The ripple effect 2016 by VRCLP

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Thank you to our 2016 Gold Sponsors:

Proudly supported by Regional Development Victoria

Community projects are a core part of the Loddon Murray Community Leadership Program (LMCLP). Each year our program participants undertake a community project as part of their LMCLP commitment in order to put into practice the skills, knowledge, confidence and networks they are obtaining as part of the program, and also to give back to the communities and industries who so generously open their doors to us during the year. We hope you enjoy reading about this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s community projects and the ripple effect they are creating across the Loddon Murray region

Empowering and inspiring leaders for vibrant and sustainable rural and regional communities

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016 Tracey Bowen, Kyneton / Costerfield Hea ng for the Costerfield Hall Costerfield has been a mining area for over 150 years mining mainly gold and an mony. The community at one me was a thriving mining town, having boasted a cricket team as well as a football team, school, pub, post office and 3 churches. Over the years like most small towns in our region, the popula on has diminished, the school is no longer opera ng, the post office has closed, and the last remaining piece of infrastructure is the Hall. Project outline: One of the major problems of u lizing the hall’s full poten al is the hea ng, as there is no hea ng the hall rarely gets used in the winter months. My project is to put split system hea ng into the hall, which also involves upgrading the electricals, and will cost around $10,000. I plan to have this completed by the 100-year celebra on of the Costerfield hall in September 2017. I have developed a fundraising commi ee and we have just put in our first sponsorship request. I can see many great events being held at the hall going forward. Just through this process the commi ee are throwing out great ideas for the future of this ny town, and it all revolves around this proud Hall.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016

Tamara Boyd, Boort

Baydon Widdicombe, Bendigo

Connec ng Art

Aboriginal Youth Culture Camp

To promote and develop the applica on of crea vity and the arts for health and quality of life for residents at Boort District Health (BDH)’s “Loddon Place,” aged care facility, in conjunc on with visi ng students from Boort District School. Providing a direct link with BDH, Loddon Place and Boort District School’s junior art students through combined planned art/drama ac vi es.

My community project was a weekend camp to Barmah, NSW to give the local youth an opportunity to learn about Aboriginal culture. We spent me canoeing, bike riding and learning about the Yorta Yorta Culture.

Children will visit the aged care facility “Loddon Place” and have an ac vity session to create works, some of which could be displayed at the home, or perform a drama piece. Aged care residents enjoy the involvement of children in their ac vi es and there is evidence from Arts Access Australia of its beneﬁt for older Australians.

The purpose of the camp was to: Reconnect the youth to Aboriginal culture Build leadership skills into the young people Engage the youth and build some rapport to keep them linked into future youth program/s Break down barriers between the youth and keep them connected to BDAC Have Fun!!

Fiona Bradshaw, Heathcote Heathcote Community Consolida on O en in communi es we have a number of groups working on similar projects to beneﬁt the community which can o en go by the wayside with lack of support. I am crea ng a space where this informa on can be shared in both a push and pull approach for community groups across Heathcote. To start the conversaons, I have joined the Lions Club Christmas Carols organisa on commi ee, gaining their support and have also approached a number of community groups in town to par cipate by way of organising a game to play at the carols, or performing. I have taken this approach as a gesture of collabora on and celebra on in an eﬀort to get groups speaking with each other and understanding the role they play in the community. From here I will be working with community groups to create a project register that will be stored (at this point) on the Advance Heathcote webpage.

The biggest achievement was encouraging a young man to a end the camp that has au sm and had never been camping before. He gets very anxious being around others and has always been isolated in social se ngs. A er par cipa ng in the ac vi es, he was able to start communica ng with his peers and he was able to be le alone with the other youth. I am currently exploring ways to seek further funding for future camps.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016 Rebecca Sexton, Epsom / Dingee Raywood Recrea onal Reserve redevelopment

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016 Steve Carroll, Harcourt Castlemaine Circus Educa on Working Group

My project is to assist with the repair / replacement of the netball and tennis courts, and to build shelter at Raywood Rec Reserve. The courts were installed over an old mine and weren’t done correctly as the court is sinking and cracking making it impossible to play games on safely. There is also no shelter for coaching and I would like to work towards developing shelter and assis ng in the court redevelopment.

