to parents using the spaces with their children before school times and on weekends. Successfully responding to persistent community feedback about prohibitive opening hours and with positive feedback being received for the change so far, Yarra City Council’s goal over the coming years is to expand the all-day service to all locations.

SERVICE DELIVERY INITIATIVE

BRIMBANK CITY COUNCIL BRIMBANK NEIGHBOURHOOD HOUSE UNIT

Hospitality Skills Training and Mentoring Program

Due to COVID-19, many hospitality professionals left the industry in search of more secure employment. The problem was exacerbated by the cessation of migration. Hospitality and food preparation staff are high on the list of future workforce requirements and Brimbank meanwhile has high youth unemployment rates, with an increasing level of youth disengagement.

The Hospitality Skills Training and Mentoring program was developed as a practical response to both local unemployment as well as the broader workforce and skills shortages plaguing local governments since the advent of the pandemic.

Programs were delivered in partnership with Jesuit Community College and involved participants experiencing structural unemployment and other vulnerabilities receiving training and certification, from barista training and food handling to Responsible Service of Alcohol certification. Beyond training, the program offered holistic employment support including supervised work experience in local hospitality businesses, access to industry mentors, job readiness activities like interview practise, references, and referrals to further support as necessary.

A co-design process was used to develop the training and mentoring program. Underpinned by a ‘no wrong door’ philosophy, the council worked with learners and the College to develop programs that reflected their aspirations. The content, style, and format of the training sessions took into account participants’ individual needs, factoring in English as a second language or learning difficulties, for example.

A distinct training program was developed for a particular ethnic group in collaboration between Arts, Libraries, and Neighbourhood Houses, for example. The program was co-facilitated by a librarian of that ethnicity and provided for a group of newly arrived female migrants, giving them access to childcare to further reduce their barriers to participation.

Training was delivered across three different sites in Brimbank where all participants successfully completed their courses, providing positive feedback on their confidence in the work-ready skills and experience they acquired.

SERVICE DELIVERY INITIATIVE

FRANKSTON CITY COUNCIL FRANKSTON MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH TEAM

Healthy & Safe Communities

Evidence suggests that women are at greatest risk of experiencing family violence from an intimate partner during pregnancy and postpartum. This disturbing reality, combined with the prevalence and continued increase of family violence incidents in the municipality, led to Frankston City Council developing an efficient, safe service that would streamline referrals and access to legal services.

In recognition of family violence being a community issue but also the difficulty of accessing supports that are free, prompt, and offered in a safe setting, Frankston City Council collaborated with Peninsula Community Legal Centre to develop a service to provide Maternal and Child Health clients access to family violence support. The two partners operate from the same site and, through referral pathways, clients are provided with discreet, safe, and fast access to this highly valuable service.

The service’s goal was to increase awareness around family violence while providing clients with accessible and safe support delivered by a qualified lawyer. The service engages at-risk clients in a discreet manner, offering a warm referral to a qualified lawyer. To date, over 60 women have been supported through family violence situations utilising this service.

GLEN EIRA CITY COUNCIL Glen Eira Mums

Violence against women affects a significant number of women and young children and is a serious public health and social problem. Incidents of family violence are underreported, and research indicates that women are at greater risk of experiencing violence from an intimate partner during pregnancy and early parenthood. Established as a pilot program as a proactive response to the Royal Commission into Family Violence to address violence against women, the Glen Eira Mums (GEMS) Project was established in 2018 in joint partnership between Glen Eira City Council’s Maternal and Child Health Service and Peninsula Community Legal Service to respond to the growing incidence of family violence in the community. The initiative was designed to provide early intervention to family violence, operating within the Maternal and Child Health Service (MCH) to provide women with legal assistance in an integrated, safe setting. Services provide target mothers and families experiencing family violence, supporting them with legal advice, information, referral, casework, legal representation, and secondary consults.

GEMS aims to assist mothers experiencing disadvantage and vulnerability with legal issues arising out of family violence to improve their own and their children’s safety through access to legal advice and representation. It ensures that mothers receive the emotional and legal support that they need to maximise their safety, with a confidential space to disclose and discuss their situation.

