A Community Panel is a group of people who will sign up to share their ideas about the future of Latrobe City. They will be actively involved in a series of engagement workshops and at the end of the process present their recommendations to Council.
The panel members will represent a range of community perspectives and will be selected at random from different demographics, sectors or interest groups within the Latrobe City.
The task of the panel is to develop a draft Latrobe City Community Vision to guide decision making and to work to provide input to Council in shaping the new Latrobe City Council Plan and Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plans for 2021-2025, along with the 10 year Financial Plan.
How is the panel selected?
Your details have been randomly selected from our municipality. We are inviting you to express your interest in being involved in the Community Panel.
The process will be managed independently by Federation University. Panel members will be selected by Federation University to ensure a representative sample of the Latrobe City community is involved. Council is not involved in the selection of panel representatives.
Our aim is to ensure the Community Panel is representative of the whole Latrobe City community.
Please note: Latrobe City Councillors, Council staff and anyone under 18 years old are not eligible to register to be part of the panel. The voices of young people are critical to our future and young people will be involved through complementary engagement activities.
Why is an expression of interest process being used?
An expression of interest process is being used to ensure we gain a substantial ‘pool’ of respondents from which to select the Community Panel.
The final panel will be descriptively representative of the broader community based on census data.
How will the broader community be involved?
If you’re not selected for the community panel, you can still take part in the engagement currently underway.
Everyone has an opportunity to have their say and is invited to complete an online survey, or attend one of our Listening Post engagement activities that are being held now through to the end of June.
All input and ideas will be collated into a wider engagement report that will be considered by the community panel.
To ensure that a diverse range of perspectives and voices is heard and included in the process, targeted discussions will also be held with some groups that are usually less likely to participate in a survey or submission process.
Who will facilitate these sessions?
These sessions will be conducted by an external engagement agency, Capire. The role of Capire facilitators is to support panel participants in their discussions.
Who are Capire? They are a team of community engagement specialists who work to connect decision-makers with their communities to understand and define what’s important. Capire listen and empower people to create sustainable public policy and social impact.
What happens to the panel’s feedback? Will it actually be considered?
Latrobe City Council promises the community that it will:
- Listen, hear and consider the community’s input with an open mind
- Publish the wider engagement report and the Panel’s report on the Council website
- Report back on what we have heard from the Panel (response document)
- Identify where the Panel’s recommendations have influenced Council’s thinking
- Base Council’s future plans on the Panel’s recommendation to the greatest extent possible
- Provide an explanation for any Panel recommendations that it cannot incorporate into the final Community Vision
- Engage with other partners to assist in the implementation of the plan
- Provide transparent, annual progress updates during the implementation phase