Council has noted the Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2018-2022 first annual report, which has outlined our achievements towards improving the health and wellbeing of Greater Geelong residents.
The four goals of the plan are to:
- support social connection to improve mental health
- increase participation in physical activity
- improve access to safe and healthy local environments, services and food and
- increase community safety and prevent violence and injury.
The annual report highlights a number of accomplishments during the first year of implementation, including:
- the adoption of the Ba-gurrk Gender Equity Framework, which addresses gender equity as a governance, community and organisational issue
- a total of 26,600 young people attended 960 youth programs aimed at improving social and community connections
- the Delivered Meals Program provided 48,000 meals to elderly or vulnerable members of the community and
- the Leisure Services 'LiveWell program' serviced over 1200 members aged over 55 years each week through group-based strength training sessions.
The plan's second year of implementation will focus on understanding and capturing the impact of our work and demonstrating our organisation's level of influence on community health and wellbeing.
This will inform our approach to the next version of the plan, for which planning will begin in late 2020.
Councillor Kylie Grzybek - Deputy Mayor and Chair - Community Health and Safety portfolio
The City takes the health and safety of the community seriously. Every Greater Geelong resident has the right to feel safe and have easy access to services.
I'm pleased the initiatives from the plan have increased awareness, access and promotion of healthy options and lifestyles. As a parent, I'm proud to see the availability of sugary drinks is being reduced at City-owned venues.
The plan is a good start in trying to change ingrained habits in our community and these successful projects will form a road map for the second year of implementation.
