Melton: A Strategy for All Abilities and All Ages
Council is committed to improving the quality of life of people with disabilities, children, young people, older people, carers and people who live, learn, work or play in the City of Melton.
Growing and Thriving: A Strategy for All Abilities and All Ages(PDF, 702KB) , for the second time, combines four previous Council strategies, specifically the Disability Action Plan, the Municipal Early Years Plan (0-12 years), Youth Strategy (12-25 years), and the Ageing Well Strategy (50+ years) into one, all-encompassing document. An easy English version of the strategy is also available.(PDF, 3MB)
The strategy updates the previous, 'Melton: A City for all People 2017 -2021' and considers what residents need to lead healthy, happy, and safe lives in the City of Melton.
The development of the strategy included gathering reflections from the previous iteration of this Strategy titled ‘Melton a City for all people’, analysing over 40 relevant policy documents, delivering community consultation, and then bringing together this information to determine areas of focus.
What Council heard from Community
The consultation successfully reached 780 community members from 17 January – 17 February 2022, of these:
- 514 responded to the survey
- 150 participated in workshops
- 116 participated in community forums
Council enabled community to request a phone call where Officers provided one on one support for the completion of surveys for older people and people with disability which contributed significantly to the success of the consultation.
Three key themes emerged from the consultation:
- Feeling accepted and included (a sense of belonging): The need to belong and feel safe in a place that felt like home was fundamental to how many people’s vision of a happy and healthy future and what it meant to live their best lives. Participants reported that living in a community that supported them with their specific needs was essential to feeling accepted and included.
- Infrastructure and access: The importance of living in a community with local and accessible infrastructure and services was the most notable theme to emerge from participants.
- Spaces, places, and involvement: Community feedback indicated that social connection and group participation through the municipality’s spaces, places and programs was essential to their future. By offering a variety of programs and facilities to support social connectedness, Council could help foster a sense of community and unity critical to health and wellbeing.
Area of focus
The consultation enabled the identification of the following priority themes (areas of focus) within the Growing and Thriving Strategy:
- Theme 1: A safe and inclusive City where everyone feels they belong
- Theme 2: A self-contained, accessible City
- Theme 3: A vibrant and healthy community that promotes social connectedness and participation
- Theme 4: An organisation that meaningfully engages and embeds accessibility and inclusion in everything it does
As can be seen in the Strategy document (below, under related information), each theme has a number of related objectives and strategies which are relevant to all cohorts.