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Feedback wanted by on draft Public Health and Wellbeing Plan from Baw Baw Shire Council

Baw Baw Shire Council is inviting community feedback, thoughts and suggestions on its draft Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan.

By news@gippsland - 11th August 2021 - Back to News

The draft Plan guides Council's strategies for improving the health and wellbeing of the community and describes how Council will fulfill its obligations of service provision, good governance, advocacy, regulation, and capacity building.

Your feedback is highly valued, it helps us better understand what our community wants so we can set the right priorities and future directions as a council

Priority areas

The draft Plan focuses on four priority areas:

• Active Living
• Healthy Eating
• Mental Wellbeing
• Gender Equity and Prevention of Family Violence

Each priority area has a goal and a set of strategies identified that will help Baw Baw Shire's Health Promotion funded organisations, community organisations and Council deliver initiatives to achieve that goal.

Guided by community input into the new community vision, the four priorities were identified during a workshop with key local stakeholders. The Healthy Baw Baw advisory committee then set the objectives for each priority area, as well as the strategies that would help achieve each goal.

Fundamental pillars

At its core, the draft plan is based on the three fundamental pillars of the community vision for Baw Baw Shire, and they are :

• sustainable
• healthy
• thriving communities

Council is now inviting community members to have their say on the draft Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan to ensure the priority areas, and their subsequent objectives and goals align with this vision, and will meet the needs of the community now and into the future.

Improving outcomes for the community

Mayor Cr Danny Goss said, "The Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan is Council's key strategic document outlining our health and wellbeing priorities, and the approach we'll take to improving outcomes for our community. It's something that affects each and every one of us, so we need to make sure we get it right."

"I urge all residents to get involved in this important consultation opportunity. Read the draft Plan, make sure it's hitting the mark and have your say on public health and wellbeing in Baw Baw Shire."

Support to overcome challenges

Cr Jazmin Tauru said, "I cannot speak highly enough of the incredible Baw Baw Shire team and the stakeholders who were involved in formulating this plan. So much time and effort has gone into it. It highlights the very important challenges which our community is facing. We want to improve public health and wellbeing within the Shire and to do this, we need to develop strategies to support overcoming these challenges.

"I would love for the community to read this document and provide any feedback that they have. This is a draft so there is room for changes. I'd love to hear your thoughts."

Advocating health initiatives

Cr Annemarie McCabe said, "Working in the health sector I have a strong appreciation of how important each of the plan's priorities are and how lives are affected when a person or a family is unable to thrive because they are struggling in any one or a multiple of these aspects of Health and Wellbeing."

"Once adopted this plan will allow us to provide, support and advocate health initiatives and programs for the betterment of the community, which I strongly support." Community members can view the draft Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan and have their say by visiting the community engagement page. This consultation opportunity is open until Thursday 2 September.

Pictures from Baw Baw Shire Council website.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com