Initiatives that are exceptional and one-off. Projects entered in this category are original and assist the community over and above the council’s day to day activities.

• Clarity of demonstrated outcomes

• Benefits relative to cost

• Innovative and defining features

• Sustainability/transferability

• Ability to meet specific clients/target group needs

• Macedon Ranges Shire Council

Storm Response Team

Storm Green Waste Processing Site

• Merri-bek City Council

Creative Coburg Team

Creative Coburg

• Frankston City Council

Transparency Hub

• Mornington Peninsula Shire Council

Traffic and Transport Team

Mornington Peninsula Shire Safer Speeds

SPECIAL PROJECTS INITIATIVE

MACEDON RANGES SHIRE COUNCIL STORM RESPONSE TEAM

Storm Green Waste Processing Site

Standard practice across Victoria following storms, fires, or flood emergencies has been to burn or mulch green waste. Although beneficial in quickly removing debris, this approach ignores the potential productive uses of felled trees and green waste. Macedon Ranges Shire Council partnered with Bushfire Recovery Victoria (BRV) to establish a new precedent for how councils respond following a natural emergency.

This special initiative saw an innovative green waste processing site developed at Romsey following the devastation of the June 2021 storm, transforming the understanding of the value of storm-damaged vegetation as a reusable resource for assisting in the rebuilding of the economic, social, and natural environments in the wake of a natural emergency. The facility processed over 65,000 tonnes of tree and storm debris that was then returned to impacted communities as usable products free of charge, from timber and firewood to fencing and mulch.

The project was an impact investment benefitting storm-affected communities, reducing risk to life and livelihood by removing dangerous trees and providing a resilient emergency response to support recovery in future disasters. While the purpose-built facility cost approximately $13.5 million to create, it generated over $27.5 million in sellable products and found financial support from other levels of government, relieving some of the financial burden that follows a natural disaster while reinforcing a case for this process to become a standard emergency green waste processing model.

Rather than presenting green waste in emergency recovery as a problem of material disposal, the council took a novel approach: it transformed the perception of storm waste and introduced sustainability by reframing vegetation waste as a usable, durable, lasting timber product rather than a low-value mess to be eradicated. Thinking big and outside the box was key to the site’s success, leading to better outcomes for storm-affected communities. This sector-leading initiative used adaptive leadership techniques to create a viable flagship facility that other local governments can now use should an emergency of similar consequence occur.

SPECIAL PROJECTS INITIATIVE

MERRI-BEK CITY COUNCIL CREATIVE COBURG TEAM

Creative Coburg

Merri-bek City Council transformed an under-utilised supermarket into a vibrant arts space, revitalising central Coburg. The Creative Coburg project facilitated the conversion of 3,000 square metres of floorspace into low-cost arts, community, and events space to be leveraged by the struggling local arts community.

The council negotiated a low-rent lease for Schoolhouse Studios to move their studios and gallery into a Council-owned former Coles supermarket and developed a new outdoor space, ‘Coburg Courtyard,’ converting a run-down building and carpark into a lively arts and community hub.

With the council having already acquired the strategic property adjacent to Coburg train station in the early 2000’s to renew the activity centre of Coburg, they were in a unique position to leverage their owned asset. Council officers, acting as both head landlord and place revitalisation professionals, facilitated a five-year sub-lease from Coles to Schoolhouse Studios at a deeply discounted rate to enable the transformation of the building to become a new creative heart for central Coburg.

Schoolhouse Studios has consistent demand for their affordable studio spaces and venue, including as a venue for the RISING festival. With over 60 artists regularly attending the site along with regular artist and community hires, the building and its surrounds have since seen a resurgence of creative activity and have prompted increased visitation and trade in Coburg.

The venue also provides a new, COVID-safe, outdoor space for play and rest that has enabled opportunities for new and renewed social connection in the wake of the pandemic. This has responded directly to a community call for support with social connection (reported as the second highest community need in Merri-bek during the pandemic). The accessibility and inclusiveness of the space has gone on to further support groups with more prevalent social isolation including older people, those with a disability, and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

SPECIAL PROJECTS INITIATIVE

FRANKSTON CITY COUNCIL Transparency Hub

Developed through extensive consultation across the municipality, Frankston City Council’s Transparency Hub has seen Frankston become the first Victorian council to give its community an online transparency portal that gives the community easy access to and understanding of council datasets.

