SEASON SHAPING UP

We find out how the Shaping South Gippsland project took top spot for the Corporate and Community Planning Award for South Gippsland Shire Council.

With a new Councillor group elected following two years of administration, South Gippsland Shire Council began rebuilding community connection and trust through a process of integrated plan development while a comprehensive transition program was underway.

At the beginning of their term, the new group of Councillors made the ambitious decision to align the plans in November 2021, with the aim of having these adopted by June the following year to maximise the outcomes of their three-year terms.

Over seven months, the organisation engaged with 3,356 people – 11 per cent of the population. Shaping South Gippsland was the Shire’s largest community engagement campaign to date, delivered in record time.

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Councillors and staff worked collaboratively to design and implement an extensive and proactive campaign that leveraged existing community feedback exercises while developing new approaches along the way.

A shift to cross-team collaboration was created, culminating in fortnightly group meetings that brought together staff from across the organisation together to achieve a shared objective. Councillors meanwhile took ownership of the process and identified the need to engage first-hand with the community, with two to four Councillors present at every engagement event.

The campaign was delivered largely in-house, with minimal budget, using existing resources, and with a supporting investment in long-term skills development to build the organisation’s ongoing capacity.