Castlemaine Circus Inc., is an organisa on that is rela vely new and has grown very quickly.

Cathy Spencer, Bendigo Focus Group for Young Mental Health Carers My experience as a carer exposed my family to the signiﬁcant physical, ﬁnancial and psychological impacts of caring including s gma, guilt, and isola on o en experienced by many carers. Carers Victoria have reported only 4% of young carers aged 18-25 engage in educa on compared to 23% of the broader popula on. This is primarily due to their caring responsibili es I plan to develop a focus group for young mental health carers 18-24 to understand their needs in their caring role. With the aim to provide a safe, suppor ve environment, where they are heard, socially connected, aware of and connected to services and programs to support them in their role enabling them to maintain their own wellbeing and mental health and con nue their educa on The poten al outcomes are to provide young carers with support, informa on and knowledge of selfcare, enabling them to con nue their educa on, crea ng awareness of mental health and reducing s gma.

Our working group is examining what we are capable for delivering with the resources we have. It’s easy to come up with ideas, but seeing them come alive takes strategic thinking, planning and perseverance. We have come up with three ideas we are exploring: 1. Scoping a primary school project to be delivered to up to 12 schools in the Mt. Alexander Shire 2. The provision of VET cer fica on 3. Development of a Thema c VCAL to provide a recognised Yr11&12 Cer ficate. That’s the easy bit. Developing the partnerships, finding the knowledge, and crea ng responsible financial management will keep me, and the working group engaged for many months to come. Our present networking has included conversa ons with Rose Stephens from NICA (Na onal Ins tute of Circus Arts), Adam Whitbread VCAL Program Manager from VCAA, and a planned presenta on to the primary school principals from Mt Alexander Shire.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016 Karen Carpenter, Gunbower Community Environmental and Educa onal Park My vision is to create a community, hands on learning environment that encourages all people in the community to get involved in some way. I hope to build a place where the community can share their skills, trades and talents with people less for fortunate, people with disabili es, hard to reach learners and youth that have dropped out of the educa on system and may need redirec ng. The aim is to promote sustainable living and community Involvement. The building of the park will itself create a learning opportunity and various groups will be involved to share their skills & knowledge, including the local Yorta Yorta community, local trades people and garden groups and schools. This park can bring employment and enjoyment to the area, ownership to those who own li le, build conﬁdence and strengths in people who are down, allow people with disabili es to be involved in the community while showing the community how much we need them, occupy young minds and so much more including sustainability for the future.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016 Emma Shannon, Castlemaine Random Acts of Kindness Project We all know what it’s like to have someone do something kind for you, it can o en turn your whole day around… we get a similar feeling when we do something kind for others. Research is now showing that doing something kind ac vates the areas of the brain associated with pleasure, social connec on and trust. It releases endorphins in the brain and boosts happiness for us as well as the people we help. Now, research has shown that just witnessing an act of kindness can be good for you. So kindness really is contagious, whether received, given or witnessed it has an impact on our mood and can improve our mental health. As part of Mental Health week and un l World Kindness day on November 13th, I co-ordinated a Random Act of Kindness Project in Mount Alexander Shire.

Lisa Cox, Bendigo Bendigo Sustainability Group Communica ons Strategy The Bendigo Sustainability Group has gone from strength to strength since it started in 2007. There are 10 Ac on Groups which take on specific sustainability projects. As the group has grown, it has been recognised that communica on between the group, its members and the general public needs a framework. My community project is to develop a Communica ons Strategy in conjunc on with the group’s Communica ons Commi ee. Social and tradi onal media as well as a physical presence at the Bendigo Sustainability Group office and Farmer’s Market stall will make it easy for volunteers to get involved. It will ensure that people know: How to get involved; Who to contact; What is happening; Where to find informa on; and When events are coming up.