The council-wide initiative is a digital hub providing the public with direct access to past and present data and other material from the council and its controlled entities. The data is published in an intuitive, user-friendly technology platform with the ability to analyse, visualise, and download data sets.

Data is made accessible through interactive visualisations, contextual storytelling, and a platform that allows the user to interrogate the data as they desire, from building their own charts and graphs to downloading the data to parse by their own means.

Publishing sensitive or confidential data would be considered a data breach, and datasets such as contracts awarded, grants, finances, and major projects all have the potential to be misconstrued. Being conscious of and sensitive to the need to ensure data security, all datasets were heavily scrutinised in terms of how context could be added to ensure they could be understood and accurately reported on, enabling a clearer understanding of how the council was performing. Council adopted a Data Exchange Policy to clearly articulate what could and could not be published to this end.

MORNINGTON PENINSULA SHIRE COUNCIL TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORT TEAM

Mornington Peninsula Shire

Safer Speeds

Mornington Peninsula Shire Council recorded one of its worst rates of fatalities and serious injuries in recent history in 2019, with 12 people losing their lives on roads and a further 200 acute hospitalisation claims lodged with the Transport Accident Commission following crashes within the Shire’s boundaries.

Research has shown that a reduction in vehicle speeds results in a disproportionally large decrease in risk. By travelling 10km per hour slower, the risk of being killed or seriously injured in a crash reduces by up to 40 per cent, for example.

Pushing for a downward trend, the council began a two-year trial of 80km per hour speed limits across 33 former 90 to 100km rural roads in late 2019 – one of the largest local government-led speed limit projects in Victoria.

With a vision of improving the safety of these high-risk roads, independent evaluations using data from both the council and the Transport Accident Commission have since found positive indications of change, with a 68 per cent reduction in serious or even fatal injuries at the time of nomination. The data has fuelled majority support for the changes from residents, with the reduced speed limits to be retained and even expanded to unsealed roads in the rea.

Initiatives that demonstrate excellence in the delivery of environmentally sustainable processes or projects. These provide a new way of ensuring programs, projects, and developments meet present needs without compromising future generations.

• Clarity of the initiative’s outcomes

• Innovative features

• Size and complexity of initiative relative to funding

• Cost benefits

• Sustainability of project

• Yarra Ranges Shire Council Environmental Stewardship Team Ribbons of Green Program

• Darebin City Council

Rewilding Darebin

• Strathbogie Shire Council

Greening Euroa Steering Committee Greening Euroa Project

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE

YARRA RANGES SHIRE COUNCIL ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP TEAM

Ribbons of Green Program

The Ribbons of Green program has been providing advice, support, and tangible resources for residents to restore native habitats on privately held land over the last decade. The program has been fostering environmental stewardship on the community, educating landowners in the benefits of native revegetation. With inbuilt incentives, the program has been providing logistical support and indigenous plants to landholders who volunteer to restore indigenous vegetation on their land.

In its most recent year, the program has seen the planning and delivery of revegetation projects on 80 private properties, indigenous plants and advice for teachers provided at 10 schools, ecology advice provided to a further 60 private properties, and the facilitation of free indigenous plants for more than 100 storm affected landowners in the Dandenong Ranges.

A program evaluation in 2018 interrogating plant survival and habitat structure found that almost all respondents noticed more wildlife on their property and 76 per cent of plants survived.

The evaluation prompted six recommendations to improve the program’s biodiversity outcomes and customer satisfaction and evaluations continue annually to maximise the positive impact of the program.

The Ribbons of Green program provides tangible solutions to property owners across Yarra Ranges, with far-reaching benefits including the connection of remnant bushland, the re-establishment of indigenous flora in an area where they had once existed, the provision of habitats for wildlife, an increase in biodiversity, and practical steps toward the mitigation of the effects of climate change.

