Lead
Earthwatch Institute Australia
Working group
City of Wyndham; Brimbank City Council; City of Darebin; City of Stonnington; Yarra City; Hobsons Bay City Council; Greening the West
Context
Community connection to the urban forest is essential for its protection, enhancement and growth and, mobilising broad community support is essential for the success of the Living Melbourne strategy. By mapping out existing and relevant community education and behaviour change programs we can maximise the opportunity to inform, involve, and empower the community. Living Melbourne partners identified a need to understand what has been successful in mobilising this connection and for a recommended program model for taking such initiatives to scale. Earthwatch led the initiative to identify that model.
Progress
Let’s Scale Up! Urban Greening in the Private Realm: Engaging and Motivating Community is Victoria’s first detailed research and analysis of urban greening projects, undertaken by Earthwatch Australia in close collaboration with Living Melbourne stakeholders. Over 55 councils were surveyed through on-line workshops and select interviews, plus desktop research of public-facing information was gathered. The report identifies over 70 relevant urban greening behaviour change programs across metropolitan Melbourne and highlights the success elements for connecting communities to the programs. Let’s Scale Up! provides detailed case studies of several programs that are well-positioned to take to scale.
Let’s Scale Up! is the major delivery component of the ‘Community and Industry Engagement’ initiative, aligning with Actions 3.3 and 4.2 of the Living Melbourne strategy. This project was possible in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and with support from American Express.
Next steps
Exploring the opportunity to scale the identified programs and drive community engagement and behaviour change in urban greening.