Kindness cards and ﬂyers were produced and distributed to a wide range of loca ons, taking care to make sure that smaller locali es across the shire were included and that there were methods to reach more vulnerable popula ons. The Mental Health Week Mount Alexander facebook page was set up for people to share their kindness stories and a display was set up in the Castlemaine library (see photo below) for paper based responses. This sharing of the Facebook page with the broader mental health week ac vi es was seen as a way of cross-promo on. It has been great to have some stories shared with us and see the impact that even small kindnesses can have on the community.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016

Ric Ra is, Wedderburn

Sharlene Crage, Dingee

Loddon Voices website

‘Milked Dry’ Crowdfunding Campaign

The idea for Loddon Voices came about when considering the best way to involve people in their communi es. The same old model had existed for many years. Lots of towns have Progress or Development associa ons and they do their part where they can. But more and more these days people are very me poor. They aren't available to go to mee ngs, or even worse, it's the same people going to several mee ngs in a week. Our volunteer base in our communi es is both ageing and ge ng thinner on the ground. But what if people could contribute to their community in a me when it suited them? What if they could just go online and catch up with all the discussions that were going on about their community? What if they could ask their community ques ons or pose a point for discussion. And all this without having to a end a mee ng or be involved in elec ons for commi ee posi ons. The best part is that anyone could join in. Even be er s ll is that community leaders, councillors, newspapers, in fact anyone at all could seek opinions from the community and get their feedback.

It will be important to encourage people to see the en re site not just as a place for dumping on the Shire of Loddon, but also celebra ng its achievements. Apart from the Forum, the site also has provision for a blog to post news items about Loddon. There is also an area where people can post longer ar cles if they feel disposed to do so. These ar cles can have a wider theme such as one en tled, “Can We Reclaim Democracy”. Will this site be an immediate hit overnight? Well, I hope so, but it usually takes ﬁve years to be an overnight success. The important thing is that people can gain more familiarity with the site over me and the site can evolve into an online community mee ng place.

It does not ma er about global markets and what our Government is going to do about it. The fact of the ma er is, every day, right now, our Dairy Farmers are losing money and going to the wall through circumstances beyond their control. Government help will take months. Right now, our Dairy Farmers are unable to make decisions about their businesses, about retrenching their staﬀ, selling their cows, selling their farms! They have no idea where they will be in one week's me, let along three months! Farmers are telling us that if we can purchase their dairy products (cheese, yoghurt, milk), it will move the stockpiled dairy products and s mulate the dairy industry and save their businesses. I set up a social media campaign calling for dona ons so that we can buy up the stock and save lives.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016

Meg Doller, Elmore

Jenny Lonergan, Woodend

Exploring the Campaspe – Crea ve workshops

MRR (Macedon Ranges Rainbow) Openhouse

My project is to collaborate with all community organisa ons and gender diverse groups within the Macedon Ranges to provide a safe space for anyone within the Queer community, whatever the stage of transi on or status in which they iden fy; for social and in me, counselling support.

Katherine Petrusma, Barkers Creek Exploring the Campaspe is a series of free crea ve workshops on the banks of the Campaspe River (Elmore) with professional photographers and writers. Four workshops will be delivered from Spring 2016 to Autumn 2017. The workshops have been designed to enable par cipants of all ages, backgrounds and abili es to engage with and interpret the space through visual and literary arts. The ﬁrst workshop was delivered on Saturday 15th October. Poetry wri ng with Lorraine Marwood was a resounding success with 12 kindergarten/primary aged children and 13 adults producing almost 60 individual works. Most par cipants (70%) said they did not consider themselves to be ar sts but all said they enjoyed being crea ve outdoors and had learnt something new. Workshops have been made possible with ﬁnancial support from the City of Greater Bendigo – Capital Venues and Events. Elmore Progress Associa on are the project auspice. ‘Exploring the Campaspe’ Facebook Group. Instagram - @exploringthecampaspe #exploringthecampaspe

‘Farmer For A Day’, Student Farm Tour I will be organising and hos ng groups of young people from Melbourne to come to the dairy farm where I work, to have a day out in the country and to learn more about farming as a career choice, and about where their food comes from.

Kristy Pilgrim, Quambatook Mental Health First Aid Awareness in Emergency Services My project aims to build community resilience and awareness through the promo on of mental health and wellbeing strategies. This will be achieved through: Conduc ng a Mental Health First Aid Course targe ng leaders of various community organisa ons and service groups; Conduc ng Cri cal Incident Stress Management of local CFA volunteers and other local emergency management partners; and Conduc ng a Mental Health First Aid Course for young people in the local community.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016

Alana Newbold, Dingee

Tessa Harris, Swan Hill

My project is to assist in the establishment of a Men’s Shed in Dingee.