Plantings from the program are actively contributing to habitat connectivity in the landscape, providing pollen, structure, and living spaces for animals and insects. These plantings have been increasing soil stability, water retention, and shelter for stock, sequestering carbon and beautifying private property.

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE

DAREBIN CITY COUNCIL Rewilding Darebin

Darebin City Council declared a Climate Emergency in 2016, recognising the need to support landscapes and communities to adapt and become resilient to changes in climate. This declaration led to the introduction of the Rewilding Darebin project in 2020.

Rewilding Darebin provides accessible, healthy, and resilient ecosystems that respect the indigenous character of the landscape in urban areas. Through the program, open spaces are transformed for the benefit of the area’s diverse communities and its biodiversity.

The project has sought to address the detrimental effects that urbanisation, exacerbated by climate change, has had on nature and people’s wellbeing.

Specifically, it targets the issues of reduced habitat for local fauna, weed infestations, increased stormwater run-off, the urban heat island effect, and residents’ lack of access to nature.

At the core of the Rewilding project is the joint achievement of social and environmental outcomes. Two years since launch, the project has seen 23 hectares of land transformed, 400,000 indigenous plants planted, and more than 80 people employed in the process.

Addressing the impact of densified urbanisation on biodiversity and people’s wellbeing, this has been a local response to climate change, a loss of biodiversity, and a growing land degradation crisis.

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE

STRATHBOGIE SHIRE COUNCIL GREENING EUROA STEERING COMMITTEE Greening Euroa Project

The Greening Euroa Project is an innovative, community-driven initiative that seeks to have recycled water used irrigate public green spaces during the summer months – an imperative for the health and wellbeing of a community prone to drought.

It was in 2020, while the Euroa community was being ravished by years of prolonged drought, that pressure on the town’s drinking water became so strained that the local water authority had to impose stage three water restrictions over the township.

While the Sevens Creek was drying up and bore water was unreliable, water usage in Euroa remained high even though adherence to water restrictions was strong. It was discovered that Council facilities like sporting fields were using potable water when the non-potable supply dried up.

Water began being trucked in for irrigation of sporting fields and parkland to maintain green open spaces while reducing demand on the potable system. It was from this experience that the Greening Euroa Project evolved.

Now in the third year of our corporate strategy Future

Ready Frankston, we are seeing clear improvements in our key areas of:

Culture: Living our values, developing our leaders and exhibiting positive workplace behaviours

Capability: Supporting skills development, fostering innovation and strengthening mindsets

Connectivity: Seamlessly integrating our systems, workflows and communication

Customer: Focusing on our customers, their engagements and their platforms

As a result, we have been short listed for yet more innovation awards at this year’s LG Pro Awards for Excellence, for both an individual staff member and team.

The project has sought to tap into excess water from the Euroa Waste Water Treatment Plant to deliver recycled water into tanks across Euroa to irrigate schools, sporting grounds, and public ovals in a first-of-its-kind initiative that is climate-smart, cost-efficient, and community-inspired.

Vibrant, adaptive, proud

Community satisfaction has jumped up from 59 per cent (2020) to 2022 (71 per cent) as well as staff engagement by a huge 20 per cent in last two years.

Our transformative projects have recently included a new transparency hub, smart cities infrastructure and initiatives such as smart parking and digital wayfinding and a customer service strategy focusing on foundation, integration and innovation.

The Transparency Hub is one of only a few in Australia and provides an overview of Frankston City Council’s decisionmaking and activities. It includes detailed financial records from Council, stakeholders, asset management data (Frankston’s Capital Works Program), procurement data (>$200,000) and more.

As a designated Metropolitan Activity Centre, Frankston City is on the brink of major change and growth. Our already vibrant, thriving City is fulfilling its potential as a major hub for investment and development, with innovation and people at the forefront of our future.

If you are keen to learn about the opportunities at Frankston City Council please visit: frankston.vic.gov.au

This award acknowledges recognisable achievements of people up to 30 years of age working in Local Government.

