Small Towns Project - Community Building Initiative

The townships of Boolarra, Glengarry, Toongabbie, Traralgon South, Tyers, Yallourn North   and Yinnar will be the beneficiaries of the Community Building Initiative project with the recent appointment of a Small Towns Facilitator with Latrobe City.

Latrobe City in partnership with the Victorian State Governments' Department for Victorian Communities (DVC) will continue to support the revitalisation of these seven small communities in the municipality.  The Community Building Initiative (CBI) Framework aims to ensure community ownership, encourage learning through experience and support the achievement of community driven projects. The appointment of the Small Towns Facilitator will be for an initial two year period.

This program follows on from, and builds on, the previously federally funded Strengthening Seven Small Communities Project which enabled part-time township facilitators to be appointed to work in each of the small towns and seeded small community projects.

The purpose of the current small towns project is to continue to support the revitalisation of the small communities.   This will be achieved through an established successful community building process, which seeks to broaden community participation and ownership, with support along the way. A project steering committee consisting of representatives from each of the seven communities and Latrobe City Council will drive the project, with ongoing support from the Gippsland office of DVC, and other local agencies. 

The steering committee will initially seek input from each community to develop a list of community assets, using asset mapping guidelines. The next step in the process will be to facilitate Community Opportunity Workshops (COW) to identify community learning needs and plans.

Among the key steps in the process will be the development of agreed action plans and the establishment of project teams to implement the plan.   During this period there will be the opportunity to seek further funding from a range of government sources to facilitate the delivery of priority projects.   This may also lead to common projects emerging across communities, as well as specific local initiatives. 

Latrobe City has appointed Lois Pratt to the role of Small Towns Facilitator and Lois can be contacted at Latrobe City on 03 5128 5304, mobile 0428 179 784 or email loispr@latrobe.vic.gov.au.

"The Community Building Initiative is a Victorian Government Initiative through the Community Support Fund"