Student Support and Reten on Project

My project will involve working with ‘Chances For Children’ to deliver a program into high schools to raise aspira ons of students in the Southern Mallee.

James O’Bryen, Longlea Irriga on of the Longlea Cricket Reserve My project was to provide a source of water and repair the legacy watering system at Longlea Cricket reserve so that the Ground will be green and safe, and no matches will be relocated due to the state of the ground through from October 2016 ll the end of March 2017 The WHY? Always the WHY? I’m passionate about Cricket and providing opportuni es to disadvantaged people. What our reserve needs to make this happen is an irrigated playing ﬁeld. Observing our All Abili es cricket team, I no ced they genuinely love the game, enjoy each other’s company, they want to be part of a club and will help as much as they can. This is what drives me to provide the best possible facili es for them to enjoy.

It's diﬃcult, not to men on expensive, leaving a small country town to a end university in a city. I want to help these students achieve their dreams by making sure they know what support is out there for them to make the transi on easier.

Jason Hensley, Cohuna Great ‘Bra Unclipping’ Event

I aim to bring a ‘Bra unclipping event’ to Cohuna as my community project. The purpose is to li the spirits of our community members, par cularly our dairy farmers together for a night of enjoyment, fun and pleasure. Cohuna is a town with a high dependency on the dairy industry. Currently we are having a hard me of it. I want to something to support our dairy farmers and the broader community. The night is planned for early February 2017 and will be held in the Cohuna memorial hall. The evening will be cabaret style and a meal. The night is made possible because of our stars, a social enterprise theatre group called Boort, Buckrabanyule and Charlton (B BAC) Produc on will present their play ‘'The World Bra Unclipping Compe on in Garimba'.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016

Timothy Hoogwerf, Bendigo

Kate McInnes, Castlemaine

Wolstencro Park Redevelopment

Friday Food Safari

As a commi ee member of the Wolstencro Area Ac on Group (WAAG) to par cipate in leading the further development and implementa on of the Wolstencro Street Park Land Master Plan. Despite a high degree of community support, the park remains largely undeveloped. The WAAG commi ee is: working with City of Greater Bendigo council to implement the Master Plan by a ending council mee ngs and engaging with councillor candidates prior to the recent elec ons (this will be ongoing post elec on of the new council), maintaining community support through public mee ngs and wellbeing ac vi es (eg. Halloween and Christmas par es) at the park, and using media and social media to get our message to the general public.

Friday Food Safari is a social enterprise working with mul cultural communi es to cook and deliver a delicious meal from a different part of the world each week. Meals will be delivered each Friday to offices in Central Bendigo. Meals will be delivered in ‘ ffins’ which are reusable metal containers origina ng in India. The Project will employ a part- me Coordinator. Community members will volunteer in the program for six months, building language and employment skills. They will then be linked with our Employment Program to be supported into paid work opportuni es. Friday Food Safari will be run by Loddon Campaspe Mul cultural Services and is currently seeking funding for a tes ng phase.

We have secured our own funding to begin implemen ng the plan and have working collegiately with the CoGB Engineering and Public Space Unit to have a natural play space built. We will con nue working with council, u lising media and seeking funding to achieve the vision of an accessible and sustainable park that posi vely contributes to the health and social well-being of the local community and reﬂects its industrial history and the local natural environment.

The project aims to:  Increase employment skills and English language among new arrivals

in Bendigo;  Increase posi ve a tudes towards cultural diversity and provide op-

portuni es for posi ve cross-cultural interac on;  Provide a small but sustainable and independent funding stream for