• Major achievements of the nominee

• Demonstrated leadership qualities

• Level of commitment to driving change

• Specific individual contribution made to Council and/or sector

• Commitment to self-development

• Elena Spanos Principal Strategic Planner, Revitalisation City of Casey

• Chrissy Athanasopoulos Coordinator Continuous Improvement Frankston City Council

• Dominique Foenander Manager Governance

Baw Baw Shire Council

• Rebecca Botheras Projects Coordinator

Yarriambiack Shire Council

YOUNG ACHIEVER

CITY OF CASEY ELENA SPANOS

Principal Strategic Planner, Revitalisation

Elena Spanos seeks to create sustainable and socially just places while inspiring those around her to achieve their workplace goals.

In her formal role, she works to build organisational social capital to foster an understanding and appreciation of the impacts urban development has on the economic, social, and physical environment. As a leader, she makes encouraging, bold, and impactful decisions while mentoring junior staff, supporting them to develop their technical skills and contribute toward positive change in the community they serve.

A natural problem-solver with a knack for effective collaboration, Elena has a talent for bringing the right people to the table to make decisions. She has successfully gained buy-in from all areas of the organisation and championed thought-leadership and action in establishing a place-based, whole-of-organisation approach to revitalisation.

An active listener and collaborator, Elena carefully considers the feedback and advice received from subject-matter experts and stakeholders when preparing policies and strategies to ensure that they maintain that buy-in when they see a familiar, final version of a proposal.

Her commitment to this inclusive policy development has meant that projects like the Cranbourne Structure Plan are more than just another planning policy, having included input from over 30 staff across the organisation and at all levels.

Taking a patient, methodical, and data-driven approach meant that Elena was successful in receiving in-principal support from the Department of Transport for Council to work through road space reallocation and streetscape improvements for the Cranbourne Major Activity Centre which will be truly transformational.

Elena has continually demonstrated her leadership and passion for inclusivity, community, and social justice. She has exceeded the expectations of her role by participating in programs to improve gender equity in the community and supporting youth with career pathways. In addition to being a senior member of a high-functioning team, Elena is also one of the City of Casey’s ‘Engagement Experts’ and a Gender Advocate, championing gender equality across the organisation. This involves day and night-time audits with the City of Casey’s Gender Equality Task Force that will go on to influence the development of policy and projects across the council.

YOUNG ACHIEVER

FRANKSTON CITY COUNCIL

CHRISSY ATHANASOPOULOS Coordinator Continuous Improvement

Chrissy Athanasopoulos is a personable, self-aware young leader who is quick to garner credibility, with a strong focus on relationship building. Highly organised with a bias for action, Chrissy’s leadership is authentic and empowers others, providing a model for all professionals working alongside her looking to progress their careers.

Destined for senior leadership, Chrissy has displayed all the traits and characteristics sought in a leader yet has continued to look for avenues of personal growth and professional improvement. Having come from a Statutory Planning administrative support role without a transformation or leadership background, she has come to lead some of the largest teams within an enterprise-wide transformation department in only a few years.

In Chrissy's short time at Frankston City Council, she has successfully acted as the Coordinator Digital and Data for four months during a critical period of business transformation and has gone on to act as the Coordinator Continuous Improvement for a further six months.

Chrissy has driven critical improvements within Statutory Planning, Customer Service, as well developing the council's critical transformation pipeline for 2022.

Not only has Chrissy deftly switched between roles, managing multiple staff, and ensuring all projects remained on track, she has also supported newly adopted teams by empowering them to work autonomously while offering tangible support and direction as required. Upon return to the role of Continuous Improvement Officer, Chrissy delivered a critical roadmap for the organisation’s highest priority element of its transformation program, Future Ready Frankston. In the process, she oversaw an increase from 63 per cent to 71 per cent in staff engagement from her team in 2022.

YOUNG ACHIEVER

BAW BAW SHIRE COUNCIL DOMINIQUE FOENANDER Manager Governance

Dominique Foenander epitomises leadership, with a clear sense of purpose and the drive to achieve. Commencing her Local Government career at Baw Baw Shire Council in 2015 as a casual in the West Gippsland Arts Centre cafe, she had set her sights on developing her career, quickly rising through the organisation to become one of Baw Baw’s youngest female managers in 2021.

