Sustainable Community
The City of Whitehorse is leading the way in sustainability, nurturing 16 local communities through the innovative Sustainability Street Program, which has been running in Whitehorse since 2006.
New Sustainability Street villages are always emerging out of Whitehorse, most recently at the Vermont South Community House. Sustainability Street Villages within the local Chinese Community, and a public housing area of Whitehorse are hoped also to start up in the near future.
The Sustainability Street Approach (SSA), devised by environmental educators Vox Bandicoot, is a basic training program in sustainable living, which brings communities together to work for the future. A Sustainability Street Village, can literally be a street, or any other locally based community, such as a sporting club, workplace or school.
‘Keeping it very local is best’ says Vox Bandicoot Director, Frank Ryan. ‘We suggest you try and travel no further than you’d be prepared to walk or ride, to have a cup of tea with your neighbours and chat about your worms!’
‘Sustainability Street is about addressing the two biggest challenges facing humanity, how we can get along better with each other as a species and how we can get along better with the other 30 million species on the planet’ says Ryan. ‘It is like the ecological and social development equivalent of the slow food movement. It is a quiet revolution at a very local level, but it gathers a great deal of momentum and achieves big outcomes.”
Since 2002, over 200 Sustainability Street Villages have been established in over 30 local government areas across Australia. However the City of Whitehorse Sustainability Street Program receives an unprecedented level of support and interest from both participants and from Council.
“The great thing about Sustainability Street, is that it doesn’t just attract the usual suspects, we get a diverse range of people coming along to sessions, including many who might not necessarily come along to other sustainability related events’ say Liza Price, Environment Officer from The City of Whitehorse.
To accommodate the high demand, Whitehorse has pioneered an innovative approach, known as the hub model. Monthly meetings are held out of ‘hubs’ in Box Hill, Blackburn and Vermont South, focusing on the ‘mulch’ or learning phase of the program. Participants then take what they have learnt back to their individual villages, for the ‘grow’ phase- doing and measuring via group-devised projects. ‘Harvesting’ or celebrating and ‘Sowing’ or influencing others, are two other important phases of the Sustainability Street Approach.
The ‘Communiversity’ is another great feature of the Sustainability Street Approach. This is where the existing skills, experiences and knowledge within a group are shared, with the philosophy that in sustainability, we are all teachers and all learners. “Within any group there is a diverse range of knowledge, that people love to share with others, from permaculture to peak oil!’ says Liza Price.
Sustainability Street communities have achieved remarkable results such as in Wollongong where a group of neighbours decided to knock down their back fences to create a communal space to grow food. In East Keilor a resplendent community garden has been created on former wasteland. Groups have developed car share schemes, food co-ops and along the way strengthened their local community.
But in Whitehorse a number of other, quite charismatic outcomes have also emerged such as the Cromwell Court community, which has turned its attention to protecting the critically endangered Valley Heathy Forest and have attracted the support of the likes of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. John Bergin, convenor of the Blackburn Sustainability Street hub, says ‘Sustainability Street has really galvanized our local community, and generated some wonderful environmental project ideas, but on a another level it’s also got neighbours talking to neighbours.’
‘Over time Sustainability Street changes from something a community does, to something a community is!’ says Whitehorse’s first ever Sustainability Ambassador, and Vermont South Sustainability Streeter, Bill Bennett.
For more information call Shanna Evans at the City of Whitehorse on 9262 6535
New Sustainability Street villages are always emerging out of Whitehorse, most recently at the Vermont South Community House. Sustainability Street Villages within the local Chinese Community, and a public housing area of Whitehorse are hoped also to start up in the near future.
The Sustainability Street Approach (SSA), devised by environmental educators Vox Bandicoot, is a basic training program in sustainable living, which brings communities together to work for the future. A Sustainability Street Village, can literally be a street, or any other locally based community, such as a sporting club, workplace or school.
‘Keeping it very local is best’ says Vox Bandicoot Director, Frank Ryan. ‘We suggest you try and travel no further than you’d be prepared to walk or ride, to have a cup of tea with your neighbours and chat about your worms!’
‘Sustainability Street is about addressing the two biggest challenges facing humanity, how we can get along better with each other as a species and how we can get along better with the other 30 million species on the planet’ says Ryan. ‘It is like the ecological and social development equivalent of the slow food movement. It is a quiet revolution at a very local level, but it gathers a great deal of momentum and achieves big outcomes.”
Since 2002, over 200 Sustainability Street Villages have been established in over 30 local government areas across Australia. However the City of Whitehorse Sustainability Street Program receives an unprecedented level of support and interest from both participants and from Council.
“The great thing about Sustainability Street, is that it doesn’t just attract the usual suspects, we get a diverse range of people coming along to sessions, including many who might not necessarily come along to other sustainability related events’ say Liza Price, Environment Officer from The City of Whitehorse.
To accommodate the high demand, Whitehorse has pioneered an innovative approach, known as the hub model. Monthly meetings are held out of ‘hubs’ in Box Hill, Blackburn and Vermont South, focusing on the ‘mulch’ or learning phase of the program. Participants then take what they have learnt back to their individual villages, for the ‘grow’ phase- doing and measuring via group-devised projects. ‘Harvesting’ or celebrating and ‘Sowing’ or influencing others, are two other important phases of the Sustainability Street Approach.
The ‘Communiversity’ is another great feature of the Sustainability Street Approach. This is where the existing skills, experiences and knowledge within a group are shared, with the philosophy that in sustainability, we are all teachers and all learners. “Within any group there is a diverse range of knowledge, that people love to share with others, from permaculture to peak oil!’ says Liza Price.
Sustainability Street communities have achieved remarkable results such as in Wollongong where a group of neighbours decided to knock down their back fences to create a communal space to grow food. In East Keilor a resplendent community garden has been created on former wasteland. Groups have developed car share schemes, food co-ops and along the way strengthened their local community.
But in Whitehorse a number of other, quite charismatic outcomes have also emerged such as the Cromwell Court community, which has turned its attention to protecting the critically endangered Valley Heathy Forest and have attracted the support of the likes of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. John Bergin, convenor of the Blackburn Sustainability Street hub, says ‘Sustainability Street has really galvanized our local community, and generated some wonderful environmental project ideas, but on a another level it’s also got neighbours talking to neighbours.’
‘Over time Sustainability Street changes from something a community does, to something a community is!’ says Whitehorse’s first ever Sustainability Ambassador, and Vermont South Sustainability Streeter, Bill Bennett.
For more information call Shanna Evans at the City of Whitehorse on 9262 6535