Loddon Campaspe Mul cultural Services.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016 Stewart Luckman, Inglewood Repurposing of old pallets project I saw an opportunity to encourage, engage and nurture a good working relaonship between a business, a struggling primary school and a rural Men's shed to work together on a mutually beneficial project around repurposing old packing pallets into objects for sale, to teach children prac cal skills and to generate a small income stream for the school. As a school council commi ee member I was aware of the difficult mes our state schools are having in receiving funding to keep the schools open. As a member of the local men's shed I was aware of the desire for members wan ng to pass on their knowledge to the younger genera on, and knowing the local business I knew of the difficult mes they were having to stay viable.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016 Chris Jeﬀery, Swan Hill Swan Hill Millennial Group There is a need in our community for a group speciﬁcally engaging young adults, to meet together and have an impact on our community. My aim is to form a group in Swan Hill for 18 to 40-year old’s with the purpose of developing people as individuals. Exploring and learning about issues from shares, mortgages, employment, running a business, public speakers to changing a car tyre. The group will also be a social group – building connec ons into the community for new and current ci zens.

Cheryl Kemp, Charlton 2nd Tuesday Book Club The 2nd Tuesday Book Club was designed as there is no resource centre/hub or library in town in Charlton.

Bridgewater Farmware will deliver wooden pallets (used for the delivery of machinery) normally des ned for landfill to the local Inglewood Men's Shed for free. From here the local Inglewood primary school students from grades 5 and 6 will work with the members of the Men's Shed over many weeks to repurpose the pallets into beau ful, unique and purpose built items. During the program the students will make a range of items from Christmas trees to coffee tables to bookshelves, and will be taught the importance of safe use of tools and equipment in the work shed, how to build items from scratch to the final product, the importance of a plan, the basic profit and loss concept and selling the item at a community fate.

The monthly gatherings, which have been opera ng since June are an opportunity to have a small diverse group of people socializing and feeling like they are part of a group that supports cultural and social diversity within the community. We meet in a casual and welcoming environment at the East Hotel, Charlton and we share lunch, then sit on lounge furniture, taking turns to discuss a book. We are not all reading the same book. We have a “Code of Conduct” and a “yarning s ck” which help address issues that could arise. We will have periodic visi ng guest speakers/authors. The role of Chair rotates each month. This is an opportunity to have a small diverse group of people socializing and feeling like they are part of a group that supports cultural and social diversity within the community.

LMCLP COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2016

Paul Kooperman, Lanceﬁeld

Peter Lilly, Bendigo

The Field Trip, Youth Group

Youth Into Avia on Youth into Avia on is a schools’ based program that aims to introduce students to avia on related ac vi es, foster interest in this exci ng and rewarding, but diverse industry, and to develop op ons in the curriculum that prepare students for the academic requirements that may exist in the various disciplines involved. The model has been developed over the 2016 year at Crusoe College, Bendigo, with a core group of interested young people from Year 10, and a Teacher who is passionate about avia on engaged with the idea of establishing the model. We have used exis ng ac vi es such as flying radio controlled models, and computer simulators, and expanding ac vi es into career based field trips to the Anse Avia on Training Simulator Centre in Tullamarine, the Victorian Air Ambulance base facility at Essendon Airport, the Airservices Australia Rescue Fire Figh ng Training School at Melbourne Airport, and the Airservices Australia Air Traffic Control Training School at Melbourne Airport. The first such Field Trip took place on the 13th of October, 2016, and was extremely successful, involving interac ve and hands on segments, panel discussions with ac ve pilots, flight a endants, engineers and paramedics.

The Field Trip helps kids find their passion, peers and path in order to create the next genera on of invested, proac ve, crea ve, giving, connected, sustainable communi es. Star ng at the end of 2015, when The Field Trip comprised of three leaders, 7 kids, no paying members, one branch in Lancefield and not much idea at all, since par cipa ng in the Loddon Murray Community Leadership Program 2016, ten months later and The Field Trip has four branches, 40 paying members, 50 regular a endees, 16 paid young employees, a five year business plan, has received grants, philanthropic dona ons and won the na onal Founda on for Young Australians Trailblazer Award for most innova ve youth engagement prac ce. Thank you CLLM for a terrific program and wonderful contribu on to my community project: The Field Trip: www.thefieldtrip.co

Phase two of the project will be to start on the Careers part of the model, that will provide links to Training organiza ons, and research into the methodology of curriculum changes for those wan ng to follow Avia on careers. Overall, this project has the poten al to extend to other areas of interest, using the model to take Mentoring and Referral services to other Youth related areas, where there is a need.