Now responsible for the council’s Governance, Property and Risk portfolio, Dominique has actively improved the culture of her team, refreshed risk management across the organisation, and spearheaded efficiencies in governance processes. In her first 12 months, she identified and lead improvements in each of her portfolios and fostered a positive transformation in the culture of her team to develop one of the highest-performing business units, according to an organisation-wide staff engagement survey.

In addition to her regular duties, Dominique is the longest-serving member of the council's Growing Culture Consultative Committee and a founding member of the Future Ready Baw Baw design team, a change management program readying the organisation for the challenges of the future. As one of the first to volunteer to co-design Future Ready, she established its momentum and lead group activities at the program’s launch to the organisation’s leadership team.

Dominique is trusted and respected by her council’s leadership team, Councillors, and the community alike, known for her integrity, strong work ethic, and commitment to culture. Having achieved so much in such a short amount of time, she has paved the way for an exceptional career ahead of her.

YARRIAMBIACK SHIRE COUNCIL REBECCA BOTHERAS Projects Coordinator

Rebecca Botheras is a collaborator by nature with big-picture vision. Growing up in rural Victoria, she brings an empathetic understanding of the challenges rural communities face to her work. Rebecca is a leader of change, being innovative and adaptive.

Rebecca is adept at meaningfully engaging with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, understanding their challenges, and assisting them in navigating complex problems and finding solutions.

The highly regarded young professional has recently taken on a project coordination role where she epitomises sound project management. She has a passion for and love of sport and recreation which shines through when she is planning and delivering her projects. Her ability to negotiate and communicate has been instrumental in ensuring successful outcomes for her projects.

As a leader, Rebecca listens, is rational, and makes informed and considered decisions. She is recognised by her peers as a teacher, a collaborator, and a problem solver with vision. Her professionalism is infectious, making staff around her proud to be part of her team.

A self-starter, Rebecca championed the organisation’s digital transformation, providing training and selling the positive benefits of new systems and processes to staff across the organisation. One step further, she also championed the procurement processes and the council’s compliance obligations, along with the systems and processes required, mentoring fellow co-workers to support their onboarding.

A career at Baw Baw goes beyond business as

usual.

Scan to learn more about Baw Baw Shire

Council’s culture, benefits and available opportunities.

At Baw Baw, you’ll find exciting development pathways rich in opportunity. Our thriving and engaged culture first workplace is built on the passion and talent of people who proudly deliver vital services and exciting projects to a community they care about.

Employment with our Council offers diversity and inclusiveness, career development opportunities, and a flexible and satisfying work environment.

LGPRO EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM (XLP)

The Executive Leadership Program is designed exclusively to equip and support senior executives in Local Government, particularly Chief Executive Officers and Directors, to expand and develop their skills and knowledge to assist them in becoming confident and capable leaders in the sector.

