First inner west Community Leaders in Sustainability
Inner West Council will recognise the first inner west Community Leaders in Sustainability at a graduation next week (Thursday 25 May).
Media are invited to attend. RSVP to the Communication team.
The Community Leaders in Sustainability course builds skills to empower community members to develop and lead projects that address environmental issues.
Twenty five community members successfully completed the 10 week course.
As part of their training, they visited successful local projects and connected with groups including Pingala, Wilford Lane volunteers, Tempe Birdos, Mudcrabs, a church food pantry, street library and residents of Wilga Avenue (a sustainable award-winning collection of neighbours).
Council offered the free course to residents who are passionate about community environment projects and issues. Training in effective communication, collaboration, project development, project management, and community engagement was provided by Council staff, local environmental groups and expert facilitators.
Sixteen local community-led projects are now being developed and supported by the graduates of the course, including:
Food Scrap Friday – A composting project based at Camdenville Paddock Community Garden in conjunction with Camdenville Public School. Families in the school community that cannot compost at home bring kitchen scraps to the school on Friday mornings to feed the compost at the community garden. This helps families keep food out of landfill and enriches the garden by closing the loop of food production, consumption and disposal. To date, the initiative has collected and composted almost one-tonne of food waste.
Love Your Lane – A project to make lanes more liveable and beautiful. The project encourages people activate laneways to reduce litter, dumping and vandalism. The project improves community connections and creates a shared vision and future among the local residents through working together.
Bring Back the Butterflies – A project to help bring butterflies and other pollinators back to the inner west. Neighbours plant locally native plants in their gardens and on street verges to create habitat and food for butterflies and other wildlife. The project also seeks to influence under-utilised public space to increase planting with natives. The ultimate goal is to establish a network of locals working towards improving biodiversity links in the area.
The course is based on the Community Leaders in Sustainability Course developed by Banyule City Council as part of the Sustainable Homes and Communities Program.
Anyone interested in a future course should email sustainabilityleaders@innerwest.nsw.gov.au