Healthy and
caring

Here you can find more about the third theme in our council plan: a healthy and caring Merri-bek.

This theme has:

12

major initiatives

5

ways to measure success

This part of our plan focuses on our health as a community.

Our goal is to create a more inclusive, connected, healthy and caring Merri-bek.

We want to give fair access to community facilities and services. We want to help the community cope better with climate change.

Theme 3

What we will do

Better health

We will help residents to be healthier, more active and connected. This includes supporting good mental health and reducing harm caused by gambling and tobacco.

Stopping violence

We will work to prevent family violence and support victims.

Meeting your needs

Our services will respond to the different and changing needs of our community.

Building resilience

We will build community resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Better partnerships

We will work more closely with First Nations communities. We will work with partners to support people in insecure housing.

More connected

We will advocate for better digital technology for everyone. We will help more people volunteer.

Our goals

We will measure our success by looking at whether we:

increase visits to our pools

increase the number of people borrowing from our libraries

increase the number of people using our maternal and child health service

increase the number of people using our playgroups, kindergartens and childhood immunisation service

increase our active partnerships with First Nations business and community groups

Next you can read about some of the ways we will achieve our goals.

Theme 3: case study 1

Building our resilience

Climate change is a threat to us and our future.

Science has shown that the global climate is changing due to human activity. Activities like burning fossil fuels has increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Climate change is damaging the places, plants and animals we love. Heat waves are causing loss of life and other health impacts. Hotter and drier springs and summers affect our water supply and vegetation. They also make our cities hotter and less comfortable to live in.

Climate change may also damage our power, transport and communications systems.

We are developing a Climate Resilience Strategy to prepare us and the community for these changes. This will outline how we will:

manage climate risks
adapt to climate change
build resilience.

We will build resilience in:

the buildings, infrastructure, natural environments and open spaces we manage
the services we provide to the community
our engagement with community and local business
our internal governance and financial management processes.

Theme 3: case study 2

Upgrading Fawkner Leisure Centre

We are planning an upgrade to the Fawkner Leisure Centre.

This is so it meets the needs of our changing and growing community.

It is proposed that the project be delivered in 2 stages, with stage 1 to start in April 2023. Our draft concept and cost plans show that this stage will cost $27.8 million. Stage 2 is to be delivered after the current 5-year capital works plan. This will cost $8.7 million plus escalation costs.

We have worked closely with our community on the future priorities for the centre. The first stage was getting feedback using focus groups. We had a wide range of people from across the Fawkner community take part in these groups.

We have looked at all of the ideas and priorities the focus groups gave us. We have used these to develop a high-level concept design for the centre.

We talked to the community in October and November 2021 to get feedback on this draft concept. We are working with our architects to use all this feedback to develop detailed plans for the centre. We will present this back to the community.