Posted 29 July 2009

On Wednesday 13 May 2009, the Lower Mountains Neighbourhood Centre (LMNC) held a community forum as part of Neighbourhood Centre Week 2009.

The purpose of the community forum was to engage people in the Lower Mountains community with the work of the Neighbourhood Centre,and for LMNC to find out from people what they need.

People had the opportunity to participate in a forum based around the following questions:

(1)  What is it that you like most about living in our community in the Lower Mountains?

(2)  If you could wave a magic wand, what is the one thing you would like to change to benefit our community?

(3)  If there is one thing that we, your Neighbourhood Centre, could do for you, what would that be?

Summary

Chaired by LMNC Chair, Warwick Fuller, the forum opened with a beautiful performance by the choir of Mount Riverview Public School under the direction of Jane Howat, followed by addresses from our four -member panel – students Wesley Stormer (year 10) and Rachael Carter (year 12) from Blaxland High, and residents Tony Kleu and Helen Kidd.  We then opened the discussion to the audience for their thoughts and ideas on what could benefit our community, and what we, as your Neighbourhood Centre, could do for you.

Comments and issues fell into a range of categories, including atmosphere, environment, facilities, people and community, promotion and communication, transport, youth issues and activities.  Graffiti was raised several times as a key issue, both its effect and its underlying cause.

Detailed results

Overview        

• Four panel members addressed the three questions (see above) put to them as part of this community engagement project (two students and two adults)        
• Thirty-five people attended the forum. 
• Thirty primary-school students from the Mount Riverview Public School choir performed. 
• Fifteen people (43%) completed or partially completed the evaluation / feedback form. 
• Four (11%) new contacts for LMNC mailing list. 

Responses to forum questions

The four panel members and fifteen people who completed or partially completed the evaluation/feedback form (total nineteen people) responded to the three forum questions as follows: 

(1)  What is it that you like most about living in our community in the Lower Mountains? 

• 42% responded positively to the atmosphere of the Lower Mountains 
• 95% commented positively about the environment (clean / fresh air, climate, local bush environment) 
• 53% responded positively to our facilities 
• 89% responded positively to our sense of community, including the friendliness of the people. 

(2)  If you could wave a magic wand, what is the one thing you would like to change to benefit our community? 

• 74% wanted changes or improvements to our environment and facilities 
• 21% wanted improved transport ( a better railway off-peak timetable and more bus services) 
• 37% wanted behavioural changes by people, including more compassion and respect for each other 

(3)  If there is one thing that we, your Neighbourhood Centre, could do for you, what would that be? 

• 42% wanted us to improve our promotion and communication about our programs and services 
• 53% commented on program and service needs 
• 26% wanted our assistance in community advocacy with both local and State government and local services  

Other feedback

This is the first time we have held an open community forum of this kind for a number of years, and overall we received a positive response.  

• 80% of respondents said that they had a better awareness of our Neighbourhood Centre 
• 80% of respondents said they benefited from attending the forum 
• 87% of respondents said the enjoyed meeting with other community members 
• 60% of respondents said they would like more forums or events at the Centre. 

Individual comments received included:  

• I found this event quite informative. 
• The Centre (people) are friendly and helpful staff. 
• ‘CHATS’ Newsletter is also very interesting and keeps up-to-date. 
• Thank you for this forum. 
• Thank you to all the good people in the management of the Neighbourhood Centre.
• The team are wonderful though funds and help limited. 
• You do a terrific job;  keep up the good work. 
• You are doing a good job. 
• How lovely it was to see/hear the Mount Riverview Choir.  What a great way to start the forum. 

Comments to take on board for the future include:  

• Pens that work (!) (sadly some of the pens we handed out for people to complete the evaluation / feedback forms didn’t work) 
• a portable microphone so that people who are hard of hearing can hear everyone who is speaking. 

Achievements: What is working?

• Our current services and programs are well received. 
• People find us friendly and welcoming. 

Challenges: What is not working?

• We need to improve the way we promote our services to a broader range of people in our community. 
• We need to continue to develop ways of bringing people to our Neighbourhood Centre, which is not as well known as we would like. 
• We need to work out ways to assist in community advocacy to government and other local services with limited human and financial resources. 
• We need to develop collaborations with relevant organisations to improve activities and programs that support young people. 

If you would like to provide any feedback to us at the Lower Mountains Neighbourhood Centre, please contact us at:

Lower Mountains Neighbourhood Centre
33 Hope Street
Blaxland  NSW  2774

Tel: 02 4739 1164
Fax: 02 4739 4863
Email: admin@lmnc.org.au