A community celebration event held in February reflected on the outcomes of children’s health and wellbeing projects of the RESPOND Wangaratta project as well as launching a video to share highlights from the project.
A research project delivered by Gateway Health, the Rural City of Wangaratta and Northeast Health Wangaratta, and supported by Deakin University, RESPOND aims to create a shared community response to support and maintain children’s health and wellbeing.
Three community workshops were held in Wangaratta (March-June 2023) to identify local factors influencing childhood health and wellbeing.
During these workshops, community members came up with project ideas to address these factors and contribute to building healthy environments locally.
Some of the projects include sport and recreation expos and come and try days, school cooking workshops and activating footpaths to encourage students to walk, ride, scoot or skate to school.
A vegetable garden mapping project involved mapping the locations and status of veggie gardens in educational and community settings across Wangaratta, outcomes of this included funding and resource support for early childhood services and schools as well as establishment of a veggie garden at a children’s centre.
One project involved developing mobile bus art workshops with the aim of providing open-ended, creative opportunities for children to tinker and explore materials, use their imagination and unlock the hidden potential of “waste”. The workshops have been run at Outside School Hours Care services at several schools and a resource kit developed for other services to run the workshops themselves.
Gateway Health CEO Trent Dean said the RESPOND project’s strength was its ability to involve and tailor initiatives to the local community.
“As an organisation, we are committed to the health and wellbeing of people in rural and regional communities and it has been fantastic to see RESPOND Wangaratta’s reach into some of the smaller towns in our catchment, making these initiatives accessible to all,” Mr Dean said.
“We should not underestimate the power of community-led projects which allow people to participate in, and feel ownership of, the ideas generated which leads to more successful outcomes.
“Much of the success of these projects lies in the partnerships behind them, the alignment across the organisations which participate, and the passion and dedication of the people involved.”
The RESPOND Community Celebration event will be held at the Wangaratta Library on Tuesday, February 25. Registrations have closed but anyone interested in attending should contact Gateway Health.