2022 XLP GRADUATES

Kellie Vise

Glen Eira City Council

Bruce Lucas Hepburn Shire Council

Tony Ljaskevic Kingston City Council

Travis Fitzgibbon Buloke Shire Council

Jodi Kennedy Bass Coast Shire Council

Michael Annear

Mount Alexander Shire Council

Sasha Lord Manningham Council

Mike McIntosh Mornington Peninsula Shire Council

Daniel Basham

Campaspe Shire Council

Darren Bennett Banyule City Council

Helen Havercroft

Alpine Shire Council

Paul Fernee

Gannawarra Shire Council

Bridget Wetherall Ballarat Shire Council

Eamonn Fennessy

Moreland City Council

Colette McMahon

Casey City Council

Georgia Hills

Moira Shire Council

Amanda Tingay

Strathbogie Shire Council

Matthew Irving

Hobsons Bay City Council

Rebecca Solomon

Brimbank City Council

Keri New

Casey City Council

Renae Littlejohn

South Gippsland Shire Council

Corinne Bowen

Yarra Ranges Council

Shane Walden

Macedon Ranges Shire Council

Emma Woolaston

Towong Shire Council

Megan Kruger

Hume City Council

2022 XLP graduates

2022 XLP Program proudly sponsored by

2023 XLP PARTICIPANTS

Tony Caccaviello

Yarriambiack Shire Council

Cam Arullanantham

Frankston City Council

Wei Chen

Yarra City Council

Callum Pattie

Casey City Council

Bulent Oz

Mornington Peninsula Shire Council

Jody Riordan

Latrobe City Council

Sean McManus

Melton City Council

Bryan Wee

Boroondara City Council

Emma Little

Central Goldfields Shire Council

Janine Morgan Whittlesea City Council

Daniel McLoughlan

Buloke Shire Council

Judy Chalkley

Knox City Council

Natasha Swan

Banyule City Council

Yvonne Callanan

Merri-bek City Council

Nicole Laurie

Moonee Valley City Council

Debbie Tyson

Cardinia Shire Council

David Rae

Moyne Shire Council

Laura Jo Mellan

Maribyrnong City Council

Cameron Montgomery

Ballarat City Council

Adele Drago-Stevens

Macedon Ranges Shire Council

Dena Vlekkert

Mansfield Shire Council

Sharelle Knight

Ballarat City Council

Tom Razmovski

Brimbank City Council

Melinda Collis

Indigo Shire Council

Lynnere Gray

Golden Plains Shire Council

Andrew Fletcher

Campaspe Shire Council

LGPRO EMERGING LEADERS PROGRAM (ELP)

The Emerging Leaders Program provides a year of unique leadership-focused activities and experiences designed to develop and inspire emerging leaders or those aspiring to positions of leadership in the sector.

2022 ELP GRADUATES

Jade Glen Baw Baw Shire Council

Jay Jeyakanthan

Mildura Rural City Council

Janet Reid

Casey City Council

Shae Elms

Glen Eira City Council

Jon Liston Brimbank City Council

Vishal Tandon Macedon Ranges Shire Council

Katrina Thorne Gannawarra Shire Council

Christine Butcher Merri-bek City Council

Janyce McMurtrie

Greater Bendigo Council

Amy Carson Merri-bek City Council

Jacqui Kelly Cardinia Shire Council

Nellie Montague Port Phillip City Council

Steven Van Orsouw Moyne Shire Council

2022 ELP Program proudly sponsored by

Trent Carpenter Yarra City Council

Camille Hoyle

Kingston City Council

Elizabeth Atkin

Hepburn Shire Council

Pieta Bucello Cardinia Shire Council

Ben Fletcher Rural City of Wangaratta

Melinda Cartwright

Knox City Council

Cheree Hunter Banyule City Council

Katrina Nughes Monash City Council

Ashley Minniti Maribyrnong City Council

Jareth Goss

South Gippsland Shire Council

Zali Mifsud

Kingston City Council

Billy Gristwood Whittlesea City Council

2022 ELP graduates

2023 ELP PARTICIPANTS

Nicholas Sapounas

Corangamite Shire Council

Michelle Forrest

Glen Eira City Council

Jason Brady

Horsham Rural City Council

Tahlia Grandin

Baw Baw Shire Council

Samantha Cross

Cardinia Shire Council

James Madder

Frankston City Council

Rewa Smith

Bass Coast Shire Council

Kate Hills

Mornington Peninsula Shire Council

Justin Quinn

Whitehorse City Council

Kylie Sergi

Mildura Rural City Council

Jamye Grossman

Casey City Council

Deanne Halpin

Yarra City Council

Phoenix Wolfe

Greater Dandenong City Council

Belinda Crawford

Latrobe City Council

Patricia Clive

Macedon Ranges Shire Council

Tom Haysom

Glen Eira City Council

Heath Steward

Ballarat City Council

Michael Eddington

Kingston City Council

Simran De Cruze

Monash City Council

Lizzy Skinner

Darebin City Council

Mitchell Dedman

Hume City Council

Jayme Collins

Indigo Shire Council

Abby McCarthy

Yarra Ranges City Council

Will Gowans-Rief

Port Phillip City Council

Simon Fishlock

Hepburn Shire Council

Brad Hender

South Gippsland Shire Council

Proceeds

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