Warrnambool | A City for Living

Goal: 2
People

Warrnambool is a safe and connected community

An inclusive and safe place to live and visit, Warrnambool is a community which makes decisions to maximise opportunities for every resident to be socially connected to others. All residents participate in cultural and recreational activities and events and enjoy socially active lives

2040 Outcome

All residents know their neighbours, feel safe walking on the street at night, volunteer and have attended a community event or activity in the past month. Family violence and all violent crime rates have dropped to be the lowest in Victoria

The changes we want by 2026

  • Warrnambool is rated the highest in Victoria for safety and sense of community (IPSOS Life in Australia Index).
  • More residents know their neighbours (57%, 2017)
  • Proportion of people who volunteer (24.6%, 2016).
  • The proportion of residents who say their mental health or loneliness is the thing that worries them most has reduced since 2017.
  • W2040 Partners have developed and implemented gender equity, disability access & inclusion and diversity policies.
  • Proportion of children walking and/or riding independently to school has increased. • Family violence incidents reported to police have reduced (20 per 1000 people, 2016/17).
  • Rate of crimes against the person have reduced (14.26 per 1000, year ending March 2018).

Short Term Initiatives

  • Develop/support campaigns and host events to encourage residents to get to know their neighbours and meet new people (refer Goal 1 – Welcome to Warrnambool events).
  • Develop, endorse and implement diversity, disability access, gender equity and inclusion policies and strategies.
  • Offer regular workplace learning opportunities & training to raise awareness of diversity, inclusion, disability access issues to build cultural competency of staff/ members/etc.
  • Adopt organisational policies which support good mental health, gender equity, work/life balance, etc.
  • Acknowledge gender equity as a cause of family violence by developing and implementing workplace gender equality action plan. This may include development of new policies, staff training, conducting attitudes to gender equity surveys and participating in community campaigns such as International Women’s Day and 16 Days of Action.
  • Support the establishment of a system which helps to “induct” and support new residents and better connect them to their new community’s networks, activities and local information.
  • Encourage and support employees to volunteer in the community.